Glenn takes top five finishes on an emotional weekend at the Phillip Island

The first round of the Australian Supersport championship was underway just last week at Phillip Island Raceway! Phillip Island was not only going to be the host of ASBK but the first round of the World Supersport championship. The island has amazing weather patterns that set an incredible atmosphere not only in the paddock but on the circuit.

The weekends riding commenced on Thursday with a late afternoon practice session. Glenn was eager to jump aboard the ZX6 as there was no off season testing for the WNR Kawasaki team with numerous bike problems preventing them to take part in any off season testing. Having won the last race of the 2011 championship Glenn was confident to get back up speed quite quickly.

After experiencing a front end chatter problem throughout practice, The WNR team was going to have their work cut out for them to find and eliminate the problem. After working through several solutions, ’none of which where working’ the team and Glenn found themselves in 8 ^th position after the first qualifier. The heat was starting to set in, making conditions difficult and the circuit slippery for the second session but Glenn was determined to improve his lap time and position for Saturday and Sunday’s racing. The WNR team went through more set up changes and managed to improve the bike slightly, this allowed Glenn to improve his lap time but unfortunately not his position on the grid.

Saturday was an extremely hot day. After a slow start to the weekend for Glenn and the WNR team they were hoping to turn it around first race. Unfortunately, that was not the case as the race was stopped just one lap into the 12 lap race for a massive crash on the exit of turn two which resulted in taking the life of young Oscar McIntyre. A tragic start to the racing weekend and commencement of the season when an incident of this magnitude that every motorcycle racer and family and friend dreads to hear or witness.

The race was postponed to Sunday morning where it was an emotional start for the field. Being quite difficult for all to climb aboard their machines that morning everyone was still brave enough to line up on the grid for the start of the race. Off to an average start Glenn found himself in 9 ^th position 2 laps into the race. Glenn didn’t want to allow the top four riders to get away and make a gap. Being forced into a battle with two other riders Glenn found that a top four finish was going to be difficult. After some great racing and over taking moves Glenn made his way from 9 ^th to 5 ^th and closing on 4th position. Glenn had closed the gap to 4th by over 5 seconds in the last 3 laps but ran out of laps, having to settle for 5 ^th in the first round of the Australian Supersport championship.

Having a 12 lap race to record data from, Glenn was able to run though the problems he was experiencing and fix them before the next race. Only being an hour and half between races the WNR Kawasaki team worked hard on set up and preparing the bike for Glenn.

The lights were red and out they went! Glenn got off to a flying starting moving up 2 positions by the first turn. Having a battle with 5 ^th for 2 laps Glenn managed a great pass in to turn 4 under brakes and was on the hunt for 4 ^th position. Glenn was clearly feeling comfortable with the set up of the bike as he stepped into the 1.37s. This was Glenn’s quickest lap time all weekend and an improvement of 2.5 seconds from Thursday’s practice! Feeling good and closing in on 4 ^th the red flag appeared yet again, The flag no racer likes to see! The red flag was waved and the race was stopped due to a fallen rider only 5 laps into the race. The race was unfortunately declared leaving Glenn with two top five results for the weekend.

Glenn says ’I’m happy with my weekend even though it was a difficult weekend all round. We managed to fix a problem we were chasing all weekend for the races. I think it’s important to improve over a weekend and we achieved that improving my lap time by 2.5 seconds. I am only 10 points off the leader so I’m very excited for the second round at Darwin in eight weeks. My condolences are extended to the McIntyre family, friends and fellow competitors.’

A huge thank you is extended to Kawasaki, WNR, Shogai Imports, SW Racing, Mark Wills, Sam Costanzo and Warwick Nowland for contributing to making a successful weekend of racing possible. Thanks guys!!

Steven Bennett & Glenn Scott