The Australian Modified Bike championship went down to the wire last season as David Carroll emerged victorious with his first ever national title in the face of competition from Edgell Mallis, Joe Khoury and Shane Walker.
All four riders and then some will descend on Fuchs South Coast Raceway in Portland, Victoria this weekend for the opening round of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series to resume the battle in what is sure to be another close wire to wire title fight.
Carroll says he hasn’t made any changes to his winning Kawasaki and is looking forward to making the relatively short trek from Coburg to race at what is one of the best little tracks in the country.
“There have been no changes to my bike as yet, it’s currently being pulled down and everything checked ready for the start of the season,” he said.
“South Coast Raceway is a fantastic track, very flat and very sticky and the locals put in such a great effort to make the whole event happen and they really try to look after everyone who makes the journey down to their great little 1/8 mile track. You can usually get bacon and eggs and a coffee by about 7am.”
While Carroll’s focus is on achieving maximum points this weekend he has one eye on the future promising big things to come.
“This season will be a struggle for us, last season took a lot out of us financially, but we have a lot of plans down the track.
“I have been talking a lot with my mechanic, although not a drag racer he is a very experienced and highly respected race engineer and race team manager.
“So stay tuned hopefully the next season or two will bring a few challenges, a few changes, a few surprises and all the excitement that drag racing can bring.”
Carroll isn’t alone in his future planning with fellow competitor Rob Cassar building a school bike in order to provide lessons for keen punters.
The project will officially launch at a later date but for now the new bike will be in action this weekend as part of a two-bike operation.
“I have a two bike team this year with ex Pro Stock Motorcycle Racer Cal Godeassi running my new school bike,” he said.
“I will be running Mod Bike at this meeting and will be running the Comp Bike the rest of the season.
“With only a few passes on the bike Cal is riding, he has run 9.96 at 137.00 mph and it wont take long before we get it in the 9.20 zone.
“Cal will be riding the Suzuki GSX 1200 and I will be riding the old Z900. It should be a good season, we went to Portland on January 3 and ran 5.80, we had a blast.”
Round 1 of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series begins with qualifying this Saturday and eliminations on Sunday (Jan 17-18) at Fuchs South Coast Raceway in Portland Victoria.
The action commences from 11am on Saturday and 10am on Sunday. For full event details and ticketing info please click here.
Images courtesy: dragphotos.com.au (top), Outlaw Images (middle)