Brad Glennans' 2012 racing review

[rats666]

FX Pro Thunder championship battle… you win some, you lose some!

Round 6 of the Red Baron FX Nationals and YMF Loan Australian FX Superbike Championship held at Eastern Creek, November 5/6 2011.

The Australian FX championship concluded at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway last weekend, with a weekend of mixed fortunes.

After a stressful lead up, trying to secure tyres for the weekend, Fridays practise went really well. I was lapping consistently half a second under my previous best time, on old tyres, and went home confident of breaking into the 37’s for the first time on Saturday.

A new set of tyres worked a treat, and 37’s it was! I qualified on the front row, and knew I only needed one good finish to seal the Pro Thunder Championship for race 1. I was quite nervous, constantly looking around to see where other riders were, but crossed the line in 4th, more importantly ahead of closest rival Richard Limington, ensuring a win the in FX Nationals title race!
Race 2 went well, but I jumped the start, putting me back to 6th, and race 3 meant I was starting from the second row. I got a little impatient trying to pass a bigger bike, and had little off into turn 9.

My crew got the bike back together in no time, and we threw on a new set of tyres for the important Sunday races.
Qualifying again went well, setting my fastest time ever, to again be third on the grid, behind Ben Attard and Angus Reekie.

Race 1 I again had trouble getting the bike off the line as quick as the bigger bikes, and after Saturdays crash, was a little nervous making a move stick. I still had second in the championship to lose, so I had to settle for 5th place.
Race 2 turned into a disaster. I ended up really wide through turn 2, allowing a large group of riders through. Again, I played it safe, and finished in 9th position.

The final race of the season was held on a drying track, and I again decided to play it safe, and ended up riding around behind my main rival, Richard Limington, to secure 2nd in the Pro Thunder championship.

At the start of the season, I had a goal of winning the F3 class, and finishing top 5 overall in the Pro Thunder class. To win the FX nationals (Saturday series), get second in the KTM FX Pro Thunder Sunday series, and win both the Saturday and Sunday F3 titles, is just awesome! After a ten year retirement to achieve all of that with a lot less “resources” than most of my competitors, is something I’m extremely proud of.

The following people have helped make it all happen this year:- Heath from Two Wheel Warehouse, for his products and organising support from Kaneg, Andy and Mike from Aark racing for building such an awesome little giant killing Triumph, all the people who have helped me out during the year, John Price, Jason Head, Chris Taylor, Aaron Clark, to Sean at Bikebiz Granville for all his help and encouragement, and most of all to my Dad, without him I wouldn’t have achieved any of this!
Thanks to Terry, Gloria and all the officials, and also to my fellow competitors, in particular Simon, Phil and Lauchie for all the close racing this year!

Brad Glennan #39

FX NATIONALS SERIES - PRO-THUNDER
1 39 Brad GLENNAN Triumph 675 361
2 3 Richard LIMINTON Ducati 1198 321
3 30 Angus REEKIE KTM RC8R 300
4 24 Mick JOHNSTON Ducati 848 243
5 74 Nathan MAHBOUB Aprilia RSV4 236

AUSTRALIAN FX-SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP - PRO-THUNDER
1 30 Angus REEKIE KTM RC8R 364
2 39 Brad GLENNAN Triumph 675 346
3 3 Richard LIMINTON Ducati 1198 327
4 24 Mick JOHNSTON Ducati 848 249
5 74 Nathan MAHBOUB Aprilia RSV4 200

[stretch]

This pic says it all!!

[wobbler]

Awesome stuff John. Just a pity that AMCN didn't even give him a mention.

Lets hope next year is even better.

[Garry]

Congratulations to both of you guys, a job well done amidst many who have far deeper pockets to play with.

Also it is good to read Brad's little press releases as all to often many riders simply overlook this important aspect to marketing themselves and hopefully increasing their attractiveness to possible sponsorships.

All up JOhn and Brad, probably a very successful year and well deserved.



Gaz

[stretch]

Yeah, thanks guys. Very Proud and pleased with Brads effort, against guys with as u put it Gaz A lot deeper pockets. I know Angus was given 2 bikes from KTM and help with tyres etc also

Greg,
Yeah AMCN !! iwas pretty pissed off about him not getting a mention at all for winning 3 championships and runner up in the 4th.
The 2 F3 titles, he was unbeaten all year and had them both wapped up at round 5 at Wakefield and over 100 points in front of 2nd.
No more AMCN for me.

Next year, mmmmm dont know about that, certainley wont be doing FX series in full, if any.

Last Sunday Speedweek had Brads race from Wakefield when he had the camera fitted to the bike, and of course they showed the race where he slid off the track . He got a pretty good amount of footage.

The race will be posted on the Speedweek website sometime in the next week to catch it all again.

It was a rush job to get him back on the track for the 3rd race to get all the mud off the bike and to make things harder one of the rear stand pick up knobs broke off and we couldnt get it out. So changing the the rear wet for a slick was done with 3 guys holding the bike in the air while another 2 pulled the rear wheel out and slotted the new one in!!!!

[Whitey]

Well done to Brad ! Plenty of bigger bikes finished below him.

I'll take a look at the Wakefield race tonight. Been enjoying the FX Pro Thunder class.

[steve2]

Well done to all involved.

Not my cup of tea so I havent been following at all but its good to see Brad come out of riding retirement and go so well.

[stretch]

2011 Formula Xtreme Champions.

Brad is 4th from the right

[stretch]

Been waiting for the photo since November. It was taken after the last round at Eastern Creek. Getting it enlarged and will be proudly displayed at home and Brads place!

[wobbler]

Nice one John

[steve2]

Good shot, cant understand what kicked off your current Triumph fascination.

[Matt]

Great stuff

[stretch]

Feb 11, 2012 19:20:01 GMT 10 steve2 said:

Good shot, cant understand what kicked off your current Triumph fascination.

Yeah on the money there Steve. After Brads 2 675s in the last 18 months, the reliability of them has been amazing.
The 07 model he bought as crashed road bike that he raced in 2010 then sold to a guy in Melbourne who uses it for track days and is still going as strong as ever. THat motor hasnt been touched besides valves, oil and filter changes. Being a race bike it is on the limiter just about all the time.
The 09 model when he bought it has only ever been a race bike and the motor had been rebuilt when Brad bought at the beginning of 2011. After doing the full season and apart from valves being adjusted twice and regular oil and filter changes it was on the Dyno in Dec 2011 just b4 he sold it and was still putting out 121 rear wheel HP.

YEAH IM IMPRESSED !!!

[Whitey]

Nice shots for Brad's memoirs.

[wobbler]

A year on the moto hasn't slowed him down on the MTB.