I arrived on the Saturday afternoon, along with friend, and fellow 'Melbournite' race enthusiast, Peter Larkin.  Much to our dismay, we had missed most of qualifying. This we can blame on the Queen's Jubilee celebrations which left us with an unenviable task of trying to escape London. It did not however, deter me from getting as much information from the competing Aussies as I could.

As all of you should know by now, Paul Young has been racing in the UK for some time, and is the reigning British Superstock champion. This season sees him racing in the more competitive Superbike class.  Unfortunately Paul is nursing a rather nasty injury to his right forearm, a result of a crash at Silverstone, round 1.  As a result of that crash he had been sidelined until this Snetterton round of the championship.

Paul qualified 22nd for the Superbike event, a position not entirely shabby given the horrifying state of his arm. A grid placing like that must seem alien to Paul though, given his past successes both in Australia and the UK. This type of result can only compare to the fateful year he spent onboard the outdated and underpowered ROC Yamaha 500GP bike in the World 500cc Championship in 1996.

Soon after catching up with my old mate Paul, I went in search of the younger David Johnson.  David is trying his hand at the British 600 Supersport title.  He was indeed a hard man to track down, but after locating his hard working team deeply engrossed in the rebuilding of a rather second hand, and twice crashed, GSXR600, I was informed of his whereabouts.

Once I found him, and he'd recovered from the shock of  seeing a familiar face and someone he'd raced against in Australia standing before him, he described the qualifying crash that should have resulted in far worse repercussions than the chipped elbow he received. During the opening qualifier on Saturday David was exiting the slipstream of another rider getting ready to negotiate the fast sweeping Turn 1, and found himself presented with the sight of the slowest qualifier, and only female competitor, meandering mid corner. As a result both riders were catapulted to the ground with the least fortunate being the latter who was carried away from the scene with a broken leg.

We spent a while talking through the whirlwind past months of his life in the UK and how he came to be riding here. It must already be an amazing experience for someone of David's age, but whilst lying 3rd place in the championship, and in his first year, he must have thoughts of bigger and better things for next season. I only hope his efforts and obvious talents don't go unnoticed by those who count.

Soon after wishing David well for his race where he would be starting from 4th on the grid, I ran into another Australian who'd packed up his gear and headed to Blighty.  Jason Boyle... an old adversary of mine on 250 GP bikes back home. It seems he too is attempting what so many Antipodeans have tried before by throwing himself into the cut and thrust of British 600 Supersport racing. He's got no hope now that he's agreed to let me help him out at the race meetings!

Jason qualified 28th in Supersport on his self-funded R6, a commendable effort given his unfamiliarity with the workings and riding style needed for the four-stroke as opposed to the more known characteristics of the highly strung two-stroke 250.

So, to the racing.....

First out were the Junior Superstock boys, after glory at any cost it would seem. The racing in this class is fierce, to say the least.  Rather them than me in amongst that lot I say. 

David got a good start, but after tipping into the slow Turn 3 next to another rider, it seemed his bike wanted to go the other way and he ran onto the grass and out of contention. I can only assume that his bike was suffering handling problems as a direct result of his crash the day before. He fought back gallantly to 11th by race end, he would have been capable of much more had his machinery been in better shape?

The first Superbike event saw three Australians in the field, along with one South African and one New Zealander. Unlike Paul, both of our other hopefuls, Australia's 1994 125GP champ and 2000 British Superstock runner-up Glen Richards, and 1995 Australian SuperSport Champion Dean Thomas both faired better in qualifying aboard their respective competitive mounts.

Everyone got away okay, but in to the chicane for the first time Youngy went down courtesy of what looked like a cold left side of the tyre.  Luckily for Paul, not so for another rider on the opposite side of the track, the race was red flagged and Paul was able to leg it back to the pits and attempt the restart from his number two machine.  Luck was not on his side however as he limped back to the pits after only one lap of the race.

Glen Richards ended race one with a crash after running in the top-ten, while Dean Thomas finished ninth onboard the 'Dienza Ducati.

Race two saw the usual suspects up front, ex-champion Steve Hislop and reigning title holder John Reynolds battling it out with the 'IFC Ducati' man Sean Emmett.  Sean managed to hold off 'Hizzy', whilst Reynolds' day was marred by a mid race crash.  Emmett, like race one, took the win and boosted himself right in to contention for the championship with half a season to capitalise on that position.

Glen Richards rode brilliantly to an eighth place finish, just behind a disappointed Simon Crafar onboard the Factory 'Virgin Mobile' R1. Paul Young battled with what, to my not so trained eye, seemed to be handling troubles and finished just outside the points but bettering his grid position considerably in the process. Thomas suffered a DNF.

The Supersport race was up next so I rushed back to the fence, with burger in hand.  Jason took up his 28th spot on the grid.  Having raced with Jason only two years ago, I was certain that this position would not deter him from making inroads on many of the bikes that bettered him during qualifying.

I was not proven wrong, Jason fought his way up to 22nd by the end of lap one!  The battle for the lead was captivating, last year's junior champion Stuart Easton (MonsterMob Ducati), tried to open up a gap on his Honda mounted adversary.  It was worth the two hour trip on my own, much less exotic, and somewhat lower powered Ducati to stand in the cold weather and watch them.

Meanwhile Jason was working his way through the field, by half race distance he was up to 16th. This was until another rider got over excited and ran him off the track. He managed to rejoin the race to finish 23rd.

I hope that next time I will be able to get more of the qualifying action, quotes from the men themselves and feature more news about both Glen Richards and
Dean Thomas.  

Until next time.....

Richard Kemp 67