On the weekend I competed in the final round of the ASBK series at Phillip Island. I was really looking forward to this event as it was going to be my first ASBK on my new ZX10 and also only my 2nd ride on the bike, I had set myself a goal of top 15 finish for the weekend.
Friday came around and I had 3 practice sessions to get use to the bike and get a good setup for the weekend. The first session I used as a learning session but soon realised my gearing and suspension weren’t quite right. After a few changes we headed out for session 2 where we made some good progress with the bike and myself and improved my times. We made some more suspension changes to the bike for session 3 but unfortunately as I headed out on track it started to rain and I pulled in as the session was stopped due to the severe weather change. I was happy with my progress over the day. A massive thankyou to Greg from ASR Suspension for helping me out all day Friday and helping me to progress with the bike.
On the weekend I competed at Rd 3 of the Victorian Interclub championships at Winton raceway, it was a one day event on Sunday. It was another event where I got to race with my father and grandfather.
The weather was very touch and go from early in the morning, we got a dry qualifying where I was able to push hard enough to score pole for my 600 race by 1.6 seconds, which I was very happy with. I had a very good feeling with the bike and even pulled in early from the qualifying session.
The first race I had for the day was my club race, where I was combined with 600 and 1000cc bikes, I was placed 2nd on the grid for this race. I got a great start and was leading into the first corner, I decided to push as hard as I could for the first lap to try and make a break away from the faster bikes. Unfortunately at the end of the first lap the race was red flagged due to an incident that had occurred. Unfortunately the race was delayed by about ¾ hour. During that time a light shower had passed through the area. For the restart I decided to stay on dry tyres, unfortunately the track was too wet and I had to pull in on the second lap to make sure I kept the bike safe.
On the weekend we had made the decision not to make the trek to QLD to compete in the ASBK round so i competed in Round 3 of the Hartwell Club championships at Phillip Island, in the Expert 600 class instead.
The weekends races consisted of 4 races for points in the 600 class, a trophy race for 600 class and also the Greg Bailey Memorial race which included all expert riders and selected non expert riders from all size bikes.
The weekend greeted us with some very nice winds!! I was a little off my normal pace only having used tyres and intending to have some good setup time. I qualified 4th overall with the combined expert and non expert classes.
The first race i got a great start, i lost touch with first place over the first laps and had a good battle with another competitor, i came away with 2nd overall and 1st expert for the race. Race 2 on saturday i got another good start and i lost touch with the leader again, i was locked in a good battle with 2 fellow competitors for the whole race, i ended up 3rd overall and 2nd expert in the race.
The weekend just gone i competed in the Interclub Series at Broadford with my father and Grandfather.
The weather was atrocious but we all still had a good time and enjoyed the wet weather.
I qualified fairly poor, after making the wrong tyre choice for the weather at the time which put me 12th for the race, but oh well progressive grids is a bonus here.
The day turned out to be completely wet, so after changing to wets for the races i was ready to go. The first race came around and i got a good start from 12th and made some good passes, i finished 4th for the race but the rider in front got a jump start penalty and relegated me to 3rd place which was a bonus.
In the second race i started from 3rd on the grid which was good. I got a good start and led the race into turn 1, unfortunately as i was going through turn 1 i began to notice a pool of water forming on my visor. I tried with all my might to get it off down the straights but unfortunately i could not get it to disappear, losing 3 places during the race due to poor vision. I still finished fourth.
The next race i started from 4th on the grid and got another good start and was 2nd into turn 1, i lost a place down the back straight. Once again a pool of water formed on my visor. i held 3rd place for most of the race until the last 2 corners where i lost 2 places and finished 5th. I was content with this result due to the lack of vision i had during the race.
Wow !!!! What a hectic 2 weeks I have just had, which included 2 rounds of the ASBK series. Round 1 was at Phillip Island last weekend and Round 2 on the weekend was at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.
It was a busy 2 week lead up to Phillip Island. I had to get my bike, which was in road trim to be sold, ready to be raced in supersport. I was awaiting some parts from overseas and had to make the bike all pretty. A few days of hard work rubbing and sanding for the team and some late nights for some sponsors and she was finally back together on Wednesday night before Rd1 ready to ride on Thursday practice.
This was my first ride on the bike in Supersport trim and only the 2nd ride in over 4 months!
Round 1 didn’t go as planned, I struggled with setup in practice and qualifying trying to adjust my new suspension to my style took a lot longer then I had hoped for. I had qualified 21st and was over 1 second slower than my previous best for the track, which I was very disappointed with.
Well the season is now over for me, this is just an overall summary of the years results and my thoughts about them.
I competed in the Australian Superstock 600 series this year which consisted of 5 rounds, unfortunately 3 of these rounds were conducted in Qld which was a bit difficult for me.
The first round was at Phillip Island in conjunction with the World Superbikes, and round 2 was held at Hidden Valley in Darwin.
I had a good first round and placed 5th overall for the weekend after a few tyre difficulties. This really set up my whole year. Round 2 was very different, I thought Phillip Island weather was crazy, not compared to Darwin. We had torrential rain and then 32 degree weather within the space of half an hour. I had a decent result and managed to place 8th for the round after not having my mechanic with me.
On the weekend I raced at the final round of the Victorian road race titles at Broadford Raceway, I was hoping for a good weekend and consolidate my places in both Supersport (3rd) and Superstock 600 (2nd) classes for the year.
Saturday came around and it was straight into qualifying, first up was Supersport, the track was wet, I had a decent qualifier and placed 7th for the session which was still ok for the races. Superstock was next and the track was still damp but drying and I went out again on wets, I felt good and was upto 4th but towards the end of the session as the track dried out my rear tyre was worn and didn’t improve my times enough and dropped to 8th for the session, still an ok start position for the weekend.
On the weekend, I competed in the 4th and 5th round of the Australian Superbike series, which was my final round for the season, held at QLD Raceway. I was hoping to maintain my position in the championship of 6th or even better I was hoping to move up to 5th place for the series.
It was a crazy 2 weeks leading up to the race meeting repairing my bike due to a crash at the Victorian Title round at Winton Raceway.
On the weekend I raced in the 3rd round of the Victorian Road Race Championship held at Winton Raceway.
I had set myself some goals for the weekend which were to reach the 1:28min Bracket and also maintain my positions in the 2 classes I was racing in, which was 1st in superstock 600 and 3rd in supersport.
Saturday morning came around, I had a qualifying session for supersport and a qualifying session for superstock. I qualified 3rd for supersport and also 3rd in the superstock class.
I was reasonably happy with these results for the 2 sessions, which gave me a good feeling for the races on the weekend.
On the weekend I competed in the final round of the ASBK series at Phillip Island. I was really looking forward to this event as it was going to be my first ASBK on my new ZX10 and also only my 2nd ride on the bike, I had set myself a goal of top 15 finish for the weekend.
On the weekend I competed at Rd 3 of the Victorian Interclub championships at Winton raceway, it was a one day event on Sunday. It was another event where I got to race with my father and grandfather.
On the weekend we had made the decision not to make the trek to QLD to compete in the ASBK round so i competed in Round 3 of the Hartwell Club championships at Phillip Island, in the Expert 600 class instead.
On the weekend I raced in the 3rd round of the Victorian Road Race Championship held at Winton Raceway.
