Buildbase Mallory Trophy Championship Mallory Park
March 2nd
NTO Racing kicked of the 2008 season with a successful start at its
old stomping ground of Mallory Park. This race meeting was to be
used as a shakedown for the new Suzuki GSXR100 K6 & a warm up for
Carl Dodwell in readiness for the Wirral Powerbike championship
campaign.
It had been intended for Carl to compete in 4 races but bad luck was
to see Carl only manage to compete properly in 2 of the days races.
The new Look Mallory championships include timed qualifying for the
first time this year & Carl was surprised to find himself 5th
fastest after the 10 minute session on Sunday morning, especially as
this was the first time Carl had ridden the new bike at the circuit.
It appeared that Stuart Woodhall the teams mechanic had got the set
up just about right straight away.
With cold but dry conditions Carl took off to join the grid for the
first race of the day thoroughly expecting to be 5th on the grid,
however the first race was curiously out of the hat & Carl pulled
27th grid slot for the short 6 lap dash to qualify for the Buildbase
Mallory Trophy final.
Race 1
Carl took his 27th place grid slot & made a great getaway moving up
into 15th place into the first corner, unfortunately at the start
of the second lap 2 riders fell heavily at the Devils Elbow & caused
the race to be stopped. The race was restarted with now only a 5 lap
race distance. This time Carls start wasn’t so good but lap after
lap Carl passed people finishing in 13th place after the 5 lap dash.
At least Carl managed to post the fifth fastest lap of the race even
riding through the pack.
Race 2
Race 2 was the open class race & this time Carl was placed in his
earned 5th place grid slot. After starting well Carl slotted into
third at the first corner but swiftly dropped back as the bike was
suffering from a lack of rear tyre grip. A finish of 6th was still
pretty pleasing considering the quality of the field.
Race 3
This was to be the Buildbase final but with the grip problems
suffered in the 2nd race the team worked feverishly to get new tyres
fitted. Only the rear was fitted by the time the race was due & so
considering the team had not had time to fit the tyre warmers before
race start it was decided that racing would be dangerous so the race
was sat out on the side lines.
Race 4
This was the second of the open class races & this time with a
better rear tyre fitted Carl managed a 5tn place finish from his 5th
place in a 3 way battle for 4th.
Thanks must go out to the teams sponsors Sherwood Suzuki , Keith
Brain tyres & Qualatis without whose assistance racing would not
have been possible this season. Special thanks also goes out to
Clive Williams for his sponsorship donation.
Altogether this was a pleasing start to the 08 campaign considering
the lack of time spent on the new bike. The new season starts in
earnest at the fabulous new Anglesey racing circuit wher the NTO
team will be competing in the Powerbikes. Hopefully the team can
improve on last years first season finish of 5th overall
NTO: 2006 EMRA
1300cc Roadstock Champions
Sponsor a Winning Team
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move on to bigger & better things in 2008,
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