Race Reports/News
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LATEST NEWS: 17/1/17 – A quick update on whats going on for 2017. I will be racing on a BMW s1000rr in the ASBK Championship with the aid of Scott and Danielle Heyes and my rider mentor Roger Heyes and Mark McGregor, with the added support from my friends and motorcycle family up in the Northern Territory – Stan Whiting from EPRINT and Che Diggens from AMS-IT, Steve and the Cyclone Motorcycles crew, Andrew Smart from Ricondi, Mcleods and my usual behind the scenes helpers. I’m looking forward to a great season and for the following years to come. Please be sure to follow us on facebook for more regular updates and photos 5/1/16 – Huge news for the 2016 season, I am excited to say I am off overseas. I have been offered the opportunity to race in the BSB supersport 600cc category with a well respected team . MOTO-BREAKERS RACING TEAM
31/1/15 UPDATE: -after only 5 or 6 laps of practice on the Wednesday I was forced off track while passing another rider on the entry of turn 12, the other rider who will remain nameless made a mistake and stood the bike up on entry to turn 12 I was committed to passing on the outside so had nowhere to go but off track at about 180 kph,there is little run off there and I tried to drop the bike but didn’t …do it early enough and both the bike and I bounced into the tyre wall I was transported to the Alfred hospital with a suspected broken collar bone it was then diagnosed as a clean break. We have seen a top surgeon who specialises in the collarbone ,shoulder he operates on the top Aussie rules footy players and he assures me I will be right to ride in less than 10 days time so barring any unusual outcome of the surgery on Monday I’m still competing in the wild card and the Aussie support races We were planning on posting this after surgery but there was speculation on other websites that I might be out due to injury just had to fill the void before rumours grew to become fact, thanks to all my supporters and followers ,don’t worry I’m not missing this opportunity
EXCITING NEWS!! To any companies or individuals that would like exposure to 60,000 + spectators and one hundred million + television viewers world wide, please contact us (see contact page) as this world super sport gig is expensive and we would appreciate any help you can afford. You will have seen the high quality presentation of our team – you WILL be seen!!
2014 in summary After learning of the demise of the 2014 ASBK season SLR decided to choose certain rounds from each of three competing series to fine tune and learn the new Triumph Daytona 675 for the 2015 season. Phillip Island February 2014 was the beginning of the years racing season in the support class of the World Super Bike round at Phillip Island. This was the first national event for the new bike and we were cautiously optimistic of our chances and really focusing on Lap times as it had been nearly 2 years since Sam competed for a full series of the Australian Championships. For an undeveloped bike Sam did beyond expectations, finishing 5th in both races but most pleasing was the closeness of the racing and the excellent lap times. The top 5 riders were all within one second of the current lap record – an amazing race and a great relief for the team as it was a leap of faith to take on such a new machine. Queensland Raceway The next race was in the ASBK series, held at Queensland Raceway in April, where we were hopeful of a podium finish. Sam qualified on the front row and had a fantastic race battling with Daniel Falzon, Aiden Wagner, and Callum Spriggs. Sam had locked in 2nd place and was after Aussie champ Daniel Falzon when on the last lap he tangled with a back marker entering turn 1 and crashed out of the race damaging the bike too much to continue. He and the team were devastated as he had the pace to beat the Aussie champion but the weekend was over, as at that stage we only had the one bike. There was a silver lining – the lap times were fantastic again well within a second of the lap record and Sam knew he could easily find more time. Eastern Creek BEARS Sam had decided to compete a round of the Bears at Sydney Motorsport Park, just in case the ASBK was going to use the venue in 2015 and he cross entered. In the 600 class Sam finished 3rd in all races behind Arron Morris and Aiden Wagner. In the Bears category he won his class by a mile while finishing in front of many Superbikes. An excellent result as it was only his 2nd ever visit to the Circuit and we found later that a bad batch of fuel had damaged the engine robbing it of power. PHILIP ISLAND – July 2014 Starting from Pit Lane – Another opportunity to race at the national level at Philip Island in July was eagerly attended and the team were hoping for big things but the weather played havoc all weekend catching us out on several occasions with only one bike. Having to