Mick Kelly reports for us on his adventures at Mallala last weekend

Hi there,

Wow what a weekend. I have just returned from Mallala Raceway for the fourth round of the Australian Superbike Championships.

The racing on the weekend was awesome and I was rapt to be able to come away from the weekend with a first and a second to put me back into the championship lead.

After Qualifying I was a little disappointed to be second fastest, as I had tested at Mallala two weeks earlier and I really thought that I could take Pole, I also wasn't confident of keeping up with Russell Holland in the races because he had qualified seven tenths of a second quicker than I.

In the first race I didn't get a great start, Ben Attard and Holland both led me into the first turn, As we exited turn 1 Ben Attard had a HUGE highside and was lucky to escape without being run over, I was spewing because this gave Holland about a two second lead.

I decided to knuckle down and try to catch him and to my surprise, after two laps I had done just that and was right with him.

On the third and fourth lap we both went under the lap Record, with Holland finally getting the record with a 1m14.2 second scorcher.

I couldn't get past Russell and I was surprised to see him crash out at the end of lap 5. This gave me an 8 second lead over Glenn Allerton who was promoted to 2nd after Holland's crash. I slowed down a little and took it pretty easy to the finish.

To have a win at Mallala was great because I live in Mildura which is only three and a half Hours from there so I had a lot of friends and family watching.

For the second race I changed nothing on the bike, but again I stuffed up the start, and went into the first turn third but was soon into to second. I caught up to Holland once again and decided to just sit there for a while. Then half way through the fourth lap Ben Attard pulled a huge move from third up to first under brakes which caught me by surprise, so much so that Glenn Allerton went through under me as well.

Attard was on a mission and for the next three laps he pulled some of the biggest braking moves I have ever seen whilst he was dicing with Allerton, Holland and myself.

It was a shame to see him crash out of the second race as well, because he rode hard all weekend and deserved some points.

I finally got through for the lead on the last lap but Allerton got back by me, I then ran wide and this allowed Holland to squeeze through also.

Going into the last turn we were three wide, Holland ran off the circuit and Allerton took the win. I finished two tenths behind in second. Glenn (Allerton) was stoked with his well deserved win, he has been riding great all year.

I now lead the Championship by 30 Points over Allerton and if everything goes well at Oran Park in a few weeks time I hope to wrap up the championship. I hope to see you there.

Mick Kelly

P.S. A big thanks to the Following people who help me get to Mallala
JBD Racing
Metzeler Tyres
Teknic Gloves and Boots
Mildura Motorcycles
White Engineering
Steve Gray Joinery
Monsons Honey
AWB wheat Marketing
RENAPUR LEATHER
Warren Monson
Otto and Rudi Muller and Family
My team Mate Pat Galvin.