Race Ready Industries

On the weekend of the 3rd-4th of July the RT Motorsports team and I were at the 5th round of the 8 round IDM superbike championship held at the Salzburgring in Austria.  The track is famous for it’s picturesque setting and fast uphill section. Requiring the rider to hold his nerve whilst maintaining 100% throttle for 19 seconds as he exits a 2nd gear corner and accelerates to 300kmh through a series of bends. This part of the track has about  2m of run off enclosed by a line of hay bales in front of steel armco. This is not really in keeping with the modern nature of most of the tracks in the championship. However the riders were still keen to get on the pace as quickly as possible and after about 10 laps were both within around 5seconds of the lap record. The last  few seconds were much less forth coming  and by the end on Friday’s free practice we were still looking for a second.

For Satrday’squalifying we decided to use both qualifying tyres in the first session as the temperature would be lower, the engines faster, and track more grippy. So the 40 minutes started and Jed promptly got a hole in his radiator which fortunately coincided with a separate accident that red flagged the session. With a new radiator fitted both riders left the pits on their first qualifier completing 6 laps before complainingthat they couldn’t find a slipstream up the hill. They were then given a final qualifying tyre with which Gareth managed to follow Dario Giuseppetti and improve from 1.20.8 which placed him around 15th to a 1.20.1 which put him in 9th just 0.8 off pole. Jed however had less luck in finding an all important tow up the hill and finished the session 20th with a 1.21.2.

Qualifying 2 took place with a track temperature of over 50 degrees and ambient of  32 degrees this meant most riders lapped half a second to 1 second slower, and both riders were unable to improve their times.

With qualifying finished we prepared the bikes for warm up which Gareth missed due to a stomach virus that had necessitated a visit to the local hospital for some drugs and a drip during the early hours of the morning. We were quite determined that Gareth would ride in the races as he had his best grid position so far this year. Both he and the team thought it would be a good idea to start the race and pull in if he couldn’t go on.

In race one Gareth put in a determined ride as he got straight into the 20’s before dropping to low 21’s on the last few laps. His best time of 1.20.49 was actually slower than everyone down to 12th but his consistency allowed him to place 8th as he crossed the line. Jed had a tough race coming from 20th on the grid to 17th as he fought against the horsepower of the BMW riders around him.

Race 2 saw Gareth get a poor start moving him to 14th, while Jed got away well and was right with Gareth before the race was red flagged. At which point Gareth was 12th and Jed 15thso the riders lined up in that order for the restart, both riders getting good starts. However a first corner accident saw Gareth almost stop as Stephen Neble crashed in front of him. Jed then reached the scene as a gap opened and was able to overtake Gareth.  Gareth was able to move through the field before another red flag caused the race result to be declared.  Jed finished 11th  and Gareth 9th.  Overall a good set of results at a track that is more suited to the horsepower of the BMW and Suzuki machines in the field.

Gareth maintains his record of scoring points in every race, an accolade shared only by Roman Stamm. And is now 10th in the points which can be found below.

1		Muggeridge, Karl	Wallisellen	AUS	168
2		Daemen, Werner	Neerpelt	BEL	159
3		Bauer, Martin	Eggendorf	AUT	130
4		Veneman, Barry	Dalfsen	NED	117
5		Nebel, Stefan	Velbert	GER	110
6		Stamm, Roman	Affeltrangen	SUI	89
7		Teuchert, Jörg	Hersbruck	GER	87
8		Giuseppetti, Dario	Berlin	GER	80
9		van Keymeulen, Didier	Kalken	BEL	68
10		Jones, Gareth	Canungra	AUS	54
11		Rizmayer, Gabor	Budapest	HUN	50
12		Hommel, Sascha	Reichenbach	GER	42
13		van Ginhoven, Ghisbert	Ankeveen	NED	41
14		Smrz, Matej	Budjovice	CZE	36
15		Kallio, Vesa	Valkeakoski	FIN	30
16		Meklau, Andy	Spielberg	AUT	28
17		Diss, Sebastien	Schweighouse	FRA	24
18		Hafeneger, Philipp	Solingen	GER	22
19		Wildisen, Marc	Hämikon	SUI	21
20		Metcher, Jed	Eltham	AUS	21
21		Altendorfer, Filip	Raubling	GER	10
22		Johansson, Hampus	Waardhuizen	SWE	6
23		Juhász, Dávid	Budapest	HUN	3
24		Politiek, Peter	Borne	NED	2
25		Grams, Didier	Limbach-Obf.	GER	2

The next round takes place on the 1st of August in Schleize. Thanks to all the team members and sponsors that allow us to be there.