Alex Gault - Knockhill - 9th April 2006 - Excellent start to 2006

It is no secret that despite this being our local track, Alex has very little time on it, in fact it’s easy to count; he has had two practice days and this is only his second race meeting on the track so what could we expect ????

Then this was also only his second time aboard the RVF400 bike having had one practice day at East Fortune a few weeks ago, so what result would we have been happy with??? Certainly the one we got!

We were very lucky to take advantage of the test day on the Saturday as although we only live some 40 miles away, we left 2 inches of snow behind to arrive at a sunny and dry Knockhill (which is far from the circuits reputation) to………. Go round the
track really; as we made very few adjustments to the bike on the day.

It was difficult to gauge performance with the other formula 400’s as all the classes were mixed together and Alex had been put into a group with 125Gp’s Formula 125’s and only a few 400’s had opted to be in this group, but things went to plan and we were very pleased with the way the day turned out.

Sunday morning; Race day and as I said above we didn’t know what to expect. In morning warm up it looked promising but difficult to judge how close Alex was to the pace of the fast lads, as there were different groups and some obviously “playing” After visiting the timing office although they would not release times, they did tell me Alex had been the fastest.

So on to timed Qualifying for grid positions and we knew it would be serious now.

Here we could see the pace as most of the bikes were together and Alex, looked very good. This bourn out by the results, Alex had taken pole by almost half a second!

Well, happy is not the word! This was fantastic especially after I’d been told that the RVF was not the best bike for this class, that instead of the 70Hp that we’d been told when we bought the bike, it was only putting out 67 Hp and we were using the old tyres that came with the bike. This was an unbelievable result but what about the race?

Alex getting to grips with the newly resurfaced Knockhill Circuit It was then we realised, Alex has never done a race start with this bike, never even practiced one, so on pole for his first race aboard the bike and what would happen as the light went out???

By lap two he was up to 5th, then as they came back round 4th then 3rd a fantastic race 1st 2nd & 3rd (Alex) separated by less than a second.

He’d made it up to second as they entered the last lap, as they came back into view along the back straight three abreast and at the last corner Alex past the leader on the brakes into the hairpin, I knew there was no way they could fight back going up the hill to the finish flag.

Alex had not only won his first race on the RVF but he had also set a new lap record for the class with a stunning 56.091

Race two and the only way you can go after winning is backward, No! a (slightly) better start seen Alex come round for the first time in 4th then fight through to take the lead from Lewis Farrow on lap 5 closely followed by Graig Mc, Lewis Farrow started to lose touch as Alex and Graig fought for the lead.

This was fantastic racing so close, again the two headed side by side into the last corner Alex had the inside line and again Alex won the sprint to the line.

Graig paid tribute to Alex in the after race interview by saying I wanted to win that one so bad! I pushed as hard as I could, he might be only 14 or 15 but believe me he rides like an old hand, ever time I let go the brakes to gain a little advantage heading into that hairpin so did Alex, he sussed out my every move, very good racing!”

Next race is on the 500 at Snetterton but all going well were back at Knockhill on the 28th May.