Check in with 15 year old talent Cameron Madders, from Bunderberg Queensland, as he gives his take on the final round of the Red Bull MRRDA series.
Hi all,
Dad and I just returned from a drama filled weekend at Phillip Island. It all began one week earlier at Morgan Park, Warwick. On the Friday practice I was the fastest CBR 150, doing a 1:17. 381 Then Saturday came and it was slightly cooler. After practice I qualified 6th out of 12 competitors. On Sunday I went out to morning warm up and did a 1:18.563 but was still happy because I wasn’t pushing. Then race one began and I came off on a high speed right hander (flat out in fifth gear) and damaged my handlebars, rear sets and Paintwork. Luckily, George Simmons arrived on a day visit and helped us get back on the track. In race 2 I went out and only managed 1 lap as my clutch wasn’t adjusted properly and was slipping so I came back in. In the fourth and final race I got a good start and battled it out for 6th.
Friday at Phillip Island (Practice Day).
On Friday we got to a cold overcast Phillip Island. I got five 15 minute practice sessions. We sorted out our set up for the northerly breeze after the first session and went for the same set up for the other four sessions.
Saturday and Sunday at Phillip Island (Race Weekend)
On Saturday the weather was warm and sunny but the breeze had changed to a southerly. Morning lap times were available and I was 12th quickest out of 18. My gearing was a little out, the bike was struggling to rev out down the straight because it was geared up so tall for the very fast circuit so the wind direction makes a big difference. Later on in qualifying the wind picked up more and our selection of sprockets was limited so we struggled and I qualified 15th. Sunday was cool, dry and overcast. In morning warm up I was 13th fastest but on the warm down lap my bike stopped and we couldn’t get it going again. There was spark but no compression. So we had a talk to Phil from Honda and he allowed us to put all the removable parts off my bike on the Honda spare bike. So we took off my handlebars, fairing, fuel tank, and exhaust but ran out of time to change sprockets so I went out with standard 14/ 44 gearing and was in 6th gear just before redline before entering the final corner, (standard gearing is supposed to do 141 kph) that’s how fast the circuit is. So I held it at about 1000 rpm before redline most of the way. I came last. After that, for Race 2, we changed the gearing back to what was on my bike which was 15/ 40 and I came 14th. For the final I qualified 16th because of my last place in race 1.
In the final I got a good start and went around the outside of about 4 people into turn 1. This put me into about 8th. I was in a pack of about 5 riders all slip streaming each other and I lead the pack for a lap or two but then I made a mistake at M.G and lost my place in the big group so I was just with Avalon Biddle (New Zealand) fighting it out for 9th place. We battled for the remaining couple of laps. I came around the final corner leading her but she slip streamed me over the line and won 9th place by 0.010 of a second (about 20 centimetres). After the final we had swap all the parts again between the two bikes and give the spare bike back.
I must give a big thank you to Steve from Laro Leathers for helping me out with some race leathers and taking some really good photos of the action. Also, many thanks to George Simmons for helping us at Warwick and then making up some replacement parts and mailing them to us at the Island.
That weekend was the last round of the MRRDA national competition. It was great to race at one of the premier Grand Prix Circuits in the world against other riders from New Zealand, Western Australia, South Australia and all of the eastern states. It was also great that at the awards night on Sunday night the top three places in the series went to fellow riders from Queensland.
Thanks to everyone for your support over the year. Without it I would not be racing. I will keep you posted regarding my plans for next year.
See ya,
Cameron Madders
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