Close but No Cigar for Super Daz. SD Racing Report from Barbagallo WA . |
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Race Report: 2006-09 |
Series: GTY-R Australian Superstock Cup, Round 2 |
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Date: 26-28th May 2006 |
Venue: Barbagallo Raceway, Western Australian |
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| SD Racing's Riders & Results | ||
| Rider: | Darren Sciberras #91 |  |
| Class: | Superstock | |
| Qualifying | 2nd (1:00.7) | |
| Race 1 | 3rd | |
| Race 2 | 10th | |
| Race 3 | 6th | |
| Overall | 6th | |
| Championship Position after 2 Rounds | 9th (69 points) | |
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A wild weekend in the west saw Darren 'Super Daz' Sciberras score his first front row start in the GTY-R Australian Superstock Cup with a stunning lap in qualifying to secure 2nd on the grid. Unfortunately he was unable to convert the strong grid position into a top 3 result for the round but it wasn't through a lack of trying. The weekend was full of excitement for the SD Racing rider with the strong qualifying performance, 3 rd in race 1, a crash, an off road adventure and a set of broken ribs to boot. On his first trip to WA's Barbagallo raceway, it didn't take Darren long to adapt to the fast flowing circuit setting a lap time of 60.7sec aboard the number 91 machine. It was good enough to have him on pole position until the dying moments of qualifying when local boy Ben Henry regained the top spot with a 60.59sec lap time. |
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The first of three races saw Darren get off to a good start holding 2nd on the opening couple of laps until Henry and NSW's Anthony Quinn got by relegating Darren to 4th . A tangle with Quinn saw Daz spear off into the sand trap in turn 1 tossing him off the bike for what seemed like a DNF result. However an incident involving Henry and a backmarker saw the race red flagged on the same lap which meant the results were taken from the previous lap. This left Darren in 4 th but with the exclusion of Henry from the results, for being involved in the red flag incident, Darren was elevated to 3 rd . A bizarre way to score his first ever podium finish at national level. Race 2 saw a spirited ride after a poor start, Darren was again battling with Henry and series leader, Chris Trounson, for 2nd place behind SA's Ian Andrews. A missed gear while attempting a passing move saw both Henry and Trounson get in front of the TW-Performance Yamaha R6 with only one lap to go. Busting to make up for the mistake, Darren got a bit too keen on the throttle out of the left hand sweeper and the rear came around in violent fashion, tossing Darren out of the seat for what seemed like a certain high side. Luckily Daz was able to stay on board but was sent hurtling across the infield. He later rejoined the track to finish in 10th place but the incident left Darren with broken ribs as he fell back onto the bike. |
Things were getting awfully close! |
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A Sad Looking Damper |
Just when you thought that there couldn't be anymore excitment for the 29 year old, the steering damper on the R6 snapped off in race 3 leaving Darren with a wild ride for the reminder of the race. Sitting in 4th place Darren eventually succumb to his sore ribs and was pasted by Josh Houwen and Anton Kokshoorn to finish in 6th leaving him with 6th overall for the weekend. Although the overall result wasn't quite there, Darren did demonstrate he has the ability to run up the front at national level and the weekend saw him move up to 9th in the series standings. |
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Darren would like to thank the following people for all their help to secure this strong result:
Now it's off to Mallala, SA for round 3 and another new track to learn for Darren. Visit www.sdracing.com.au for all the latest news on the team and sponsors. |
Daz's incidents gave Ian another big weekend on the tools |
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Some more great images by Stephen Piper, www.spbikepix.com |
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