In round 1 of the SDPG academy the action was frantic especially in Superbike where we had 3 different winners in the first 3 races of the season.
SDPG British Superbikes:
Qualifying took place on Monday before race 1 and it was the super one (Super Ted) that took the pole position ahead of Dylan with Mason G rounding out the front row. Ted posted a time of 1:46.322 which put him 0.262 faster than Dylan in P2.
Race 1:
In race 1 it was a dominant display by the pole sitter Ted who managed to get out front on lap 1 and took a comfortable victory in the end by 2.739 seconds over Brett on the CS Autos Ducati with Dylan just fending off the charge from Mason G to take P3. Dylan was in the lead on lap 1 when he made a mistake a turn 6 and dropped to the back of the back. He managed to fight his way through the field to put it on the box. In the pathway class it was the number 78 of Kristian on the RK BMW that took top honours ahead of Charlie. Gian and Jamie suffered technical issues with their machines before lights out meaning no points scored for those guys
Race 2:
In race 2 it was the same story for Gian and Jamie but it was the number 1 of Dylan that managed to bring home the bacon for the CS Autos Ducati team and win race 2 with teammate Brett in P2. Superted didn’t quite have the same race as he did in race 1 meaning he only managed P3 but still a solid ride by Ted. In P4 was Kristian again topping the pathway class and threatening the top 3 overall. Charlie grabbed a P5 with Mason Roth and Arron not too far behind.
Race 3:
Everything was set up for a cracking race 3 and that’s what we got. The two ducatis managed to get to the front whilst Ted got swallowed up in the opening sector. Kristian had a fantastic start to the race and was sticking with the Ducatis in third. He managed to take the lead on Lap 3 when Dylan made a mistake half way into the lap. Ted was sneaking up on the top 3 with consistent lap times he was gathering momentum for an attack. Unfortunately for Ted he made a few mistakes which cost him the chance of a podium. Kristian managed to hold the lead till lap 10 and was eyeing up a win overall. Brett however had other ideas and on lap 10 he made his move and went on to take the win in the third and final race of the weekend. Kristian held onto P2 with Dylan rounding out a solid first round on the podium
AMI Electrics British Supersport
In Supersport it was the battle between Conner and Kalan that was in everyone’s lips. There wasn’t much between them in practice. In qualifying it was Conner who took pole with a 1:48.769 however he would later receive a three place grid penalty for gaining a significant time advantage by overshooting the line so that promoted Kalan to pole position. Mogzy one of the pre season favourites only made it to race day and he and his Satelitte counterpart Shay both starting from the back of the grid due to missing qualifying. It was set up for a brilliant sprint race.
Sprint:
in the sprint race Kalan was on pole and made the holeshot into turn 1 and took a lights to flag victory with a MLD team lockout of the podium. Mogzy rode from the back of the grid to finish P2 with new boy Shay picking up a P3 on debut for the Satelitte MLD squad. Conner ran into trouble whilst battling Kalan out front where he crashed at turn 3 and took himself out of contention for the win. He ended up in P4 ahead of APR Honda teammate Liam a who finished a respective P5. George managed to grab a P6 on the AMI Electrics MV Augusta.
Feature:
In the feature race Kalan started on pole and once again took the holeshot but Mogzy quickly re wrote the script and into turn 3 he took the lead. Conner was upto P3 and hounding the top 2. Kalan made a mistake at turn 12 on lap 1 leaving Conner to challenge Mogzy for P1. Coming out turn 17 on lap 1 Conner took the lead. Mogzy tried to repay the favour going into turn 18 but got it slightly wrong and handing the advantage to Conner. Lap 2 Kalan was making in roads on the top 3 but miss timed a pass on George and kissed the tarmac. Conner went on to take the win and his first victory of the season. The MLD squad had issues and made a few mistakes but they managed to salvage a P2 for Kalan, another P3 for Shay and a P4 for Mogzy. George rode a brilliant race to P5 on the MV and good results for Adam, Scott and Ash.
SDPG Ducati Monster 1200 Cup
Race:
Just 1 race for the Ducatis per round and it was Conner with the pole position ahead of Liam and George. Unfortunately George had a mechanical before the race meaning Kristian started P3. Coming off an excellent Superbike race Kristian was looking to get back on the box. On lap 1 it was Kristian who was leading ahead of Liam and Conner. It would be those 3 that would pull away from the chasing pack of Scott, Ollie and Adam. Liam took the lead but overshot at turn 17 meaning Kristian re took the lead. Conner then managed to pass Liam to take P2. Ollie and Adam were scrapping behind for P4 a great ride by the pair of them. Ollie being new to the channel and Adam had a testing weekend up to this point. Out front Liam had crashed promoting Ollie up to P3. Conner tried to pass Kristian and over did it meaning Kristian had 1.7 second lead onto lap 3. A few laps later Conner had caught back up to Kristian but he tried an overtake into turn 12/13/14 and unfortunately for the number 9 he kissed the tarmac. Fortunately he didn’t lose a position. Liam had recovered back up to P3 with Ollie hot on his heals. In the end it was the number 18 of Kristian who took the win by 0.6 seconds ahead of Conner who closed rapidly in the closing laps. Liam managed a P3 in the end just not quite having enough to catch back up to the top 2. A strong debut for our newbies. Ollie managed to scrape a P6 just ahead of Corey in P7. Jordan managed a P9 after getting caught up in an incident at turn 2 on lap 1. Vinnie managed a P11 in that one again getting caught up in a few incidents.
What a start to the season 3 different Superbike winners and some close racing in the other classes. We cannot wait for round 2
