Welcome to Oulton Park…………
Well Sadly its that time of year, our second season as a team has come to an end and I would like to take a slightly different approach for the last report of the season.
As you may have already seen we launched our new partner program with KYMCO at Oulton Park on Friday. This saw additional facilities by way of a display area (check out the gallery) and a generally higher profile in the paddock. We had an exclusive release through MCN and masses of additional media interest including some fantastic comments and support from Fred Clarke at the circuit, James Whitham and Jack Burnicle on TV. Through the kind support of KYMCO UK we were able to call upon the services of “Big Ed” from MCE Insurance accompanied by one of his more attractive assistants, in summary a fantastic weekend.
As for the action on track, well our first session ended after only one lap, “not again” was the cry. Session two saw the machine rebuilt and cross the line to take the chequered flag, but not make it back to the paddock, overheating had returned once again. Q1 saw some improvement and Danny worked hard to bring the bike home in a creditable 10th place. Q2 saw the weather change but no change in position, once again recording the 10th fastest time of the session. As you have probably worked out by now we would start the race from P10 on the grid.
Morning warm up was an 8 minute affair with the weather playing havoc. Then came that part of the day where the tension starts to build. Bryan, Alan & Tom carried out their final inspection and both Danny and the Aztec machine for the final race.
Starting from P10 on the grid meant that Danny was right in the thick of it. As the lights turned to Green for the last time in the 2009 championship, the howling pack made its way to Oldhall. The Aztec machine had got away cleanly and was sitting in the leading bunch through Cascades. Halfway round the lap, exiting Druids Danny had moved up to P7. Some early exchanges with Matt Hoyle, Connor Behan & Adam Blacklock had the 35,000 plus crowd holding its breath.
By lap 4 the Aztec machine had been passed by Matt Hoyle and relegated to 8th place. Into lap 5 and Danny started to “wind up the wick”, closing the gap on Hoyle. Into lap 6 and the 15 year old Kent was now past the current British champion back into P7, with his sights firmly set on Taylor Mackenzie. Meanwhile the leading 4 of Guiver, Clarke, Brown and Blacklock were at it “Hammer & Tongs”. Into lap 9 and Danny put a great move on Taylor through Cascades and was now up into P6.
Now, having set the fastest lap of the race, Danny set about chasing Connor Behan. Into lap 10 and between Knickerbrook and Foulstons he passed Conner moving up into P5 with two laps left. The front four were still going at it as Danny reeled them in closing at over a 0.6 of a second per lap. On the last lap the lead pack sorted itself out with Clark taking the win from Rob Guiver, Brown in third, Blacklock in fourth and Danny bringing home the Aztec GP machine in 5th , our best result of the season. The icing on the cake, a third position in the cup and a chance to taste that elusive Champagne.
So we made it, a lot of hard work from everyone in the team to achieve our best result of the season. We are very mindful that without the generous support of many people and their respective organisations, Aztec GP would be no more than a dream. So a very special thanks to the following people, who helped turn “Four blokes in a shed” into a committed, professional team challenging for honours.
John Miller at Composite Materials Limited, Derek Jones at RTD, Russell at Panther Composites, Kevin at WP suspension, Derek Price at Magtune, Steve & Mark at Fabtech. To everyone at BST, all the guys at Langstone Engineering the team at Silverstone Paint,Tony Holton at ARH and Simon at GTR. Ian Kidson from KYMCO UK, his support at Oulton Park and launch of kymcodirect.
A special thanks to Jean Williams for keeping us “fed and watered” assisted by Caz & Carl, thanks for the introduction to Vodka Redbull. Big thanks to Alan Roberts, Tom Brown and “Sox”, their belief and support for the team has been greatly appreciated.
Massive thanks to our riders, Edward Rendell, a great effort from a rider whose season came to a premature end at Cadwell Park sustaining a broken leg. Danny Kent for his professional approach and infectious grin, his family Tracey, Martyn, Shannon and last but not least the “wine gum kid”, Keiran, a great end to the season.
To all the people we meet along the journey, the paddock is the only show in town. As Burt Munro, played by Anthony Hopkins in the film “The worlds fastest Indian”, said “that you can live more in five minutes on a motorbike going high speed than some can live in a whole lifetime”.
On a personal note, I would like to thank Bryan Nortje for his unswerving commitment to the project, Nick (Cleverest man in England) Bowler for his ability to bring order from chaos and Dave Russell and his couch, without him I would not be here, roll on 2010.
Many thanks to all who have followed our progress, regards.
Kevin Molloy.