Reece Bancell Scholarship/Rick Olson PR:

Hi All, we have arrived home very pleased to say we had a great weekend getting maximum points from the weekend to head into round four.

THURSDAY PRACTICE:

We had three practice sessions on Thursday so we had plenty of time to get the right lines and the set up we wanted. The track was a lot more slippery than the test we had three weeks prior but we still had good consistency lapping in the mid 1.15’s.

FRIDAY Rd 3A QUALIFYING and RACE 1:

Before we went out for the first qualifier we wanted to get a good time and hopefully get on the front row, we managed to get a 1.14.5 which had us sitting on pole, and at least showing the track was much better than Thursday. The second qualifier we went out just to get a feel and waited to see if anyone would knock us off pole, but lucky for us second place didn’t go quicker. For the race we got an ok start and sat behind Cru Halliday who was in first place, the second lap we made a move in turn three under brakes to take the lead which was held until the finish by two seconds.

SATURDAY Rd 3A RACE 2 and QUALIFYING Rd 3B:

Saturday’s race was again a repeat of the first race with the same positions and finishing 2.6 seconds ahead of Cru again and to give us the round win which pushed us up higher in the championship.

The qualifying for Rd 3b was much tighter by posting a time of 1.14.3 and only just 0.010 ahead of second to claim pole.

SUNDAY Rd 3B RACE 1:

Sunday Race 1 – I did not make a great start and was third into turn 1, behind Cru Halliday and Mitchell Pirotta respectively. Heading into turn three on the first lap I saw the opportunity to overtake Pirotta and took it, knowing Halliday was in the lead may pull a gap, so I slotted into second and was trying hard to get Halliday. He made a mistake coming out of the last turn which allowed me to close right up, and then I made my move into turn three. I managed to hold the lead until on the last lap Halliday made a move on the inside of turn one so I dived straight back up the inside in turn two knowing it would go down to the last corner, I managed to hold him off and that’s how we finished. Great race….very close.

RACE 2 Rd 3B

Race 2 was going to be tricky as it had been raining and it was still wet on 3 corners, so we made the decision to go with the dry tyres which ended up being the right choice. We got a good start and led into the first turn easing through the wet corners and aiming to stay upright. We managed to hang onto the lead and got the race win which gave us maximum points from the weekend and the series lead heading into round four.

BIG congratulations must go to the previous Reece Bancell Scholarship winners, Chris Casella and Cam Keevers!!  What amazing results and proof that the Scholarship does develop future potential champions.

Chris and Cam are now 4th (60 pts) & 5th (58pts) respectively in the Supersport Championship just behind Ben Attard in 3rd place who is on 69 points!  What a result and how significant we now have 3 Reece Bancell Scholarship winners at the top of their respective classes!

Once again I would like to give a big thanks to THE REECE BANCELL SCHOLARSHIP and all the supports and suppliers of the Scholarship AGV, Alpinestars, Anderson bike stands, Bike-photos, Champion’s Ride Days, Goodridge brake lines, Joe Rocket leathers, JTS sprockets, Motul Oils, Racers Edge Fairings, RK chains, Sportsbike and YRD/YAMAHA.

Also special thanks to Frank Pons for he’s help with the suspension, Marty Dowd for looking after the bike,  my crew Plumby, Dad and Grandad and big thanks to Kerry O’Halloran for all the help last year to  help us get to where we are today.