from ... Justin McDonald

After arriving in Aussie, flying premium class, upgraded thanks to Koru Club, "become a member”.

We collected our Superb Skoda, Skoda Superb. After considering stacking luggage on the roof, I had a childhood Tetris flashback, and within minutes had the entire groups luggage packed in place with the boot shutting sweetly. This Skoda had some interesting treats on offer for the transporting experience.

Our driver James from MX Factory, had the tipronics on lock down, round-abouts taken with ease. In our crew was Google, Mikey P, Cayle, James and I. We headed out to the track in Wonthaggi, South-East of Melbourne.

 

My first impression of the track was that it is just a flat paddock with some jumps, the soil being more of a sand consistency. Unfortunately Melbourne failed to turn it on with the weather being chilled all weekend.  

 

Practice and Qualifying were both run on Saturday. The bike went sweet as usual, and I felt comfortable with the track. Qualifying 11th. As much as I liked the track, I just didn’t seem to have the pace that I needed to get into the top 10. With this only being the third round of ten, I am confident that I can keep position inside the top 7.

 

Sunday was cold again and followed the format of the other rounds where motos one and two were back to back, while the final race was a longer one.

 

In race one I got an ok start and found myself inside the top ten, I was not able to make any significant passes, and just got into a rhythm behind Ryan Marmont. I finished out the race in 9th picking up 12 points in the championship.

 

The second moto started with a much better start. I was running inside the top five when I managed to crash, tucking the front end into a rut and dropping the Honda. This put me back a couple of spots. I then put my head down and rode. Sadly I then went on to have the biggest crash of my Australian season so far, I cross rutted on the face of a tabletop and supermaned my way to the flat, hard ground. Knocking the wind right out of me, I took a few moments to recover. I rode out the rest of the race, placing 27th. Not Ideal for my championship season but it’s racing I guess.

 

Still feeling the bruises, I entered the last moto with nothing to lose. I just raced smooth and steady, focused on earning some points. Without too much battling I finished 11th.

 

The results of the day gave me 14th overall. Not exactly what I had in mind but, still on the short side of seven rounds left in the series, plenty of time to recover my position. My next race is in 10 days where I fly to Perth and head to Waneroo for round four.

Thank you to the team for their support, Cayle for giving up his time to help me out and my Sponsors.