2006 Stars of Tomorrow |
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Race Report: 2006-07 |
Series: 2006 KBC Stars of Tomorrow |
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Date: 29-30 April 2006 |
Venue: Phillip Island, Victoria |
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| SD Racing's Riders & Results | |||
| Rider: | Ian Wiltshire #31 | ||
| Class: | 600cc Class | Formula 400 | |
| Qualifying | 7th | 11th | |
| Race 1 | 5th | 8th | |
| Race 2 | 5th | DNS | |
| Overall | 4th | N/A | |
| Stars of Tomorrow Feature Race | DNF - Brake Failure | ||
The KBC Stars of Tomorrow at Victoria 's Phillip Island , traditionally Australia 's premiere C grade event, saw Ian Wiltshire in action for SD Racing aboard his TW-Performance CBR600RR. Although entrant numbers were down for the 2006 event, the competition was going to fierce and Ian was going to have to extract everything from the changes made by Shocktek, after his last outing, if he was to get anywhere near the front. The event also played host to the 1 st round of the Formula 400 Tri State series between Victoria , NSW and Queensland . With Lisa unavailable to ride, Ian also jumped aboard her CBR400RR for the very first time Friday's practice had been a positive one for the team with Ian working both the CBR600RR and its baby brother 400 to perfection, smashing his previous personal best time on the 600 by over 1 second and also setting a very competitive time on the 400. A great start seeing the task of switching between the 2 bikes was made more difficult as they ran opposite gear shift patterns that could not be altered with equipment we had on hand, and who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks! |
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With the 600's rear tyre used during Friday's practice torn to shreds, a freshy was needed for Saturday's qualifying and racing but the only available compound was different to what Ian had been using to date. Not only would Ian need to modify the setup to suit but also come to grips with a harder tyre that he had not been used to. To make things worse the heavens had left a wet track on Saturday morning cutting valuable setup time as the track had dried for qualifying. A disappointed Ian managed the 7 th fastest time in the 600 class and 11 th fastest on the 400, not a bad effort but the seasoned campaigner had hoped for more. Rather than mope in the corner with his tail between his legs, the old dog showed some fight in Saturday afternoon's races, managing to beat both his qualifying results with a close 5 th aboard the 600, even managing to get as high as 2 nd at one point, and 8 th in Formula 400 Heat 1, only 0.028sec behind Scott Emanuelsson in an exciting 4 way duel that saw some great passing. |
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| Sunday, the main race day, also started wet but unlike Saturday it was to stay that way. The race budget couldn't quiet extend itself to afford wets for both bikes so the 400 was to be retired for the remainder of the weekend. Racing in the wet is never easy and Ian made a good fist of it in Race 2, making up a number of places from a mediocre start to finish 5 th which secured 4 th overall in the 600 class, setting a best lap of 1:59 in the process, easily his best ever in the wet. Next on the card was the main Stars of tomorrow feature race and the Brit was keen to end the somewhat disappointing weekend on a positive note with a strong result. It started off very well working his way through the field but as Ian grabbed the brake lever for the 2 nd gear turn 4, he was stunned to realize that the brakes had abandoned him due to a brake line leak. Luckily he managed to stay upright but was forced to retire from the race. Although Ian was disappointed with the weekend, he still managed 4 th overall in the 600 class still with some more development to come before the next Hartwell Round on the 20 th & 21 st of May. |
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