A win in the first race was just reward after another close fought battle with Surya Raja
March 8th saw the 5th race day of the season held on the International circuit at the Dubai Autodrome. Since the last race 2 weeks ago, Aldrin at ProBikes was able to complete the rebuild of the bike following a few niggles from the last race day, with the practice day used to run the engine in so each session saw the rev limit increased progressively. The lap times of the usual suspects revealed that tomorrow was going to be very, very close, with the proverbial blanket likely to cover the top 5 riders. A great days racing was thus in prospect and with there being no 1000cc bikes entered, the 600’s would be taking the limelight.
Warm-up:
New unscrubbed tyres usually means taking it steady for a couple of laps to remove the mould release agent and get the tyres up to temperature. Today it also means a couple of full race pace laps to confirm the suspension settings. Given Mahmouds times, the suspension settings were deemed “to be acceptable”, well thank you Mr Rider. It did bring a smile to the team’s faces though.
Qualifying:
A bit of guess work and clock watching (no marshal to tell anybody how long before the session started!) saw Mahmoud first out for qualifying. 1 warm-up lap, 3 fast laps and an in lap saw Mahmoud qualify 2nd but more importantly on the front row. With that the bike was put on its stands, refuelled and given a spanner check in readiness of race 1.
Race 1:
An excellent start saw Mahmoud take the holeshot and lead into turn 1. The first 2 laps saw Mahmoud lead by 1.5s and 2.3s. The scene behind Mahmoud was one of action as riders bucked and weaved their way around the track trying to make up places. Lap 3 and 4 saw Surya gradually reduced the gap to 0.5s at the end of lap 4. Still Mahmoud is not the champion for nothing and despite the pressure exerted by Surya, Mahmound continued to lead the race from the front. On lap 8 Surya briefly took the lead at turn 10 but Mahmoud fought straight back as Surya ran slightly wide. With 2 laps to there was only 0.4s between Mahmoud and Surya, it was most definitely game on with Phil the commentator getting quite excited by the close racing (the battle for 3rd was just as close). The team later found out that meeting was taking place at the DMAC building which was suspended so that the attendees could watch the race! By this point both riders were lapping in the high 1:47’s / low 1:48’s which was qualifying pace. Both riders were holding nothing back and were spinning the rear tyres coming out of the corners. With the chequered flag ready to signal the end of the race, Mahmoud rounded turn 16 to take the flag in 1st place, closely and we mean closely followed by Surya. What a battle, what a race, what excitement, what am I going to write next? (ed: What just get on with the report, thats what). All the riders “appeared” outwardly to have enjoyed the race, but inwardly you could tell there were plotting how to go better in race 2. With that the riders were off to the podium to collect the silverware, whilst the humble mechanics of the top three bikes took the bikes to be fuelled for race 2 by the circuit.
Moody uses all his experience to take a hard fought race one win
Race 2:
Race 2 followed a very similar pattern to that of race 1. Only this time Surya made his overtake on lap 8 stick (Surya’s lap time of 1:46.924 was quite stunning and ge was warmly congratulated by the team afterwards). Surya took a lead of 1.4s onto the last lap but an earlier gear change problem started to strike again and with a huge effort by Mahmoud saw him erase the lead though out the lap to be right on Surya’s exhaust as they entered the last turn. The finish line is quite close to the exit of the last turn and sadly there was enough distance for Mahmoud to overtake Surya. Still another excellent race by both riders, and 2nd place still gave Mahmoud a big points haul.
Second place in the second race of the day keeps the championship in sight & alive for Moody
Now unbeknownst to the top 6 riders, Mike Down had slid off his bike on the last lap. The riders safety is of paramount concern to the circuit and so the race was red flagged. The only problem was that the 1st red flags to top 6 riders encountered was at the finish line and not at any of the marshaling points. The top 6 riders were “requested” to see the race steward where a “discussion” was held. Lets just say that the outcome was that both parties “agreed to disagree” on the red flag situation with the riders forced to break the seal on their wallets, blow away the cob-webs and dust and “contribute” to the naughty boys fines jar.
With that bit of “housekeeping” taken care of the riders went for the podium ceremony.
A day after the event saw the team reflect on the days events. The positives being that Mahmoud is no further behind the championship leader Surya but he extended his lead over his championship rivals. With 4 races to go the battle for the championship is still well and truly on, with the team determined to keep their championship title.
So until the next race day, keep it sunny side up.
