It was a great evening last night as Rosanna cooked a roast pork dinner, beautiful it was.
Following dinner we had the first team meeting of the trip, discussing the ground rules, expectations and standards required. All the riders had input as to what they personally wished to achieve and Graeme outlined his expectations. The feeling at that meeting was awesome and VERY positive. The boys are fired up and really busting to get on the track.

Thursday dawned and it was wet, this came as no surprise as it wasraining most of the night. We were first out to the track/to set up butthe rain quickly swamped the EZ-ups. An hour or so after set up,lightening struck very nearby - man was that scary. The power went offand everyone was looking around for the second bolt from the grey. Thatwas very, very close and everyone at the track was looking around forthe second one. James changed the front suspension on his 125 and therest muddled around updated the stickers.
The track officials cancelled the day at 2:30pm due to the volume ofwater still running onto the track so we packed up and headed back tothe motel.

Official practise is set for Friday and the weather forecast is basically the same - bring it on.
That evening the guys headed out to the indoor go cart track, what alaugh that was and the owner did not even seem to care how much theguys smashed his gear up.
Once back at the motel, Darren got the hungers going so dished himselfup a bowl of 14 Weetbix (Justin Marshall could only do 8!) with a fulltin of condensed milk. He made short work of that, then wondered downthe road to buy a chocolate milkshake.
That was a hell of a feast for 11.00 at night, we were suitably impressed. That man likes his Weetbix!

A glimmer of hope today, although the rain is certainly still fallingheavily the locals were encouraged and certainly confident today wewould get some riding in. Not soon enough for the riders, I can tellyou.
We ended up with two roads for each class as riding did not commenceuntil the early afternoon. The stop watch on these events gave usencouragement as we were quickly onto last year’s pace.

It’s a big day today, qualifying for the 600’s and qualifying and onerace for the 125’s. James out on the 125 set the early pace, setting a1min 05 lap and looking good. No other 125’s were within a second ofhim.
Nick and Adam on the 600’s had two practises before qualifying andprovisional results indicated both may get in the top ten. Adam had anoff on the back section of the course, luckily only damaging the bellypan so that was nothing that was going to slow him down.

James after setting a stunner in practise one could not reproduce thesame form in qualifying but still managed a front row 4th place finish.

James’s race was straight after the 600 qualifying session. I missedthe start but from all accounts it was a shocker and James havingmissed the flag drop was second to last into turn one. The early pacewas all in the 1:05’s, very quick and faster than last year.

James fought back to 7th and the battled for half the race with CameronJones eventually being pipped on the finish line. Hairy was not tooimpressed but he finished and collected 9 valuable championship pointscompared to none at the same time in 2008.

Nick and Adam also had their qualifying session. Nick nearly clocked ina flat 1:01 which is roughly a second faster that last year. Thefastest qualifier was Gareth Jones nearly clocking a flat 1-minute lap.There were six other machines in the 1:01 second range. Nick qualifiedon the front row in 4th place, a very credible result.
Adam was riding really well for a first timer at the Nationals andconsistently clocked in around the 1:03 second range. His finalquickest lap was a 1:0310 seconds. To give you an example of thecloseness of the field, if Adam went under 1:03 into the 1:02’s hecould have improved his grid position by up to 3 places.
All these 600’s are very close so the racing Sunday should be real exciting and we are certainly looking forward to that.

Graeme and I slept at the track last night to look after the gear as wecould not be bothered packing it all away. There were only a few peoplestaying at the track, but man, the group from Greymouth were loud.
The sun came out for the first time since our arrival in Invercargill - what a great day this is turning out to be.
Rider’s briefing as at 8:40am with the race program under way by 10:00am.
A full round of tyre scrubs before two rounds of racing.
The 600 race was first up. Nick on the front row and Adam on the 3rdrow. Nick did not get away that well as the bike kept wheel standingbut Adam (renown for his 125 starts) got a flyer and was only a fewbikes behind Nick into turn 1.

Nick battled his way back up the field quickly passing Jay Lawrence and Sam Smith.
Sam past Nick back and held that position for 3 or so laps beforefeeling the pressure at the hairpin and running off the track. DennisCharlett also ran off the track and this moved Nick into 3rd.
Adam battled real well in 8th place then slipped back to 10th ridingvery well. On the last lap a back marker panicked and sat up pushingAdam off the track, he recovered but lost two positions finishing12th.      
James’s 125 race was next and James again got a bad start and foundhimself in 8th place after lap 1. He battled up to 7th but could notcatch the lead group.

The second 600 race was as good as the first.
Both Nick and Adam got good starts in this race. Nick was in 5th withSam Smith in front of him and Jay Lawrence on his tail pipe. Sam hadsome bad luck at the back of the circuit, moving Nick into 4th with JayLawrence still on his tail pipe.
Adam was in a good battle with Jamie Galway and Jamie Rajek on a Hondaplus a few others with Adam in 10th place. Following another incidenton the second-to-last lap, Adam again dropped two places to 12th butwhat a great ride.

The second 125 race was a repeat start for James and by turn 1 he was in 7th place.
He battled his way to 6th but again did not get back onto the frontgroup. On the last lap Cameron Jones and Avalon Biddle came together inturn 1 both crashing out, promoting James to 4th position.
A pretty successful day at the track for the Red Devils, Nick in clear3rd position in the championship, Adam in 12th in the 600 SportProduction class and James is in 5th place in the 125GP class.

Timaru is next at the Levels track.