change tyres at the last minute for rain race was completed but the bike still had the dry suspension setting and Sam could not carry enough corner speed. The second race rained 5 minutes before the race started but only at one end of the circuit, so half the track was bone dry. After the sighting lap most riders pitted and changed bikes, Sam followed suit but only having one bike we couldn’t change the wheels in time to get out of pit lane before it closed so started from pit lane. He fought his way to 4th position in a field of 24, setting fastest lap several times until he crashed at the hay shed at 230kph trying to get a podium by bridging the 1.5 second gap to 3rd place on the last lap – yet another big crash on the last lap but showing excellent speed and a great desire to win. The Future The last few months everything has been coming together very well for the team preparing for 2015. We have a second bike and the rider has recovered well from surgery fighting fit and fast. The team has a new long wheelbase Mercedes sprinter van and custom trailer to carry everything required of a professional team. Sam has taken the whole of 2015 off work to concentrate purely on his racing and fitness. We are excited to announce that SLR have secured for the 2015 season and beyond the services of Ryan August, fresh from British Super Sport where he looked after the technical and mechanical side of a 2 rider triumph team for the last 2 years and before that he was a long time mechanic for Sheridan Marias in World Super Sport and World Super Bike – exactly the sort of experience the team needed and more. We are also excited to say Sam has been granted a wild card ride in World Super Sport in the 1st round of the World Championship at Philip Island in February 2015. This is a huge opportunity for Sam and the team. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together and we are confident of a very competitive package with a real chance to win an Australian Championship and a goal to finish in the top 10 in the wild card ride.
October 2014 Sam’s surgery was a success and he has given both the bike and his leg a good work out at Morgan Park (Qld) and Eastern Creek (NSW) last weekend. Both rider and bike went well. We are now looking to go to Barbagello (WA) for 2 tests late November and continue to prepare for the 2015 season. We hope to get a wildcard ride in the WSBK round in February at Phillip Island and are making preparations for that exiting venture should we be accepted. August 2014 Sam will undergo knee surgery on Thursday 28th August. He has been experiencing pain in his knee for several years now but the last couple of crashes have intensified the pain, so after further investigation and MRI the diagnosis is ‘Osteochondritis dessicans – zone III’. The extra curious can look that up on Google. Sam will require surgery rather quickly to prevent further damage which will require bone graft and screws. Unfortunately that means his racing season has ended prematurely this year however we will be working towards a full recovery by the end of the year and preparing for the 2015 season. Thank you to all our supporters, sponsors and those who have helped us out this year. We will keep you all posted on his progress and plans for next year. RACE REPORTS ASBK round 2 – Phillip Island July PRACTICE – A blustery day at the island today. Patchy rain, strong winds and cold track temp… This meant our previous good setup needed tweaking. We are on the right track but was a bit difficult due to intermittent rain. Tomorrow promises to be better weather wise so should get better times QUALIFY – Qualified in 9th position. Wrong tyre choice meant we couldn’t change them for second qualify and try to improve. The cold track temp threw us off but I think tomorrow will be a good day and should see some improvement RACES – Well! What an eventful day. Finished 8th in race one in a wet race but the track was drying so it was difficult conditions. Then by race 2 it was a dry track but about 15 minutes before the race it started to rain but only lightly but still enough …to wet the track so a quick change to wets again and then the sighting lap…decided it was too dry for wets so super quick tyre change (thanks to everyone that helped) and I started the race from pit lane. FINALLY we got a good setting. The cold track temps really threw us all weekend but we got there. Went from back of the grid to 4th position and got fastest lap time until …like at QR, last lap at the hayshed (probably 220kph) front end lost traction and we’ll…(see photo in gallery). Good thing is I’m ok. Usually the hayshed doesn’t end pretty. Congratulations to Daniel Falzon for the championship and all the racers out there today, it was tough conditions. News from the pit crew – just got the prognosis from Dave Kellet Engineering, bent front axle, flat spot on front wheel, bent disc, swing arm twisted, but chassis is straight, forks are straight, and all of the above is fixable, now just have to check the mains and big end bearings as the bike was running on its side for 5 to 10 seconds before it shut down.. so no Winton for us, positive news is that we should have a spare bike before we race next Hooray!! click onto my ‘blog’ for some great on-board footage of ASBK round 1 at QR
