Rob Guiver finished today’s race 12th overall but 2nd in the Cup class, putting him on the Supersport podium at Round 1.
The Ace Cafe T3 Racing team have already made huge strides to improve the Ace Cafe Racer after just one round. Guiver qualified 13th for today’s race, suggesting before he was even out on track that there was more to come from the bike.
After a bad start off the line he was thrown back into 19th position. It seemed the second race would end much the same as the first.
As the race progressed Guiver settled into the bike and was gaining on the riders ahead. It was from there that Guiver managed to move through the pack and into 12th.
“I didn’t make the best of starts,” explained Guiver, “which left me on the back foot really. Once I got in to it and the tyres started coming to me I could start pushing and was more comfortable passing people. I was surprised I caught the big group at the end, once I caught them I managed to get through them pretty quick and got a good position.”
After the race Guiver spoke about their problems:
“We gambled on the gearing and it made it really short like a motocross gearbox so it was pulling a wheelie off the line. There was nothing I could really do about it I just had to slip the clutch, but it was the initial couple of laps where everyone was pushing hard and I was hanging back a bit wary of the tyres. But, once I got into it everything settled down, I managed to get a rhythm and pass a couple of people, so big lesson is, go like mad off the start!”
Team manager Ricky Chadwick was really impressed with how far the team had come in such a short amount of time. He commented:
“Im really pleased, from where we started on Friday when the bike had basically just turned up with no development and no real testing to end up second on the podium was amazing and there’s credit to Rob he is just such a good rider!”
However, there are still problems to be overcome. Chadwick also explained that achieving higher speeds meant they were finding new issues with the bike.
“The quicker he goes, you get another problem then you have to solve that problem, he goes a few tenths quicker and there’s another problem and its just problem solving,” commented Chadwick.
The team now face a quick turnover before racing again at Thruxton next weekend (11th & 12th April 2013).