As is almost always the case, motorcycle racing at Teretonga Park is always at the mercy of the Southland weather. Arriving at the circuit on Thursday with the intention of practicing and testing, we were literally blown away by the howling gales sweeping across the circuit. We attempted twice to erect our tent, but both times it turned into a sail and we would have been better attaching it to a land yacht!! Clearly it would have been too dangerous to send Hafiq out in those conditions so we retired to our accommodation and the local indoor Karting track!!! At the track it was proven that old buggers can go faster than young whippersnappers!
On Friday morning we unloaded our gear into the santuary of the large pit shed at the track that I had prearranged in November, knowing full well that we would have the worst of conditions, and I was proven correct. Friday continued to blow hard and Hafiq was having some trouble with the wind. We made a number of small changes to the bike which improved his feel and he set the fastest 125GP time of the day, but some distance off the lap record, which to be fair, was never in danger on this weekend.
Saturday came and we set about fine tuning the bike and rider. Hafiq set the fastest time in the Free Practice and was happy with the bike and all indications (pipe, plug, tyres, suspension, laptimes, video) were that it was working well. All of the 125's seemed to have similar speed, so it would come down to which riders could extract the most from their bikes. Qualifying Practice came along with threatening skies, but our QP thankfully was dry. Hafiq set the fastest lap of the session to qualify on pole, but he saw a 1:06.70 on his laptimer and decided that he wanted a 1:05 something lap. He pushed just a bit too hard and came down in Turn 2. The bike slid along nicely on the track, until it hit the gravel trap, whereupon it was chewed up and spat out! Thanks Teretonga!! Hafiq was fine, thankfully (as Robbie Bugden in Superbike went in on the same corner and did not move for quite a while, but he also ended up being OK. Just having a lie down, these Superbike riders eh???) but the bike was a bit worse for wear. Mel and I set about cleaning and repairing it in quick time for Race 1 later that afternoon.
Clean and repair the bike we did and Hafiq was out on Pole Position for the first race also, held under threatening skies. But again our luck was in and the rain came after we had finished. Hafiq got a good start with his new technique and was P2 into Turn 1, set about getting into P1 and pulling away from the chasing pack setting a time of 1:06.8. Slower than QP but everyone went slower for some reason. At the end of the race the gap to second was 5 seconds, so 7 wins from 7 races.
Sunday dawned wet, cold, windy and miserable, just as we expect in Invercargill I am afraid. That is why I booked us into the big paddock shed!! Soon after we arrived we found that we had an issue with the front left fork leg where a pre-load spacer had jammed inside the fork tube. I am unsure if Hafiq rode the bike that way on Saturday, but if he did he made a great effort as that fork was effectively no longer working. So we pulled out the emergency spare bike and set it up ready for the Warm Up, on rain tyres, and Hafiq went out and again set the fastest laptime, in the rain. In the meantime I set about rectifying the problem which proved more difficult than I thought, but after drilling out the spacer it came out, whacked me in the nose after which we reassembled the fork leg and were ready to rock.
Race 2 time came and the track was dry albeit cool and windy. Hafiq was on the #1 bike again but this time was a bit slow off the line and was in P4 on lap 1. But the front runners, Troy, Daniel and Glen were all just in front, so no panic. Hafiq made his way to P1 over the next couple of laps and set about trying to pull away. But young Troy Geunther from Australia had other ideas and stuck with Hafiq all the way. While we were pit signalling Hafiq we did not let him know that Troy was right on him as I figured he would know this. However, it turned out that he was concentrating more on riding and did not realise Troy was so close, so he did not really push hard. So sadly for us, but fantastically for the spectators and his crew, Troy was able to drive past Hafiq out of the slipstream and pass him just over the line to take his first ever 125GP win (by 0.14s) and along the way become the youngest ever NZSBK race winner. Hafiq was disappointed to be pushed back to P2, but learned something about race craft.
Race 3 for the weekend was wet and crappy so we decided to go out on the spare bike as it was already set up for the rain. Hafiq again got a good start, as did the others, and was running with all the leaders until Dan Mettam came off in Turn 1 right in front of Hafiq and Glen Orwin. Unfortunately his bike spun around at just the wrong time and place and forced Hafiq and Glen to take evasive action onto the grass. This allowed the feild to come by, but both riders regained the track and got into racing hard to catch up. Hafiq was chasing hard and passed the feild in the next lap or two and set about chasing down Seth Devereaux. But the gap was just too big and while he was closing at 0.5-1.0 s per lap, the race was not long enough and he had to settle for another P2 finish, but set the fastest lap time of 1:11.6, 0.6 sec faster than the next best.
So overall we had fastest laps in all sessions, Pole position, and P1, P2, P2 finishes to make 65 points, 215 in total and a 69 point advantage over Dan Mettam in 2nd place in the championship. I think that Hafiq learned some valuable lessons from these races and it is clear now that his abilities have really come on in leaps and bounds. He is able to provide subtle feedback about the bike, he is able to ride a bike that is not perfect and still ride it fast and in general stay on, he is able to chase down riders in front of him and is able to ride at a pace that is necessary, not just flat out all the time. There is a mathematical chance that we might still come away with the NZ championship, but with 150 points up for grabs it is not likely, but you know, you never know, you know.
Hafiq. NZSBK 2012
Image courtesy of Championship Digital
We have had a great 3 weeks this summer. It was a shame Hafiq crashed on Saturday, but that is all a part and parcel of bike racing, and again, he was in front chasing a great time, not crashing while at the back struggling. We all wish him the very best for 2012 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and I hope to see him on the podium this year!!
