West third at Island Scorcher 2016
Anthony West managed a superb third place at Phillip Island last weekend. This was at the season opener for the 2016 season of the World Super Bikes carnival. Australia is the first round for them. It has been for a number of years. I usually go to the Island and volunteer my time to help out with the flag marshalling. It’s a full on job. We are the riders safety net. We pick them and their bikes up if they become unstuck. It also depends on which corner you are located, it can get quite busy.
Sometimes it’s hard to work out what is going on on the track. We have a radio but it doesn’t really fill us in what is going on. With radio I mean a two way radio, not a FM radio. Our job is to look out for fallen bikes and make sure they get to safety as quickly as possible.
The main race was okay. Jonathan Rae won both races with the big boys. My highlight was the Supersport race. My Swiss friend Randy Krummenacher is a rookie in that group. He was racing in Moto 2 for a few years. Now he is in a championship winning team. His team mate is Sofugly, the world champion from Turkey. He is quick, but this weekend he was out of luck and his rear tire failed him. That left Randy at the lead and he never looked back. He won. Anthony West, the Aussie rider came home third. He was lost second by 0.014 seconds. That’s not a lot. But West was third. How cool is that? Although he’s only a wildcard. That means he won’t be competing in the next round. What a shame.
We were at turn 12. We could just hear the podium celebrations. When Westy stepped up onto the podium the cheers were greater than the ones for the winner. He did well. I hope he gets a gig for the rest of the season.
Cheers
Danny
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