By Andrew Nelson
Photo courtesy Dallas Alexander
Parts Canada Superbike Championship runner-up Andrew Nelson is competing in the New Zealand Tri-Series this month and providing Inside Motorcycles with periodic updates on his progress.
Last weekend at Manfield Raceway the weather and racing were all over the place. I have never seen so many weather changes in such a short amount of time -- rain, sun, drizzle, sun, clouds, rain and then finally sun again.
Practice on Friday turned out to be a half day as we had some bad weather in the morning, which later turned out to be great. At the end of practice I was 1.5 seconds behind the eight-time National Champion Andrew Stroud. All was feeling quite good and I looked forward to better results come race day.
Saturday morning we woke up to an extremely wet track and more rain on the way. In preparation for qualifying we had mounted rains on the Yamaha R1. All of a sudden the sun came out and cooked the track in about 25 minutes. I took a chance on being able to run a few fast laps at the start of the session, but it just was not going to happen with rain tires on an increasingly dry track. The team worked really hard to put a rear slick on. The session was only 15 minutes and we ran out of time to get it on, leaving me to qualify in 11th, a place I was not too happy about.
The first race I was off to a terrible start and the group in front of me was able to split in the first two laps, making it difficult for me to catch back up, even though we have the best handling R1 I have ever ridden, and I've been on a few! I managed to scrape together a 10th place yet again.
The second race, I had a much better start and going into the 180-degree corner one I was sitting in eighth. I was able to hold on to the group for the first few laps, and that helped me to my fastest laps of the weekend. We have closed the gap on lap times to the nearest competitors and my comfort level on the bike is getting much closer. Having a battle with Hayden Fitzgerald for ninth was real fun, and trying to make up some ground on him in one corner cost me dearly. I ran pretty wide, losing my momentum and finishing in 10th place for the third straight race.
I look forward to the next and final weekend of this amazing tour. The Cemetery Circuit in Wanganui is the first street circuit I will have ever raced on. We have one qualifier and two races, so I certainly have my work cut out for me, but still have high hopes of a good result, just because the bike is on rails and is working really well right now.
If you are looking for some TV to watch while eating your Christmas dinner, this race will be LIVE on the Internet. It can be found at http://speedbox.tv/content/2010-cemetery-circuit-live-stream.
I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Look for big things from me in 2011.
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