Shane Smith reports from round 4 of the Australian 250 GP Championship (Mallala)
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Round four of the 250 GP championship at
Mallala raceway was a pivotal point in the 2001 season for all concerned.
The top four championship contenders headed into Mallala all fairly close
and with possible wildcard rides at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix
in October up for grabs the stakes are fairly high. A wildcard is the carrot that all GP riders strive for; thus the ante was upped a peg or two by the return of Terry Carter onboard the RGV SPARES TZ Yamaha after missing the Queensland round. Earl Lynch (Eclipse Plastering), Murray Jones (Barracuda Consulting) and myself aboard the Allect Racing RS 250 are all chasing the same prize. Qualifying held no surprises with Terry Carter on pole from Earl Lynch, Shawn Klueh, Murray Jones and myself in that order. Race one was a little processional with Carter taking the hole shot and never really being challenged. But the race for the minor placings was on for young and old. Lynch took 2nd after an early battle with Jones and myself before Jones unfortunately came to grief at the end of the back straight. Jones did manage to remount and struggle on to collect a few points from an 8th place finish. So Carter took the win from Lynch, myself in 3rd followed by Tingate, Rowling, Stanley and Holland. The afternoon's race 2 was a slightly harder challenge as the second leg was a full 6 laps longer than the first. But this was not a bad thing as the racing was tighter than in the first race. This time I got the holeshot but both Carter and Lynch squeezed by on the way into turn one but I got back past them in an aggressive move into turn two. The speed advantage of Carter's bike was too much for me to be able to overcome though and he powered passed me easily along the pit straight. I was also challenged by Klueh and Lynch for the next ten laps when Murray Jones also joined the pack and the fairing bash was really on for young and old. Klueh and Jones both came to grief and again Jones managed to remount and salvage a few points but Klueh was not so lucky. Early Lynch's bike seemed to have a slight power advantage and he used this to great effect to draft pass me on the back straight. I tried hard to get that 2nd spot back but could not quite manage to make a pass stick so once again had to settle for 3rd followed home by Rowling, Holland, Stanley and Henderson. The points situation is now tighter than ever in the upper order apart from Lynch's 40 point advantage at the top. But there are 51 points up for grabs at Oran Park and anything is possible. Galvin Marketing and Turramurra Cyclery are putting up some extra money and prizes up for grabs at Oran Park for the 'C' graders so it will be good to see some of the New South Wales boys join in on the action.
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250 GP - Round 4 - Images A - Images B - Images C
250 GP - Round 4 - Race 1 - Race 2 - Points
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