Marshall wins 2 Superbike races and Race of the Year at Mondello!

The ADELAIDE MASTERS SERIES

Marshall wins 2 Superbike races and Race of the Year at Mondello!

The final round of the Adelaide Masters series sponsored by Adelaide Insurance Services was quite a test for us, as we wanted to gauge our thoughts on Superbike for the future. The problems were really all logistics with the meeting falling on the weekend between the final two rounds of the ‘MCE British Superbike Championship’ so there was to be loads of work and travel.

We thought it would be a good idea to try some of the new BSB regulation engine modifications but in the heat of competition on slick tyres. While the UK was in the middle of a strange heat wave we arrived in Ireland to heavy rain and flooding arriving late at Mondello and missing the practice day. Marshall rode the GR Aprilia RSV4 sbk spec for the first time on Saturday in free practice still in very wet conditions where our first impressions of the engine performance were quite good.

In qualifying the weather had settled down a bit although still damp everyone started to get their act together but a brilliant display of skill and power saw Marshall qualify the RSV4 APRC on Pole position for the 3 superbike races the first of which was to be that afternoon.

The first race saw Marshall made a good start leading the field with Yamaha R1 mounted Jack Kennedy in close contention. The two had a fantastic battle exchanging places like dancing in the rain on every corner while pulling a 30 second gap on the chasing pack. Marshall and the Aprilia always had the upper hand when the result was finalised on the corner with a mistake from the Yamaha rider ended any slim chance he had had. Sundays race two great start found Marshall leading into trouble when he was the first to find oil on the wet exit to the hairpin crashing out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH7iehVJuOM  Marshall remounted to take 10^th place. When the bike returned to the paddock it was not clear how Marshall  had ridden it at all and left Danny and Rob loads of work to get the bike ready for the next race. For the third race Marshall was a little more couscous and let a couple of the others look around the first lap for hidden dangers before taking the lead to win by a huge margin and secure 4^th place overall in the ADELAIDE MASTERS superbike championship after only completing 2 of the rounds.

Race of the Year the huge prize huge prize fund attracted entries from every class and the now changing condition causing everyone headaches on tyre choice, half the guys wet with full wet and the other half with a wet front and slick rear – after the sighting lap we were the only team to decide on slicks front and have the speed to change it in time for the start and for once Marshall now need to make a couscous start and settle in for 3 or 4 laps as the track dried. Young Keith Farmer went to the front but 3 laps in his front wet let him down crashing out leaving Marshall to push the Aprilia RSV4 into the lead and run away with the race victory.         

 Marshall Neill – “I was really looking forward to the weekend at Mondello but not the weather the bike feels really good the way it is right now – I have to really thank the GR Team after the crash Danny, Rob and Big Willy worked really hard to fix the damage and get me back out there. The next 2 races were hard as I had also broken some bones in my right foot in the crash but I am only thinking about now after the races. We had fun here but now back to BSB for the final round at Brand Hatch this coming weekend”

Tony Robinson – “Great weekend testing in competition Marshall and the Team did a great job and our Aprilia RSV4 performed with excellence. Well done all”  

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