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Alex Gault 2007 - September - Alex Crashes Out of Scottish Championship Contention.............Back To Index
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Production 600 Qualifying |
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Alex Gault the 16 year old motorcycle racer, crashed heavily in Qualifying for the 11th and 12th round of the Scottish Super Sport Championship at the weekend.
It started off well for the youngster, who in Free practice although un-timed his YPE tuned Suzuki looked well on the pace.
When the riders took to the track for Qualifying, Gault led the session for most of it; in front of British Super Bike and TT rider Keith Amor on his Ex-Tas Suzuki and Championship leader Bob Grant on his Ten Kate Honda.
However with only 5 minuets of the session remaining Gault crashed going down “Dufus Dip” the fast, down hill right hander at the end of the start and finish straight at the Knockhill Circuit.
Alex was OK, however that was more than could be said for his bike which was written off.
Alex’s father said, “We have been lucky all year, any crashes Alex has had, have been small ones with little damage to the bike, however this comes at the wrong time and we will not be able to afford to rebuild it and will see us stopping racing until next year”.
This was very disappointing, as when the times were released, Alex who until his crash had been sitting in provisional pole. had qualified in second place only 0.1 of a second behind Amor’s time of 52.7 to Alex’ 52.8 in third place championship leader Bob Grant on 53.036 and David Paton (who sits 2nd in the R6 Cup) on 53.621.
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Alex and David started to lap back markers after only 4 laps |
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Our thanks at this point go to Craig McClelland / Shirlaws Kawasaki and the Window Store.
Craig who is out, with a broken ankle after a crash at the last round of the championship offered Alex the use of his Kawasaki Zx6r which he uses in the 600 Production Championship.
Although the bike is a standard road bike and way down in power compared to the super sport bikes, we accepted.
Although the youngster Gault crashed out of both Super Sport races, he put up a stunning display of riding, putting the standard Kawasaki up with the leaders on their super sport spec bikes.
In Race 1 after a race long battle with championship leader Grant; Gault the youngest rider in the championship, crashed out on the last corner of the last lap while in 2nd place. With Amor taking the win.
In the second race Amor had again a comfortable lead with Grant, Paton and Gault fighting for the second place, the commentator even apologised for ignoring the rest of the race as the duel was; as he said “breathtaking”.
Unfortunately Alex crashed on lap 10 of the 12 lap race, luckily with very little damage to the Shirlaws/Window store Bike.
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This was as far as they were ever apart………until Alex fell off after 10 laps of “Breathtaking” racing! |
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Alex said, “I had to win this meeting to keep any hope of the Scottish title alive, destroying my bike in Qualifying is a massive blow.”
“Thanks to Craig, Shirlaws and the window store for the loan of their bike.”
“It just was; a little down in power compared to the others, all I could do was try and make up for it going round the corners……….It didn’t work”
Alex may still be on track next weekend at East Fortune, in the next rounds of the Super Sport Scottish Championship as after seeing Alex on the Kawasaki; Craig, Shirlaws and the Window sore have offered him the use of their bike again if his own Suzuki can not be rebuilt in time.
Thanks to Keith Amor for the kind words, as he made a point of coming up to Alex and saying, “Wee man……….you were Awesome!”
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