from ... Blake Gillard Hi all,
What do you think of the wrap done on TMG's van ? it was done by Sign City in East Tamaki. Back into the winter motocrosses in Auckland and the racing has been pretty minimal lately especially with the amount of rain we've been getting, On Sunday 17th we raced the second round of the Mercer Sand series run by the Pukekohe Motorcycle Club at their sand track south of the Bombays. It's the only track that seems to be holding the weather lately and is in awesome condition. Race 1: MX1 and MX2 were combined but split start, meaning the 450s went first. Lately I've been back riding the little 250sx 2-stroke KTM and having way too much fun on it. Darryll King held back from the 450 start so we could take off on the 2nd drop and get some racing done, Darryll got me off the start and we set off catching and passing our way up through the MX1 Class. I sat on his back wheel for the first 4-5 laps until he got by the leader in MX1. I got stuck and couldn't make a pass straight away, took me a few more laps to get by but by then DK had gapped, so finished 2nd.
Race 2: Well this one went about as far as the start gate, my back was feeling pretty tight between motos because of the cold and an old fracture from 2007, tried stretching it out but seemed to make things worst. As I took off out of the start-gates in my hands and arms nipped up and I couldn't let the clutch out properly, so pulled out after a few corners and headed back to pits to try sort out my back.
Race 3: After plenty of stretching and heat my back was slightly better so went out to see if I could get around. Pulled the MX2 holeshot and set out after the MX1 guys, by then the track was well cut up but the 2-stroke seemed to love it and managed to take the lead in the MX1 class by the 20 min mark. (No DK in the last race, he had gone as he'd done the Dash-4-Cash the previous day - Alan H.)
All and all, it was an awesome day, gotta make the most of whatever racing is on at this time of year but so far Mercer has turned it on.
 Blake pounding the sand berms of Mercer. Photo - Alan Henderson. Check out some of the footage on the video below, filmed on a new Contour HD cam. The day started out in dense fog. Now that we have it all sorted the reports will all be coming through as video with updates of the day. Until next time......
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