1:5 BIKE RACE REPORT:
Friday practice and the sun was shining, and the tarmac soaking the heat in nicely. All bikes were having a blast, while the track was still very green there didn’t seem to be a shortage of traction on the black stuff with a few surprise wheelies and backflips making a great spectacle.
Saturday morning for the first round of qualifying Mother Nature decided on very cool and overcast conditions with small shower thrown in the mix during the drivers briefing and again during round 1 of the bikes. This made things interesting to say the least, all bikes struggled as the spots of water filled the track before stopping at the end of the round.
After 4 rounds of qualifying it was Andy Bishop looking set to TQ. Davide Varricchio in 2nd and Ben Skerry sitting safely in 3rd. With just 2 rounds left of qualifying it seemed like Andy was set to continue his clean sweep of TQ’s at all major events.
Sunday morning and once again the Sun was shining, a perfect race day ahead. We kicked off with Q5 and after finding some small issues on Saturday night and maybe even a little form, Davide Varricchio brought some speed and consistency with him, while Andy suffered from a bad choice of tyre but still battled hard. Ben Skerry posted himself a PB for the weekend and finished the run in second bumping Andy down to 3rd. Q6. Was a tight battle with the race win forecast swapping from Andy to Dave lap after lap all the way to the end of the heat, Dave took the Win but Andy had secured his TQ.
Finals time, the bikes were prepped again, new boots fitted and we were off racing. Final 1 was pretty uneventful finishing as it started with Andy in 1st, Dave 2nd and Ben 3rd. Final 2 was one of the best battles the club and guys running have ever experienced. It was on from the first corner with Dave showing Andy a wheel and thought about stuffing it up the inside of the hairpin on lap one. Ben was tucked in nicely in 3rd and as they made their way down the back straight for the first lap barely a bike length separating the 3 of them.
The battle for the lead changed no less than 8 times in a 10 minute heat. For the first 7 laps it was a group of 3. Ben was ready to pick up the pieces of Andy and Dave coming together. Eventually making a small mistake Ben settled into 3rd but only a corner or 2 behind the lead group of 2. Andy and Dave battled it out all the way to the last lap. Dave took the win for F2 by just 4 seconds. They were 1 a piece making for an interesting 3rd final.
Final 3 and everyone was hoping for a repeat of Final 2. It was a close race but a couple of mistakes from both Ben and Dave gave Andy the breathing space he needed to bring home the overall Win. Congratulations to him and the rest of Bikers who put on an awesome show.
Special Mentions to Peter Chang for making the trip from NZ to join us and well done to him for winning Concourse and setting some PB’s for himself over the weekend. Another mention has to go to George Tsakanias for cracking the 25 second bracket with his bike after virtually no practice, Good Job George!
Looking forward to the next round of Large Scale Championship for 1:5 Bikes, NSW in September. We did have QLD on the calendar for June 2019 but at this stage the club requires we have a minimum of 8 entries. For this event unfortunately we would likely fall short of the minimum and have at this stage had to cancel the bike racing that event.
