We decided to give Ants his debut ride on the SV/Pro-twin at this meeting as the endurance race would give him plenty of tracktime to settle in on a bike he has only done 2 practice sessions on.
Started of damp and it was a gamble what tyres to use in practice, but we opted to stay with the Dunlop 211,s as it was drying pretty quick.
Ants reported no moments and said everthing felt good. He looked very relaxed after his first real go on the bike (i know he has been itching to ride it for ages)
Race 1 was the sprint race........ he started on the second row, got swallowed up into turn 1 (gotta work on his starts) but held onto the back of the lead pack of about 8 bikes. Took him about 2 laps to settle in and he was lying 9th overall and 4th pro-twin (as F3 & protwin were combined). On lap 3 he suddenly woke up! it was like he had suddenly found a couple more gears. He proceeded to charge forward and ended up 5th overall and 2nd protwin (just taking 2nd protwin by half a wheel at the finish line)
On studying lap times we saw that he actually was lapping quicker than the lead protwin so just had to get a better start.
The endurance race (1hr) saw him get a slightly better start and end lap 1 in 5th overall, He had a great battle with another protwin and an F3 400 for a few laps but again once he had done a few laps he put his head down and pulled away from them.
The race was won by Neil Smith on an awesome sounding R6/450 conversion which was lapping in the 42,s (on a cold march day at beggining of season thats pretty stout) Second was young Mitch on a F3 SV650 and Ants got 3rd overall and first protwin home.
His best lap was a 1;46.2 (0.5 sec quicker than his old man has gone on that bike) and the rest showed great consistancy.
Altogether a great day and a brilliant result for the boy on his fist foray into the bigger class.
Lets hope some of his good fortune rubs of on me this saturday as i take my racing bow at the Mountain Thunder streetraces at Methven.
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