World Superbike round support event – Australian super sport – February 2014 Normally we wouldn’t even mention this part of the event but it was truly a difficult trip down from Brisbane to Phillip Island for Sam and Yvonne. The new enclosed trailer wasn’t finished in time so the old $150 second hand bike trailer was put into use with the heavy transport crate modified to be bolted to the trailer. It was all too much for the old girl – the front spring hanger tore out of the RHS frame on the trip down in the middle of the night about 60 odd kms south of Forbes in NSW. A kindly older couple in Mirrool (who fortunately had experience in helping wayward travellers with broken trailers and such) offered a cuppa to Yvonne and a welder to Sam and within a few hours they were back on their way. Thank you Robbo and Val! (I might just mention the same thing happened on the way home too – this time the other wheel – thanks to Peter Macgregor and Rick Heffernan in Wodonga/Albury for helping us out of this one). PracticeThursday, was set up day in the pits and from 12pm onwards the first practice sessions started for the different categories. This meant that we had one 30 minute practice session for the whole day, a very expensive 30 minutes at best when you factor in 500 dollars for tyres plus accommodation plus food, plus day off work, for those readers who haven’t raced it worked out to about $200 dollars a lap!! Having said that you always want more practice time no matter how little is on offer so Sam took to the circuit in very windy conditions and finished 6th fastest QualifyingThe one occurrence we feared all weekend was a sudden downpour of rain. We are one of the few teams that only have one bike and it would be set up for dry conditions. If unlucky we could be caught out and miss a session or even worse, a race, while trying to change to wet tyres and suspension settings. We were so concerned that in the week leading up to the meeting Sam and Anthony were practicing removal of the rear shock and fitting the wet set up shock and rain tyres, adjustment of fork settings etc. we got it down to 10 minutes – good going but still risky. Well thankfully it decided to rain half an hour before the 1st qualifier and it gave us time to set the bike up and Sam went out with instructions to set a decent time but to come back in one piece (one bike!!). He did that qualifying 8th fastest. Thankfully the second qualifying session was dry with a drying track and a balmy 16 degrees. Sam was out on his own with no group around him to drag him along and on the last 4 or 5 laps he was trading places in the top 4 with Matt Davies and Hudson Pitt and it was Sam’s last lap that bumped the other 2 back and put him in 4th on the grid – easily his best qualifying session yet at the national level. Race 1After finishing morning warm up 2nd fastest while testing a few suspension changes we were all very confident Sam had a great chance of a podium and if things went well a win. When the red lights went out and the pack launched towards the first corner the symptoms of a big problem we will mention later started to show. Sam tried desperately to keep the front wheel down on the start but to no avail. The first 2 gears he was pointed at the sky, great to watch but it lost him 4 positions by the time he reached turn one. By the end of the first lap he had passed 2 competitors and was eyeing off the next, Aaron Morris and by lap 5 he had a good run on Aaron coming through the fast “Stoner” corner. Unfortunately the slipstream had meant Sam was carrying huge speed into Honda corner, so much that he had to pass Matt Davies in third place in the same manoeuvre. Basically he had out-braked himself. The bike crossed up sliding in sideways trying to wash off speed but ran wide pushing Davies with him (giving the commentators, crowd and MUM one heart stopping moment). This unfortunately let Aaron back through, losing a second or so to him. Sam and Matt both made it through Honda corner and set off after Aaron. Sam slowly started to rein him in before the bike started to buck and spin the rear wheel. He had pulled just under a second away from Matt when coming out of MG corner when the bike spun the back wheel and nearly Hi-sided him; he had only just recovered and it did it again almost immediately out of the next corner (turn 11). This is a critical corner as it flows through 12 and onto the start-finish straight. Sam had lost time in the 2 incidents but crucially lost speed onto the straight. Matt caught and passed Sam and they