It had been more than twenty years since I last walked through the pit lane and paddock at Thruxton, admiring the riders and machines whilst Dad raced. That was indeed a long time ago, and my attentions were now firmly on the latest breed of racers, and in particular on the Australians competing. As the season has progressed, all three in the Superbike class have enhanced their already platinum reputations, and at the championship’s fastest track, they would again be out to impress!

Four weeks is a long time in racing terms, and for some, the summer break had been too long. Queensland’s Dean Thomas for one was itching to go, especially after meeting with his World Supersport peers of last year at the recent Brands Hatch World Superbike weekend.

Adelaide’s Glen Richards could barley wait either. His desires to translate promising rides as a World Superbike wildcard at Brands into the same here at Thruxton were apparent. “When you race with the World’s best you go up a level, so when you return to this series you can’t help but feel confident” he opined.

South Australia’s Paul Young, forcing a smile that could easily have been mistaken for a grimace, was realistic when asked of his prospects for the weekend ahead. “The problem we are facing at the moment, is that the engine seems to be too powerful for the tyres and we may have to look at putting a standard engine in the bike soon”.

Riding under the Pirelli banner as the world’s official tester of the yet unproven Metzeler slicks, it would again be difficult for Paul’s obvious talents to shine, and to challenge for podium positions. This fact was not to deter, both he and the ‘Grafters Recruitment’ team from their search for the right set-up. To improve on a season that has thus far seen its fair share of crashes, along with less than impressive results.

In the Supersport class, Sydney’s Jason Boyle was after another good weekend and a further push for championship points. Damian Cudlin was a reluctant spectator; the Taree teenager has to wait for the following round at Cadwell Park for his opportunity to impress. His team busy building a competitive machine for the next round.

QUALIFYING

Qualifying around the super fast 3.7km track presented several dramas through action packed sessions.

‘Renegade Ducati’s’ Michael Rutter got the better of the strong Superbike field with a blistering Superpole lap to back up the fastest time he set in normal qualifying.

Championship leader Steve Hislop (MonsterMob Ducati) could only produce the 9th quickest Superpole time, he was noticeably disappointed after being second quickest before getting knocked backwards in the Superpole competition.

Sean Emmett was coming back from his dramas with the cash starved ‘IFC Ducati’ squad, a switch to the ‘Aiwa/Virgin Mobile’ team and the four-cylinder Yamaha enabling Emmett to continue his quest for the 2002 Title. He recorded the 6th fastest time, a promising start to the weekend.

Of the Aussies, Glen Richards on the smaller ‘Hawk Kawasaki 750’ fared the best. After the two sessions and a Superpole lap, he headed the 2nd row on the grid for Sunday. Many pundits this year have praised the South Australian for his ability to race the lesser powered 750 against the likes of the Testastretta Ducatis, the big GSX-R 1000s of ‘Rizla Suzuki’ and the ever improving R1 Yamahas of ‘Virgin Mobile’.

Once again he impressed, at a track some predicted to be the most difficult for the slower machine. Glen however was not in agreement, “Although this is a fast track, the bike is accelerating on the sides of the tyres a lot, rather than the middle, a good set-up is the key. The team has got our thing perfect.”

If set-up was the key, then Dean Thomas and the ‘Dienza/ Phones 4U Ducati’ team were noticeably struggling. Rear tyre and suspension problems plagued Dean’s qualifying day, but a good one-lap dash during Superpole gained him a second row spot, 8th fastest.

After the first of the two timed sessions Paul Young found himself with a provisional top ten start, but after the track dried the anti was raised, he managed only the 18th best time of the day, the fifth row of the grid. Afterwards he laughingly pronounced that he’d found an answer to his handling woes, “I’m not happy with today but I’m going to win the warm up tomorrow.”

New Zealand’s Simon Crafar riding for the ‘Aiwa/Virgin Mobile Yamaha’ team managed the 10th fastest time, once again lining up on the third row of the grid.

In Supersport, three seconds covered the top thirty combatants including the ‘Europcar / JB Racing’ Yamaha of Australia’s Jason Boyle. It seemed that Jason was coming to terms with the greasy track better than some, during the damp first session, and was laying near the top fifteen with two laps to go. He was finding an early affinity with a circuit many of the riders describe as the most difficult to learn. By the end of session 1, Jason was on the sixth row and confident that with a change in the external gearing and some ride height adjustments, he could perform better still. Unfortunately, with the track drying, the suspension was no longer to Jason’s liking and a grid position further back than desired was the outcome. A rain dance Sunday morning would be the order of the day for the ‘JB Racing’ hopefuls.

SUPERBIKE RACE 1: 22 LAPS

Race 1 started under a cloud…a big black one. All the riders were on slicks and were understandably anxious to get proceedings underway.

The pack surged through the first turn and towards the back of the circuit. Michael Rutter led from Reynolds, Byrne and Karl Harris also in the fray. Harris was returning after an injury induced three-month sojourn on the sidelines. New Zealand’s Simon Crafar was also with the leading group, as was Glen Richards and current points leader Steve Hislop.

Light drizzle then put a stop to the race, much to the chagrin of many riders who thought the red flag unnecessary. The very same light drizzle also greeted the riders as they gridded up for the restart. Many had opted to stay on slicks, Thruxton is known for its abrasive, yet grippy, surface.

Paul Young had worked his way up to 13th before the race had been prematurely halted and was no doubt hoping to consolidate, if not build on the promising result. Gridding up in race order saw Young 13th Thomas 10th and Richards 9th. Crafar in a brilliant 5th position.

