Saturday / Sunday, 4th - 5th April 2009
Round 2 &ndash Clubmans Open Race, Mondello Park
Sat 4th; Nice sunny morning, qualifying got under way for all classes. AJ and Paul in the National Open class against the bigger 1000cc superbikes, quite a daunting proposition, but however, we were prepared to give it our best. Emmet was in the 600cc Bridgestone supersport series which had about 86 entries with only 36 to qualify, so he had to get the head down and put in some serious lap times as this is a highly competitive class with sometimes only 2 seconds separating first to 36th.
Paul set the camp alight with a pole position qualifier, Aj scored credible 18th and Emmet qualified well up in 5th place in the Clubmans Bridgestone grid.
So, into the racing on Saturday afternoon, Emmet finished a fine 9th place in the first Clubmans Bridgestone 600 race, riding very steady in a very high adrenaline charged pack of riders where anyone could get knocked out very easily due to over anxious clubmen. race one of the National Open class and AJ created a bit of drama when his bike failed to start in the pit resulting in his failure to line up for the warm up lap and starting from the pit lane for the race. Tension was extremely high due to this.
Paul was on pole and slotted in behind Rory Clarke who shot his big Suzuki 1000cc into the lead. Unfortunately, pole position at Mondello is on the outside of the grid so the pole position actually has the longest route to get to the first corner. Added to this paul was on a bike more than 300cc less that the majority of the grid. However, Paul held onto second place, riding the wheels off the little Triumph to sit on the back of Rory all race long, sometimes pushing him into the corners and looking like he was about to slip by. Then on the last lap Paul Byrne who had been sitting in third place waiting for the front two to make a mistake, made his move out at the back of the circuit and dived past Paul and Rory to lead to the flag with Paul Barron second, Rory finished third with split seconds dividing them all through the race.
AJ, who stormed from the pit lane spitting fire passed out the back end of the field by the time he finished half a lap. This adrenaline rush lasted all race for him to lift him to a fine 16th place, some achievement considering he started from the pitlane after the pack was gone.
On to Sunday morning having worked on AJ's bike till late Saturday night to solve the flat battery issue - faulty generator.
Emmet was first up for the second Bridgestone 600 Clubman's race of the weekend, this time he was well placed in about fifth position when he dumped it into the gravel at the "dogleg" ending his race.
National Open Class race 2 and Paul was determined to get the advantage from the start, believing that the bigger bikes of Rory's and Paul Byrne were holding him up at the corners. Aj also had a new race face for this day with a collection of well charged batteries to keep the motor running all day. At the drop of the flag, Paul was true to his word and shot straight out for the first corner and stayed there for the eight laps pulling out nearly a second a lap on the Paul Byrne and Rory Clarke duo. Paul finished with a six second advantage by the flag to take Absol Racing's first win of the year. Meanwhile AJ was having fun with the mid pack riders and was picking off several of the bigger bikes as he moved up through the field to finish a fine 10th place. This put AJ back into better form from the previous day and his woes but he was still experiencing rear grip troubles as the bike is spinning up trying to get the power down as he exits corners. Sounds like Paul at the last meeting when he too had this bother.
Emmet lined up for his third Clubman's Bridgestone 600cc race of the day and shot straight into fifth position which he was fighting for for three laps until the gear linkage broke and sidelined him again. Not a good day for him.
Paul repeated his performance in the third National Open Class race final, again shooting into the lead from the flag and pulling away by a second a lap from Paul Byrne. Byrne chased him hard but couldn't catch up to Paul who was visibly enjoying the race by backing the Triumph in and then spinning the rear out of the corners and wheeleing down the straight. His best lap time was 1min 44.1secs, fantastic for a 675cc bike.
AJ's grip troubles increased in this race as he fought to get up through the field. However he kept the bike on the black stuff and finished a fine 12th place against some very stiff competition mounted on tuned 1000cc bikes.
We loaded up that evening on a high from all that had transpired the past two days, Paul is definitely now well settled into the three cylinder Triumph, his new bike, our latest addition is certainly flying. The Elka rear shock and Matris front suspension seems to work very well. We have to sort out AJ's grip problems for this coming weekend as it is the next round of the National Supersport Championship and it's always strong competition at the Easter Weekend with the top riders from the roads getting the last testing in before their season kicks off in three weeks.
Emmet is out again this weekend but it's really a final test before our first round of the UK Triumph one make series, the Triumph T3 Challenge where he is also eligible in the "Young Guns" class as he is under 25 years old. This starts next week at Brands Hatch and we leave on Thursday for testing Friday, qualifying Saturday and races Sunday.
Iain Duff