spent the remainder of the race trading paint and rubbing tyres on each other’s leathers, fantastic racing but unfortunately it slowed them both down and the front three had gapped them by some 3.5 to 4 seconds. For the last few laps the finish straight was under a yellow flag which prevents passing until the next green flag which was the start finish line and Sam was caught behind Matt and finished in 5th place just 25 thousandths of a second behind 4th place. Disappointed but nothing to be ashamed of as Davies has been in Europe racing the world’s best for the last 2 years and had returned home to try and win the Australian championship and the first and second place getters were winner and runner up from last year’s championship. This really was one very exciting race to watch, they all rode very well; the top 5 all getting more than one lap in the 1.36 minute lap times, these times would have had them all on the 7th grid position in the Aussie superbike grid. A fantastic group of young riders coming through! Sam returned to the pit garage after the race with a big smile on his face. He had a great time despite not making the podium and was about a second off the lap record in cold slippery conditions and only 3 tenths of a second from last year’s champion Daniel Falzon’s best time in the race. Race 2 on Sunday was supposed to be dry and warm and we all had reasonable expectations that 1.35’s were on the cards. We made a few small suspension adjustments after hearing of Sam’s problems in the race, putting it mostly down to the poor track conditions. Race 2A very promising day was on the cards when Sam lined up for his race on Sunday morning. He felt very confident he could break the 1.35 lap time and possibly set a new lap record but symptoms of a problem that started brewing the day earlier made themselves felt at the start even worse than Saturday and race 1. The triumph 675 is difficult to get off the line at the best of times as it has huge torque and just wants to wheelie, but this time even in third gear at 160 kph it picked its wheel up and carried it skyward and Sam had to get off the throttle. He found himself back in 10th or 11th place by the first turn but by the second lap had made it back to 6th and set off after Hudson Pitt in fifth place, but the bike was horrible. It was trying to throw him off 4 or 5 times a lap and he was only in the 1.37’s and 1.38s. There was something very wrong with the suspension. Despite that Sam was slowly reeling in Hudson in 5th place getting about 30 odd metres from him when Hudson’s bike blew an engine, creating a smoke screen that totally obscured the track. Sam had to roll off the throttle as he couldn’t see and cruised through to Lukey heights before he could see clearly enough. The next lap he had to take it easy through the Hayshed corner (a fast 5th gear corner) because he wasn’t sure if Hudson had oiled the track. The track was OK but Sam had lost too much ground on the top 4. He couldn’t do their times anyway without the bike trying to throw him on the ground, so he settled for another 5th place, cruising around on his own. He was disappointed he was unable to battle for a podium but ecstatic with the performance of his bike and himself (despite the suspension problems) as nearly 2 years break from racing hadn’t lost him his speed. We found out after some investigation on Monday that the nitrogen charged rear shock had bled its gas into the oil making the rear shock bad for the first lap but even worse as the race went on as it aerates the oil providing no damping of the rear spring. This made it almost unrideable but Sam did a great job keeping the bike upright and out of the gravel traps, let alone finish 5th in both races and do the lap times he did. Everyone in the team and all of his sponsors and supporters were very impressed and we all look forward to the year ahead. Thanks to Cliff Stovall from Triumph, Jeremy Merten from Gold Coast Triumph, Rick Heffernan from RHR, Link International, DecalAlicious and Cameron’s Body Works. Special thanks to Paul Young for his advice. “I really enjoyed this weekend. Some of the best battles I’ve had so far. It was great seeing a large crowd of bike racing fans, and I enjoyed catching up with my fellow racers, sponsors and some guys from TERRA NT who dropped in to say hi. We have a great package and I’m really looking forward to round 1 of ASBK in Queensland (April 5th) – see you there”. * don’t forget to go to the gallery to see all the photos from the weekend. Cheers, Sammy #17 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
