15:50PM – Race 1
There was a heavily unfortunate delay to the start of Matty’s first race – a delay which, after the confirmation, made the whole weekend take on a very sad note. A rider in the CB500 class, Ian Alkins, regrettably lost his life due to a crash. From all of us at Matty Laws Racing, we offer our sincerest wishes and condolences to the friends and family of #6.
The delay unfortunately got under Matty’s skin – he was nervous and raring to go out (this time I remembered to put the video on) – however 20 odd minutes sat waiting to be released onto the track meant that the next race got called up, and Matty’s first race was re-allotted to the next slot. The warmers were put back on and we waited – hearing grim news that a rider was heavily injured at that point was conducive to a sombre mood. The race time approached once again, and everything built back up. Matty was quiet at this point – he needed to get out there and get battling to drown out the nerves he was feeling.
Davison turned up on the Saturday, and was a welcome grinning face around the paddock. The lad needs to be back on bikes! Abel will soon be on the bikes too, by all accounts. Ryan won’t be on bikes, but promised Matty some heavy sponsorship… Wink Wink.
The video stayed on for about three laps of the race, and decided to cut out. This was mostly due to me not regularly swapping out the memory card of the contour due to its awkward position on the bike. Something we will rectify for the next time.
Matt finished Race 1 in 26th place, and 8th in class. It is not normally Matts way to go backwards, but we are in a new class, with a new bike, and Matt was battling well – we were all very proud of his gutsy overtaking on the brakes at the melbourne loop – his sponsors Nige and Di, and Jack of Jacks Snaps Photography and various others were watching from here with us – we all immediately agreed that Matty was back. Awesome racing, kid.
In the discussion afterwards, the main feedback was that it was great to be back out there, theres more to come from Matty himself. He had a cracking battle with a 750 for a few laps, and afterwards was laughing and joking with the guy. Still terrible front end judder into corners however. Tyre wear looked good.
18:47PM – Race 2
Matty went out and battled again this time, but as the riders on the faster machinery started to get comfortable with the track, he could not keep his 24th place overall. He reported that the bike was feeling a little underpowered versus the other 600’s, which can be seen in the onboard footage. The suspension issues he was riding around, but definitely need to be looked at. Nevertheless he had a great race, and was battling with the same pack. He finished 27th overall….but 7th in class! So actually a stronger championship result than Race 1. Sterling effort, and we realise that the bike needs some work after this round at this point. The aim is to use any new sponsorship on the suspension, and various chats about the suspension are undertaken. We need fresh suspension and further than that, we require some good set up. We are starting to get our heads around it, but all of us are still learning. Great stuff though.
We finish the night with a family BBQ using the death inferno machine we had created on Friday. Gordon joins us, and we have a laugh and share some stories over some chicken, sausages and burgers. This is another part of racing – getting together with people and enjoying each others company. It is raining lightly but that doesn’t affect us enjoying ourselves. We get to bed after a few drinks and a bite to eat, trying to prepare for the next day.
Well done Matt. Next up? Doom. Disaster.
Matty Laws Racing 