Luke Gaisford Podiums 2nd Pro Quads

WA State Motocross Championships

Luke Gaisford completed the gruelling 6 round series on Sunday Aug 30th at the Lightweight Motorcycle Club. The last 3 races of the 18 race series was on the hard pack fast track in the hills of Byford Western Australia. Gaisford on board the Can-Am '09 DS450 XMX needed to maintain good finishes to hold second place on the overall series podium. Carrying some injury and illness Gaisford went about the job of securing the season podium with a 4th 4th 5th places for the day and getting on with the task of getting fit and healthy, in readiness for the upcoming Nationals at Murray Bridge South Australia in just 3 weeks time.

Gaisford commented that racing with the likes of Ant Yewers,Glen Ashworth & Ryan Lancaster had been a highlite of the year.”

“Congratulations to Ant who retired from Pro Racing today, I was glad to be standing on the podium next to him and stoked to get on the Podium in my first year in Pro's” Gaisford also acknowledged his Family support, Can-Am’s and Rockingham Powersport’s huge effort to get him on the track for round 6, Mark and Fiona Balshaw for letting him use their property as often as he liked to get some much needed training.

The Quad Motocross Australian Championships will be held on Sept 19th and 20th at Murray Bridge South Australia
 

Road Racing 2009 - Steve Chittendon

Round 4 State Road Racing Championships                                    
23rd August 2009
Barbagallo Raceway Wanneroo

 After winning the Club 1000 races last round we have been banished from the class and will be competing in the B grade series race and Superbike only. This is done to allow other C and D grade riders the chance to move up the grid and faster riders to move into Superbike, however it does place us towards the back of the pack against the A and B grade riders.

The B grade series race started well from the 5^th row of the grid. There were 30 starters so it was a busy first few corners. The wheel standing of the start has been fixed after reinstalling the judder rings in the clutch, much smoother starts now. There were many position changes during the race mid pack. With 600 and 1000cc machines combined in this event the larger capacity bikes have the advantage down the straights and the 600’s are faster through the twisty bits. Eventually we finished in the same position as we started so no improvements this round.

The first Superbike race ended up being a battle at the back of the pack between Josh Tacey (Ducati 1098) and the RPS CBR 1000, whilst this is great fun it also slows you down enough so that you loose touch with the rest of the pack.

The second superbike race started the same way but unfortunately Josh crashed right in front of us entering the left hander and we had to take evasive action so we didn’t run him over. This put us on the grass on slick tyres. I didn’t quite manage to stop the bike before getting a tank slapper going which spat me off the bike damaging the fairings and snapping a clutch lever…….bugger! I also smacked my head into the ground fairly hard and once we got the bike back to the pits I had a couple of dizzy spells so it was decided that I should be a spectator for the rest of the meeting.

Thanks to The RPS team who actually got the bike ready for the third superbike race even though I could see straight some of the time……..

We don’t like running at the back of the field so will be looking for ways to improve over the next few weeks to try and better our results.

Steve Chittendon # 90