ASBK – Round 6 Darwin 2013 Race Report Where do I start; the beginning I suppose! Approximately 4 weeks before the NT Darwin ASBK round I took delivery of the new Triumph Daytona 675R; a brand new clean sheet motorcycle that promises to be a very fast race bike when sorted. This meant we had very little time to get a handle on setup and the fine tuning of the package. But this is what 2013 is all about so we rushed off to Darwin with high hopes of success but with a goal of finding a set up on a track that I know very well and can use as a yard stick for every other track setting in future testing this year. The weekend was more challenging than we had hoped with days taken to ‘iron out’ some technical glitches that often occur when a brand new design is thrown into the stresses put on bikes at the national level of racing. The only difficult problem we had was managing the expectations of the supportive local crowd who all expect that around Hidden Valley, I am a chance of podium. Whenever asked we tried to play it down as we were truly on a mission to test and set up the triumph and if all went well then good results would follow as an added bonus. Needless to say though, when you are in the local rag 3 or 4 time over the week it makes it even harder to quietly work your way through the teething problems as all eyes are watching. Not ideal, but we needed the track time to hit the circuit winning in 2014. Thursday/Friday Practice We used a set of new Pirelli SC1 tyres that we had knowing they weren’t the correct compound but for a shakedown test they were fine. Both days we had lots of small issues that we put down to us learning the bike and what it needed to go fast. Due to the recent delivery of the bike and the rush to get to Darwin on time, this was our introduction under the spotlight of my hometown media. Qualifying With limited track time we had managed to go the wrong way with suspension and were having huge grip issues only allowing me to post a low 1.11’s lap time, good enough to make super pole in 11th place but way off the bike and riders potential. A quick phone call to a very helpful suspension guy and the issue was rectified but unfortunately after missing the cut off for super pole 2 – but we were confident of a good showing in tomorrow’s races. Sunday warm up 3 laps of warm up and the bike was handling great so I pulled in eager for the first race. Race 1 I got an OK start, only gained 1 position in the first lap and then our technical gremlins surfaced. I soldiered on short shifting for 7 laps until it was not possible to continue and I returned to the pits. We had a last ditch effort to get the setting right and had a ‘Eureka’ moment, made some very small changes and with the help of the Pirelli guys and their accurate tyre pressure gauge the bike was ready. Race 2 here I come. Race 2 Feeling a bit rusty after 15 months of not riding or racing a road bike, I took it too easy into turn 1 and was only 12th position. Lap after lap I picked off rider after rider and got into a battle with on the Quinn brothers, then Ryan Taylor, then Michael Blair and then Aaron Gobert. It was trying to pass Aaron for 6th place that I made a stupid mistake dropping down an extra gear to 1st and slid wide and ran off track at turn 1. By the time I made it back on track I was in no-man’s land in 12th position again. I managed to pass another and finished in 11th but we are very excited with the Triumph package. In traffic battling with experienced super sport riders I managed a few high 1.10’s. Given clear track and a better qualifying I have no doubt I could run with the top 4. Despite the difficulties the meeting was a success. We found a great base setting and the bike is FAST! Thanks I would like to thank NT Motorcycle Centre for providing the tyres and the use of their dyno facility. Keogh Transport for getting my bike from Brisbane to Darwin David Jones from Protec for fairing and paint work and other run-around jobs Jonathan Pillington for being a super mechanic and helping in the pits and getting me through the weekend to the end of race 2. Wouldn’t be on the track without you!! Lee Woodward for the use of the fridge, table and chairs, most appreciated! DecalAlicious for all the decals and the excellent banner Link International Pirelli, thanks to Leo and the boys Triumph Gold Coast/Moto Arena Special Thanks To Karina Gray from Starwin Management for organising the art work on my helmet. Big THANK YOU to local NT Artist Shane Franey (of Alice Springs – now residing in Jabiru) of the Arrente Tribe (mother’s) and Pitta-Pitta Tribe (father’s); You have done an incredible job on my helmet and I will wear it proudly knowing I am taking a piece of my hometown with me across Australia. Please go to the gallery to see photos from the weekend and ‘blogs’ to read about all the happenings. Cheers, Sammy #17 J _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ S.L.R. NEWS – the much anticipated day… Wednesday 21/08/13, the much anticipated arrival of my new track weapon from Triumph Australia signalled the start of Sam Lambert Racing’s (SLR) 2014 super sport campaig
