Round 3 of the Hartwell Club Championship was one that SD Racing won't be forgetting in a hurry.  Both of the team's riders in action, Lisa Brothers and Ian Wiltshire, put in performances that can only be described as, gusty and pretty dam fast.  With the recent roles reversed and Darren on the spanners, it seemed as if his crashing form had rubbed off on the duo as they both tasted the tarmac at Broadford Motorcycle Complex during the two day affair.  Despite this both riders emerged OK and did a wonderful job for the team, finishing the weekend with more trophies form the respective classes.

Ian's racing:

It would be fair to say that Ian was struggling a little at the beginning of the weekend aboard his TW-Performance CBR600RR in the 600 Expert class.  After Saturday's preliminary racing Ian still managed to secure a front row start for the 2 championship races on Sunday but the team knew that improvements were needed in order to score a top 3 finish on the day that counted.  The bike seemed to be working very well after the recent suspension work by the Shocktek and TM-Performance pair of Glen Holland and Trevor Manley, so the answer didn't seem to be in the bike.  By Ian's own admission he wasn't riding fluently and dinner that night with Holland heralded some tips and advice even though the pair would be competing against each other the very next day.

Race 1 and from the outset it was apparent that Ian had put the previous day behind him and was on a mission.  A great start saw him into 2 nd by turn 1, hotly pursued by Holland and Shane Ingram.  Ian managed to grab the lead from Charlotte only to have the kiwi regain it a lap latter but Ian was putting in an impressive display as the only C grader mixing it with the A & B grade front runners.  On lap 3 Ian held down 2 nd position with Glen Holland hot on his heels, no doubt a little surprised at how hard he was finding it to get passed the much improved SD Racing rider, who for the first time had got down in the 60sec lap time bracket.  Holland launched an attack on the brakes into crash corner along the outside of Ian's CBR600.  Space was extremely tight, something that is quite common, particular at this section of track, and Holland found himself having to use the concrete strip on the track edge but it wasn't enough.  Just before the pair were about to tip into the turn, Holland made contact with Ian's handle bar sending him up the escape road while Ian's bike was sent into a forceful tank slapper tossing the light weight Pom flying over the handle bars in spectacular but frightening fashion.  He hit the deck hard but remained conscious however unable to move himself.

Surprisingly the race was not red flagged with a concerned team and friends hoping that all was well.  Thankfully it was, Ian had taken quite a hit, including a fair knock on the head, but he was well looked after by the wonderful medical team and amazingly later cleared to ride again in race 2, all be it fairly sore.  An extremely sorry Holland , feeling quite bad for what had happened, rushed over to see if Ian was OK, later explaining that Ian's handle bar had gotten caught in his leathers.  Racing incidents are unfortunate but even more so when they occur between friends.  "Only if I had breathed in or was 'a little' trimmer" he muttered, at least Ian could look forward to a healthy discount on the frame straightening bill from Shocktek.

Keen to continue her impressive form, Lisa was extremely focused on Sunday morning and ready to make a strong start in race one. Her head was down and focused on the row of riders in front, so much so that she forgot to watch the lights and missed the start. Still it would only take 300 meters for her to make up for the mistake with a breathtaking pass around the outside of turn 1, overtaking 4 riders on her way through to 2 nd place and even brushing elbows with Mega Ken in the process. By Ken's own admission the move rattled him somewhat, something he hadn't been used to very much lately. With Lisa and Marrocchini dicing for the lead, Ken set out after them and it wasn't long before he resumed his normal position in the lead. Fighting for 2 nd place Lisa stumbled with a mistake that saw her run off the track, she recovered well and managed to get back a few lost places to finish 5 th and 1 st Novice.