91传媒

Luca Wilkinson

鈥淥n Friday we did a track walk with the one and only Andy Wales 鈥� Luca鈥檚 instructor 鈥� and Aleisha Layton. In Friday’s practice, we chipped away at the times with lots of learning thanks to Andy.

鈥淥n Saturday, it was straight into qualifying. Not a great pace, but managed P4 in the very last lap and within 0.2 seconds off pole.

鈥淩ace 1 鈥� I got the holeshot, but dropped to third halfway through the lap. Settled in and felt good hanging on to the second-place rider. Unfortunately, on lap 4, I was hit from behind and lost three places. With a bent shock adjuster, I couldn鈥檛 get my foot on the peg properly. Brought it home 5^th for some valuable points.

鈥淩ace 2 鈥� Starting 7^th and another great start. I was again sitting in third but the group were all together. Red flag so a restart, followed by a four-lap dash. Not a great start and ended up on the outside of turn 1 on the still-wet kerbs. Dropped down to 6^th, the battle was on. Managed to work my way back up to 4^th and get the fastest lap so pole for Sunday鈥檚 race.

鈥淩ace 3 鈥� Straight into the lead until lap 5 where he dropped down to 4th. Time to dig in. More laps of dicing, with backmarkers playing their part & a fair few place changes. Into the final lap and 3 changes for the lead ending in 1st at the line by just 0.002secs. So close he didn鈥檛 even know until we told him in the pits.

鈥淩ace 4 鈥� Starting 4^th, great start into the lead but race red-flagged on lap 5. Restart running in 1^st but with two laps to go I hit a false neutral coming into turn 1 and dropped to 4^th. Last lap and it was three abreast going into turn 1, and I almost ended up on the grass, but had the inside line full 鈥榖lock pass鈥�. So into the lead and set my personal PB and first time into the 1:06s 鈥� an amazing 1^st-place finish.鈥�

Aleisha Layton

鈥淲here do I start?! During Friday practice, we built up our pace gradually and were in the 1:08s which I was very happy with.

鈥淨ualifying: the track was pretty busy and I just couldn’t get a clean flying lap in, so had to settle for P10.

鈥淩ace 1: I managed to get amongst the leading group, due to another great start which put me in P6 straight away. I managed to get up to P3 with one lap to go, but ended losing out and settled for P4. But this was a race I was very happy with.

鈥淩ace 2: The weather was a mixed bag most of the day, so dad tried a new setup and let’s just say it didn’t work鈥� but another lesson learnt!

鈥淩ace 3: We woke up with the sun shining, so we went and did a track walk. Off the lights, I got my usual good start. But I just struggled to get going after that. I can actually say this was my worst race to date. This is something that’s been noted and I must work on.

鈥淩ace 4: After a weekend that basically didn’t go as smoothly as I liked or expected, this lit the fire for the last one before the journey home. I ended in P5 but was with the leading group and only 1.4 seconds off from the leader. So was super happy with this. I finally sort of woke up and set my PB of the weekend with a 1:07.4, which I believe was the second fastest of the weekend.

鈥淚 enjoyed the weekend but it was a weekend we learnt from the most. My first wet qualy. My first dry race which ended up full wet, on dry tyres. So, lots to take in. To me, all these new things are another step in the right direction and I鈥檒l carry on giving it my best to get to where I need to be.鈥