QR TRACK DAY 1st session. What a bike; so much grunt!! Taking it easy – this machine had more power than any other bike I’ve ridden the torque is amazing, but I controlled myself and stuck to the plan, scrubbed the stock rubber in and slowly woke up that fantastic motor. 2nd and 3rd session. Much the same as the first session, just gradually dropping the times into the 1.15’s, but on the harder road rubber things were moving around a lot and the race tuned suspension needed the extra traction of the super sticky Pirelli Super Corsa SC1 to proceed safely. Last 2 sessions. After fitting the new rubber I was able to drop into the low 1.14’s while taking no risks I have little doubt we will see low 1.12’s in race conditions when the ASBK come back to QR. I had never ridden on the Pirelli before, but they were fantastic the bike was amazing I was accidentally pinching the entry off into the corners as the nimble steering geometry of the triumph and the excellent edge grip from the Pirelli tyres consistently took me by surprise, because I found I was still using the tip in points from my old bike, and its handling was its strong point. K tech suspension is the best I’ve used. The fun had to end though the engine oil and filter needed changing after the run in procedure and we had to get to SLR sponsor link international to pick up our Motul oil, RK chains, and Vortex sprockets to replace the heavier OEM 525 chain and sprockets. So we left the track early, but very happy with the bike and looking forward to shaking up the frontrunners in the ASBK Super sport class in Darwin in 3 weeks time. To all my loyal supporters thanks for holding on and the moral support. If you want to help us do well, then please when you need something for your bike or even a new bike support the companies that support us, you won’t be sorry we only use the best. Cheers Sam #17 _________________________________________________________________________________
RACE REPORT – Round 2 (April 2012) Hidden ValleyThere was much anticipation heading into this round of the ASBK series. This is Sam’s home track and he was determined to perform well. We headed up to the NT a week earlier to participate in the local TERRA meeting (of which Sam is still a member of the club) and get a little extra track time to boot. The weather was great and Sam finished first, excited about his performance and the up and coming ASBK round that would turn out to be his most challenging yet… read on it does have a happy ending. Thursday/Friday Practice
Qualifying (Saturday)First qualifier was more of a shake down for the repaired 2011 bike where Sam was happy to get the feel for the conditions and make sure the bike was straight after the crash from the previous day. Still he set a good time but it was at least 1 second from his best. Second qualifying session saw Sam struggling for grip and he only got down to 1.12.8 still a long way from his best, worst still in his single minded focus to improve he didn’t realise 2 of his biggest rivals on the track had tucked in behind him and he dragged them to their best ever times just pipping Sam by several hundredths of a second. Sam dropped from 4th to 6th on the grid in the last 2 laps of qualifying feeling very disappointed, but still a second row start isn’t too bad. Race 1 (Saturday)
Race 2 (Sunday)
Super Stock: Race 2 on the Sunday morning wasn’t until 11am it was a long and nervous wait. A race meet that held so much promise had to date been very unlucky and Sam just wanted to get on the track and make amends. The first lap was nerve wracking as the rider that took him out in the first race got another rocket start and continued to wobble his way around the circuit causing havoc. It took 2 laps for Sam to clear this guy and ride far enough away that he couldn’t catch Sam at the end of the straight. This delayed Sam’s progress allowing the front runners to get away. He set about chasing them down. He caught and passed Kyle Buckley on the Yamaha but in the couple of laps it took him to do so, James Mutton caught them up and James and Kyle did everything they could to stop Sam from riding away. It was a great battle but Sam finally got away and went after third place. On the last lap coming into turn one the rubber tip on his gear lever slipped off and on the down shift into turn one Sam hit a false neutral and ran off track and lost his 2 second gap over James and Kyle. He got back on track and couldn’t quite catch them up in the remainder of the last lap and finished 5th. Race 3 (Sunday)
Results
Big THANKS to all the locals who came for the weekend and to Jonathan Pillington who worked hard in the pits for us – Awesome job! Thanks also to NT Motorsports for the cool room. A blessing indeed keeping the riders core temperature down. Thanks also to Ben Henry for his mentoring and faith in Sam’s abilities. To Amanda for the massage, to the Cube Racing team and to Riki from Leda (Cube Racing sponsor) for helping Jonathan and Anthony fix Sam’s Bike on Saturday morning and manning the lap board.