Following on from their successful weekend at Ruapuna, the Moto Academy NZ team moved to the Timaru International Raceway at Levels, near Timaru. The weather played its part early in the weekend being at first stifling hot, for us, not for Hafiq, then rain, then a gloriously fine weekend with a nice cooling breeze. So really we could not have had much better conditions.
All weekend Hafiq showed again that he would be the rider to beat posting laptimes that were consistent and consistently quite a bit quicker than the other riders. After being fastest in FP Hafiq posted only one flying lap in QP then slipped off the bike due to a front end patter issue. He was unable to continue in QP, but his lap still gave him Pole Position for the races. The Moto Academy NZ mechanics put the bike back together and made suspension changes that would indeed fix the issue allowing him to ride with confidence in the races.
Hafiq also tried a new starting technique that seemed to help quite a bit and his starts allowed him to get away with the front riders and stay in touch early. Hafiqs main competition came from Dan Mettam (Auckland), Troy Geunther (Australia) and Seth Devereaux (Rangiora), but none of them were able to stay with his pace once he had established their good and not so good points on the track.
Hafiq settled down to consistent fast laps taking the fastest laps of all three races and winning all three by significant margins. While the conditions (with strong, gusty breezes) and the competition did not allow us to challenge the lap record, Hafiq posted a fastest laptime of 1:10.1 sec (We saw 1:09.9 on our GPS timing equipment!!) which was 0.5 sec faster than anyone else over the weekend.
The team were all very tired, but very happy with everyones performance over the weekend making sure the bike was as good as we could make it, back together after the crash and of course with Hafiqs feedback and performances. I think mention should also go to James Jarman who rode really well into 4th place overall for the weekend.
So we now head to Teretonga Raceway with a maximum of 150 points in the bag and a lead of 42 points and where we hope the drought that they have been experiencing comes back for just 4 more days!!!
We have to thank all the people that have helped us get here without whom we would really be struggling and would not look as polished and professional as we look now.
15 year old Malaysian Red Bull Rookie Hafiq Azmi has taken the lead by a comfortable margin in the 125 Grand Prix class of the 2012 NZSBK championship at Ruapuna Park raceway this weekend (7/8 Jan 2012).
Hafiq on the Moto Academy RS125 at Ruapuna Raceway
The Moto Academy NZ team of Steve Bagshaw, Mel Jackson, Phil Snowdon, Peter Clifford and Hafiqs dad Dato Azmi followed the plan they had worked out, set up the bike perfectly and coached Hafiq into racing aggressively, but also safely, to take three comfortable victories,the NZ GP title and the lead in the points and the New Zealand Grand Prix title.
The Moto Academy NZ team at Ruapuna Raceway (From left: Dato, Mel, Peter, Steve, Hafiq)
After a baptism of fire with us in 2011 with no 125GP experience, a desire and need to be at the front and a very raw style, Hafiq fell off the bike too often. But after some more coaching and a season of hard racing in Red Bull Rookies Cup in Europe and a year older, he has come back to NZSBK with a renewed enthusiasm laced with better technique, a willingness to wait for the right time to make moves and a desire to learn coaching lessons.
This weekend the team worked hard on making sure that the Moto Academy NZ RS125 was set up to Hafiqs needs and ran well and consistently. We were happy that indeed we seemed to get the bike working pretty well. While we did not set the fastest laptime of the weekend, we were not far off it, and Ruapuna is a circuit that rewards many hours spent learning its nuances. Hafiq has now a total of around 50 laps of the circuit, as opposed to some of the riders who would have over 500!!
The team arrived in Christchurch thanks to Interislander, just as we were welcomed by another small earthquake! The bike was set up with the help of Kiwi Suspension Solutions to allow us to exploit to the maximum the Bridgestone tyres and SBS Dual Carbon brakes. And once again, due to the superior qualities of our Fuchs Silkolene oils, NGK spark plugs and RK Chains we had not a single engine or drive issue and the inside of the engine looked as fresh as when it had been assembled. The Moto Academy trailer and the bikes (including the Andrew Adlam spare which sat all weekend as a display bike) all looked immaculate thanks to the hard work of Pretzel (Stuart) at Tremaine Avenue Panel and Paint (Palmerston North) and the team at Henshaw Signs (Porirua). One rear wheel bearing issue was diagnosed by the team and resolved thanks to Kevin at RaceSupplies.co.nz who also supplies the Honda parts to keep the bike running at its peak. We also thank the Victoria Motorcycle Club for the use of the paddock tent which kept us nice and cool and dry during the weekend.
The races were hard fought in the early stages with Hafiq racing hard with Troy Gruenther of Australia, Seth Devereaux of Christchurch, Tim MacArthur of Dunedin (NZ #1 2010) and Daniel Mettam of Auckland. But after those riders either fell off their bikes, faded with bike issues or faded with physical issues Hafiq was able to stretch away from the chasing riders. We were also happy that after the gap was established he was able to manage it well and slow his pace to take eventual comfortable victories including the New Zealand 125GP Grand Prix title.
Hafiq is now able to provide us with very subtle feedback which resulted in us making two specific changes to the bike which resolved the small issues he was having. This is fantastic and shows that he really has learned a lot during 2011 and we hope that he will continue to learn in 2012 and that we will continue to have success in NZSBK 2012 as we move on to Levels Raceway in Timaru January 14/15 where we will be working hard on improving his main weakness of race starts (which are pretty tough to master on a 125 bike). After we sort that out, Watch out!!!!
Ruapuna NZSBK 2012 Race 2. Hafiq on his way to victory number 2.
Image courtesy of FotoCD Photographers