The Biker Place

Alex Gault and the Astro Kawasaki team made there way to the 4th round of the British Superbike Championship held at Donington Park last weekend.

Still the lack of track knowledge and testing time on the bike is proving to be a big disadvantage for the younger members of the race team, instead of visiting the tracks before hand, the first sessions are used for set-up and gearing selection, which should all be done before arriving to qualify for a race, borne out by the fact the youngster Gault goes quicker every session he is out on track.

Here at Donington Park Gault posted a time in free practice of 1.41.60, then in Qualifying set a time of 1.41.00 seconds, Pole sitter South African Allan Jon Venter on the Factory backed Triumph 675 setting a 1.38.97. That two second deficit saw Gault line up in 28th place on the grid. (Qualifying for the 600 class is so competitive, only 3 seconds separated the top 40 places available for Mondays race; from the 52 riders vying for them). In the race Alex got his times down to 1.40.0 more than 3 seconds faster than he has ever went round the track previously.

A rain soaked track for Sundays 2nd Qualifying session did scupper any chance of improving on Q1 times but it did give Gault the chance to familiarise himself with the conditions and make adjustments to the settings of his bike as the forecast for race day was more of the same weather.

Bank Holiday Monday and race day was set under threatening skies, the North / South split in the weather front found Donington Park right in the middle. As it happened, it stayed dry for the National 600 race although high winds caused some races to be cancelled, Alex did exceptionally well, from his start position of 28th, he had passed 12 riders by the 3rd lap just before there was a race stoppage due to a fallen rider. The restart of the shortened to 11 lap race took place some 15 minutes later, Gault did not make such a good start, (40 riders involved in the mêlée for the first corners), however he did make speedy progress throughout the race eventually finishing in a remarkable 10th place with a fastest lap of 1.40.0

This result moves Gault into 8th place in the championship overall and 2nd place in ‘The David Jeffries Award Scheme’ which runs inside the main championship for riders 18 years of age and under.

Our efforts now turn to try and arrange some testing before the next round to be held at Snetterton in Norfolk on the 13th/14th & 15th June. If anyone would like more information or perhaps find out how they can help? You can contact Alex through his dedicated web site at www.minimotoracer.com

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