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Sam has been granted a wild card ride by MA and the FIM for the World Super Sport race at Phillip Island (Vic) in late February. We at team Lambert are super excited about this fantastic opportunity for Sam to ride and compete in front of a world wide audience.
Thursday practice was a fairly low key day with the team just doing the finishing touches to set up and Sam started out on 40 lap old tyres and kept them the whole day setting low 1.12 lap times… many laps under last year’s race lap record. The team were extremely happy and were looking forward to what could be done on new tyres the following day. Friday came and overcast steamy conditions and lower track temps seemed to have a negative effect on the grip levels and only very modest improvements were made despite the new tyres. It was back to the drawing board; because current championship leader, Daniel Falzon, had reportedly set a lap time in the mid 1.11 bracket, a very fast time for a super stock bike, well under last year’s qualifying lap record set by Mike Jones. Sam’s GSXR 600 has a strong point, its handling – so Sam set about making up for lack of straight line speed with extra effort through the back section of the track, and got to within 0.6 of a second of Falzon’s time. Then in the last session crashed on a slight wet patch in Clubhouse corner (turn 4), (much thanks has to go to Dave Jones from Protec in Darwin who was up till 4 am Saturday morning repairing fibre glass and painting, cheers Dave you’re a great bloke). We then sent Sam out on the wet bike in Super sport last session in the wet. Unfortunately probably being over cautious, Sam set the standard ECU map to B mode and was blown away down the straight and out of turn one. Not liking this development Sam decided to make up the 80 odd metre deficit through the corners and did a great job pegging the ground back until the last corner onto the straight. Unfortunately he crashed at the hair pin - very little damage to rider or bike. Lesson number one - always use full power map!!!
Saturday was a very challenging day, raining in the morning but eventually dried for race 1. This was it – this was the first of three races and Sam had every expectation of finishing on the podium and was itching to get into it. They all roared off in the first lap of the race. Sam got a good start but in the long drag to the first corner some of the bikes behind him on the grid caught up and it was this that caused the disaster at turn 4. Sam’s front wheel was taken out by a rider who didn’t negotiate the track well and pulled in front of Sam before they had even entered the corner. There was no time to respond – END of race one on Lap one! Sam was ok physically, but was absolutely Livid. Thankfully for the perpetrator, he had the whole 10 laps to cool down and watch the race from the Flag Marshall point. A chance to end the day on a positive note was to qualify the wet bike in Super sport. Sam did a great job and qualified 9th and the first super stock in the field. We left the track that day a little dejected but hopeful for Tomorrow. Poor Dave from Protec Paints had more work to do that night to make the 2011 bike respectable – again great job Dave!
Super sport:
What a race!!! This time Sam got his usual good start and thankfully none of the guys behind him did. He proceeded to battle with Kyle Buckley, passing him pulling a gap through the back section and loosing it all down the straight to start it all over again. This unfortunately prevented Sam from getting into a rhythm and going just a tenth or two faster to catch Beck. It was then that James Mutton joined in and made a great race. Despite all the jostling and overtaking, Beck and Falzon were not getting away but Sam just couldn’t break free from the very fast Yamaha of Kyle who towed James and his Suzuki back up to Sam on the straight to dive bomb at turn 1 and 4 – frustrating but a great race to watch. The locals were going wild over on the hill and in the end Sam was able to prevail and finish 3rd after finally getting a small break on the boys he had been battling all race long – a positive end to a challenging weekend that started with 4 crashes, a 5th and a 3rd place. What impressed us the most was how after so many setbacks, Sam was able to put them behind him and race hard. The team has some work to do to get the bikes back to scratch and looking the usual Cube Racing standard of appearance before QLD, Sam’s next race, but we will get it done thanks to all those who support Sam and his racing.
Overall results saw Sam in 8th for the round (despite being knocked off the bike in the first race of the weekend) and 7th in the Championship. Podium for race 3 was a real thrill in his home town. Sam had heaps of local support and coverage in the papers and the TV news. The cheering from the NT crowd was awesome.
We would like to thank our sponsors:
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RACE REPORT – Round 2 (April 2010) Hidden Valley 