WWFAX Team wins 'C' class at Eastern Creek 6-hour

At last weekends 6 hour relay endurance race at Eastern Creek, the WWFAX Race Team fought hard on their 400's to win the C Class by over a lap and finish in the top ten overall.

"We got a great start with young Shannon Etheridge getting into 4th from a flying start on a 400 against much bigger bikes. It was a surprising start, but great to see. From there he held out Jai Curtis for several laps before he slowly but surely pulled away to establish a good lead." Said Team Manager Brian Peake.

Unfortunately the team's one and only mistake followed the great start. "I've run the bike for an hour and a quarter before without running out of fuel, so we thought that running Shannon for 55 minutes was staying well within the fuel capacity. However we learnt this weekend that the limit is 54 minutes with Shannon riding! He ran out of fuel on his in lap on corner 9." Said Paul Edwards. Shannon had to push the bike back into the pits, which took the team back to 23rd overall, 8th in the class and 5 laps behind the leaders.

Not to be deterred, the team kept plugging away with Dean Russell taking his first stint with all the work to do, before handing back to Shannon in an attempt to get back closer to the leaders. By the time Shannon handed over to Gary Peake, the team was in 3rd and only 2 laps behind the leaders. Gary brought the team back to 2nd and handed over to Paul Edwards. Paul held the place and handed back to Gary who again held the place. Paul went out for his last stint and only rode for about 15 minutes before the Safety Car came out for a nasty incident on the man straight.

"I came around corner 12 with the flag marshals waving yellow flags like mad. I wasn't too sure whether I should stop or just try and pick my way through the debris, as there were bits of bike all over the place and a rider still down and on the track. As there was no red flag, I figured, keep it pinned, they've got to get the safety car out for this one!" Said Paul.

With 3 laps of the safety car, Paul pitted to find the team in the lead as the MAW team who were leading the race had taken a tumble. This left each of the other team members to keep to their usual pace to bring the race home. The lead fluctuated from just over a lap to just under a lap as pit stops and back markers played their part in the race.

Shannon took his last stint to take it to the flag with just over half a lap lead. In the end he managed to lap the MAW team to ensure the victory. "That was the longest 40 minutes I've ever run on a bike. I didn't think that chequered flag was ever going to come out" Shannon said at the end.

There is no question that young Shannon did an awesome job for the team running over 2 hours of the race. At 16 years old, he's starting to show what he is capable of. That shouldn't take anything away from Dean, Gary and Paul, who each did their bit, not letting the day or other riders get the better of them and ensuring that the team kept clawing the lead back bit by bit until it was taken back.

The team would like to thank Oliver, Darren, Brian, Greg, Kaye, Kate, Taryn, Les and Vicki for their help through out the day. We would also like to thank Keith Greentree and the Race organisers for putting on a great day.