In qualifying 1, Chas set out early to record a fast time on a mostly empty track, but on his 6th lap he pushed a little to hard through the fast turn 10 sweeper, loosing the front wheel. The Suzuki GSXR 600 cartwheeled through the kitty litter and back across the track at turn 11, landing on the outside of the track with Chas sliding to a hard stop in the middle of the turn. The red flag came out and Race-Safe was quick on the scene and took Chas back for observation and found a possible broken finger.
The team went straight to work on the bike and before the next qualifying session Chas was back aboard the bike and set some laps. Unfortunately he was unable to go any faster and had to start from position 12 on the grid with a best time of 1.35.0 a full second slower than he recorded while testing there a few weeks earlier.
Chas commented " I hit my head really hard in the crash and although I wasn't happy with the way the bike was working, I wasn't in the right mindset to be chasing quicker times and elected to leave the bike for qual 2 with the same set up. It's going to be hard starting from 12th but we will dial up the setting I used for the test and see what happens tomorrow."
The team decided that with a very low track temp on Sunday morning they would sit out warm up with the fear of cold tearing a tire, so Chas would go straight into the first race Sunday and hope it would all click.
Race one and Chas made a good start and slotted into the top 10 into turn two. He was just off the lead bunch but as the laps dropped down the leading group was slowly pulling away and Chas was unable to fight back and crossed the line in 8th position.
In race two Chas again got a decent start and slotted into the top 10 before slowly being relegated back through the pack as the race went on. He got into a battle with Jed Metcher for a few laps then was passed by another 2 riders, crossing the line in 13th.
Chas finished 10th overall for the weekend and 7th privateer.
We would like to thank all the sponsors and supporters behind our team, and a big thanks to Ross Finlayson for taking time off work to swing spanners for us at the last two race meetings.
The next round is at Mallala in SA on August 28-30th
We would also like to put out a big thanks to every one behind the Kirk McCarthy Award, Marty from Underground Designs in South Australia for keeping the bike looking good, Bandit Tire Warmers, Bendix Brakes, Mobil Oils, EK Chains, Blu Green multimedia, Mick Hone Motorcycles, Jake Royal from Racefit Australia, Afam Sprockets, Keith Muir for the great photos over the last 3 years and Phil Tainton for his help getting the bikes ready.