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Alex Gault 2007 - “Appalling Luck” Follows Alex To Scotland.............................................................Back To Index
31st March 2007
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Caught on Camera!
Alex just as the bike starts to slide away from him |
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Alex had his first race this year at Knockhill and his run of bad luck continued.
Despite some fantastic racing in almost perfect weather conditions.
Saturday’s test session was plagued by problems to the point where Alex only had around 8 laps from the two 20 minute sessions and it left us with a few worries over night.
Now it is the old story with the lack of time on the bike every thing comes to light when Alex starts to push harder, we had cured the problems which had arose on the Saturday. Now with him being able to push; morning warm up highlighted problems with suspension settings.
Now suspension set up, although mechanical; is a black art, I will be the first to admit it is a complete mystery to me but I’m learning and thanks to the help from Gareth at “Reactive Suspension” every thing we did, improved the bike.
In timed Qualifying although struggling at first Alex put in a strong finish with a 53.677 and 4th place on the grid, Pole man was Keith Amor on the “Uel Duncan Racing” Honda was almost a second faster with a 52.804 and the local pairing of Kevin Brown and David Paton in second and third on 53.3.
Missing from this front four was Bob Grant the man to beat in the Super Sport class round Knockhill. Bob had crashed out on the Saturday test session and was not fit to take part in the race but he will add to the next meeting without doubt and we wish him a speedy recovery.
Race 1
Front row start, how would he go?
OK as it happens, the front four fell into the race in their grid positions, you could tell although not rubbing paint the four were on the limit.
As Alex started to get the feel for his bike (remember compared to the others Alex has had minimal time to get used to the Suzuki) his times came down and started to get closer to David, he managed to squeeze by and started to catch Kevin, by this time Keith had a comfortable lead however the four front runners started to close down and pass backmarkers.
It went well for Alex as on the last lap he had closed down Keith, into the hairpin the last corner of the lap and Keith ran a bit wide, Alex seeing this, dived to the inside seen the second place on a plate but put a little too much throttle on when the bike was still leant over at an incredible angle and spun out, very disappointing end to a fantastic race. Keith took the win followed by Kevin and David.
Race 2
Our bad luck continued. In the race prior to the Super Sport race a sidecar’s engine had blown up spilling oil over the track at a very fast corner; there was a 30 minute delay to clear up the mess but there were still concerns regarding safety.
With things the way they are at the moment I told Alex not to push and “if he was not happy” to just come back in and race another day!
The riders were given two sighting laps to asses the condition of the track and all seemed to agree they wanted to race and as the flag fell to start the shortened to 10 lap race.
It was again Keith, David and Kevin in front of Alex. Again the four……. Well I’d say three having a fantastic race as Keith was out in front; not with a comfortable lead but doing just enough to stay there. Kevin past David for second place and there was no space between David and Alex.
Lap 7 and listening to the commentary as the lads were out of view. Kevin had crashed out at a very fast corner but he was OK as the bikes came into view NO ALEX!
Then the red flags came out which made it worse as I had already heard Kevin was OK.
Another agonising wait, no mention of anything over the public address system. I made my way to the nearest marshal only to be told he knew nothing, I then went to the medical centre, no Ambulance had been dispatched, signalling every thing was OK then I seen Alex walking up the paddock albeit covered in MUD.
When Kevin had crashed the three riders were so close together Alex had too take to the grass to avoid him and although managing to slow the bike down a bit, tumbled when the bike found what must have been the muddiest puddle at Knockhill.
No or very little damage to him and the bike and he got his 3rd place as the result stood from the lap before the red flag which had been brought out as Kevin’s bike was in a very dangerous position on the track.
Before and After
Despite events, a good and very encouraging days racing, I said appalling luck it wasn’t; it could have been much, much worse, so perhaps this is the change.
Alex set the second fastest lap time in the SS600 class on a bike which was down on power when compared to the others and was over 2 seconds faster than any other Suzuki 600 rider.
He got in front of David who is somewhat of an expert round Knockhill, David won last years R6 Cup race there by over 9 seconds.
So it was very encouraging to see him up in the company of these riders.
I’d say we now have a good idea where we are, what we need to do and what results are possible this year if he gets the chance.
Thanks to William and Sylvia for the photo’s and every one who helped.
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