Soon after the restart Hislop had eked a gap on Harris, who in turn had a similar distance on the chasing hoard. Young was unfortunately the unlucky recipient of a Steve Plater / Dean Thomas sandwich rounding turn one for the first time and fell in the dirt. He could later be found nursing his wounds in the ‘Grafters’ pit garage, where he watched proceedings unfold on the live television feed. A shrug of the shoulders was his response when congratulated for his earlier charge through the pack. He would live to fight another race later that day.

By half race distance, again on a dry track, Sean Emmett had caught Hizzy, proving to all the doubters that a team and bike change was not going to stop his charge for the championship.

Lap after lap, the leading duo swapped paint while Rutter lay three seconds back biding his time. Meanwhile, our lads were having fights of their own as Glen Richards and Simon Crafar staged a rematch of their wheel-to-wheel Brands Hatch battle. Dean Thomas, battling characteristically hard was holding down 9th, trying to put a larger space between himself and ‘ETI Racing’s veteran, John Crawford.

The crowd not only witnessed a titanic battle between the two leading championship protagonists, but also a last lap dash by third place man, Rutter, to take an unlikely win. In an enthralling battle the Scot got the better of Emmett for second.

Glen (Richards) managed 8th, on the tail of the battle for fourth, the quartet crossing the line nose-to-tail. Dean (Thomas) held on to ninth, four seconds adrift, whilst Crafar wrestled 5th place away from Shane “Shakey” Byrne onboard the second of the ‘Renegade Ducatis’.

A disgruntled Thomas was unhappy about the race stoppage as the restart resulted in him spinning the tyre on the rim. “It must have happened on the second warm up lap and it just chattered all race long. I battled hard to stay with that group in front but it was never going to happen, I hope we get a good tyre on for the second one,” stated the affable Aussie.

I greeted a happy but bemused Richards at “Parc Fermé”, while puffing profusely he uttered, “I was never going to get fourth. It was a battle just hanging in there. They’ve got too much grunt.”

SUPERBIKE RACE 2: 22 LAPS

The second race of the day for the country’s premier class was held under a blue sky with no apparent threat of rain. The thousands of supporters that lined the circuit (in some places ten deep) were in for another treat, the boys were happy to again oblige.

Michael Rutter again made the most of his pole position and led the throng of screaming bikes through the fast sweeping turn one. Hot on his heels were the usual suspects, you could just feel that we were in for something special.

Paul Young on the second of the number 96 Suzukis was having a battle royal in the midfield, point scoring positions again in his sights.

Richards and his Kawasaki were fighting frantically with Crafar. Dean Thomas and the Ducati were again in tenth, fighting for the minor places.

Steve Hislop on the ‘MonsterMob Ducati’ had not got the best of starts, battling his way through from ninth in the opening laps. Within 7 laps he was in 3rd.

Richards was still running up front, but after running wide on lap eight, he lost a lot of ground and was pushed back to 8th spot, just in front of nemesis and archrival, Simon Crafar.

Number one plate holder John Reynolds certainly didn’t want to relinquish his crown without a fight, he surged to the front at half distance. All hope of resurgence for the likeable Nottingham rider was soon doused when his bike expired. Leaving him to walk back past his adoring fans, straight to his motor home.

Youngy was hanging on to the bucking and sliding Metzeler shod Suzuki with all of his might, working on getting 12th spot during the middle stages of the race.

Just as another Rutter victory looked likely, the Midlands pilot saw his chances extinguished by a blown engine. A sensational battle between Hislop and Byrne ensued, the latter taking a last gasp victory on the line.

Glen Richards took 5th, managing to finish clear of both Karl Harris and Crafar, scoring himself and the ‘Hawk Kawasaki’ team its best finish of the year to date. “I rode my guts out there in that race. I’m really chuffed! It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. I felt within, that I had absolutely nothing left at the end, and that’s what’s important”.

Surviving the attrition rate earned Dean Thomas and his ‘Dienza Phones 4U Ducati’ a top eight finish. “It’s strange. In the first race we had heaps of grip with loads of rear chatter, but in the second the chatter was gone but so too was the grip. Eighth is good considering all of our rear tyre problems. I’m not too disappointed with that.”

Paul Young grabbed two championship points for the ‘Grafters Recruitment’ team by coming home 14th.

600 SUPERSPORT RACE: 18 LAPS

The Supersport grid cast their eyes upward at the impending doom that seemed to emanate from the sky above. Just as the Superbike pilots had done earlier in the day.

Pole-sitter Simon Andrews (Team UCL Honda) got the jump from the line, in front of Michael Laverty (Millar Racing Honda) and championship second place man, Scott Smart (Norwood Adam Honda).

The leader in this year’s title fight, Scotland’s Stuart Easton riding for ‘MonsterMob Ducati’ started the race from the rear of the grid due to a pre race cock up. With Smart already in a podium gracing position, he would have to call upon all of his mettle in a chase for valuable points.

Sydney’s Jason Boyle was once again faring better in the race than practice, picking off several of the riders that qualified quicker. He managed to improve on his own benchmark by 1.5 seconds.

At the chequer, Laverty took the win from fastest qualifier Andrews, Scott Smart 3rd.

Easton had charged his way through the field to take a great 4th place finish, no one watching could begrudge him the plaudits he deserved.

Only 26 points separate Easton and Smart, with 4 rounds to go.

Jason Boyle finished the 18 lap race in 25th, improving not only on his starting position, but also getting quicker with each lap during the weekend.

The roar of the ‘British Superbike Championship’ can be heard at Cadwell Park in two weeks time. Riders are unanimous in their praise of ‘Cadwell’ and I’m certain that our Aussie hopefuls will once again be doing their best in front of another bumper English crowd…watch this space!

Kempy 67