The Biker Place

Alex and the team were desperate for some track time to get the bike set up properly before the Oulton Park round of British Super Bikes, there has been a change in the team make up, Alex will continue to race under the Astro banner, but out of his own awning and will see Alex reunited with his old mechanic. The reformed team went to knockhill 2 weeks ago and completely changed the set-up of the bike, Alex went well getting a couple of second places a 3rd and a 4th.

They then took the engine out of the bike and gave it to YPE Ltd in Edinburgh, who set up the engine for the Super Stock Class. For this event Alex had been entered into two classes, his own Super Stock Class and also into Super Sport (different rules, basically unlimited tuning, better tyres and quickshifters).

Qualifying. With no practice in wet conditions with the new set up, it was straight into timed practice in the rain, In the Super Stock class Alex qualified 7th with a fastest lap of 1min 6.25 sec. Now the SS (Super Sport) timed qualifying was held directly after the SSK session which gave his mechanic the chance to make a few adjustments before he returned to the track, Gault qualified 4th with a fastest lap of 1min 1.51 sec.

First race of the day was in SS (Super Sport) he put up a very good account of himself finishing 3rd, It must be said from the starting gird of 24 riders ‘Steve Tomes’ and ‘Michael Nibblet’ were in a class of their own! Stunning riding from those two seen them finish well in front of Alex but 3rd was a very good result for Alex using his SSK bike amongst 24 riders using Super Sport machines.

After lunch it was straight out for the SSK race and I swear, 10 minuets before; it was raining, by the time Gault got to the grid it was dry! The team didn’t have time to change tyres so he had to race on the wrong tyres for the conditions. From his start position of 7th he was into the lead by the second corner and just stretched his lead. 2 seconds a lap faster than second place man Sam Middlemas (another BSB SSK contender) Alex finished the 10 lap race 24 seconds (almost Half a lap) in front of him! He had done well however what he didn’t know that this race was for ‘The Richard Jones Trophy’ Richard was a ardent supporter of racing at Mallory and since his death, his family have donated the trophy and prize in his honour, Alex was whisked away to the presentation in the Hailwood Suite in front of 60 guests.

2nd SS race and a repeat held in the wet, with Alex finishing 3rd again he had a good tussle with a few SS riders before taking 3rd place.

2nd SSK race a repeat! Even down to it drying up seconds before he went out and again on the wrong tyres, This time held over a shortened 8 laps Alex finished 18 seconds in front of Sam. Alex’ fastest lap a 57.18 the fastest I think he has ever went round Mallory.

Alex was also privileged to be presented with ‘The Rider of The Day’ award for his performance!

So there you have it, another successful test session, with now hopefully us having both good base, dry and wet set-ups for the configuration of bike we will have for the rest of the season, we are at Knockhill next Saturday and Sunday 5th/ 6th July for the Scottish Championships, then we return for the next round of the British Super Bike Championship at Oulton Park on the 18th 19th 20th July

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