IT was a baptism of fire for Furner motorcycle racer Dallas Skeer when he competed in Round 1 of the Australian Supersport series on the weekend.
It was Skeer’s first meeting on his new 600cc Suzuki, after stepping up from a Moto3 250cc machine last year.
Held at the Phillip Island circuit, which is renowned for its fast sweeping corners, the round was made even more difficult for the rookie due to wet weather.
Add to the list the fact the Supersport class was a support category to the World Superbike championship and it was certainly a matter of jumping in the deep end.
Skeer turned 16 years old just weeks ago – the minimum age to ride in the category – but handled the situation well, with 11th place in the championship after the weekend was done and dusted.
While he had become familiar with the new bike through coaching days with Levi Day, it was his first time rubbing shoulders at 260kph down the long Phillip Island straight and through the corners on such a big machine.
Overall he said he was pleased with the result.
“It was my first time on the 600, so 11th place in Australia is not too bad and top 10 in one race is pretty good,” Skeer said.
“I finished a little bit higher than we expected and being two points off 10th for the weekend gave me more confidence I can do better.
“The whole team is pretty happy with that.”
The learning curve was enormous, with bike set up a tough task in the changeable conditions.
“I have never ridden the bike in the wet and I was not sure how I would go,” Skeer said.
“It went a lot better than I thought and I was able to top-10 in practice and start from 13th on the grid after qualifying, which was wet.
“We did not quite have the right set up, but all weekend was learning the bike and trying to get a good set up overall, not just in the wet.”
From there things became serious, with Skeer having to contest with more experienced and aggressive riders in race conditions.
“I had never ridden with so many competitors before and the first lap of the first race I did not know what to expect,” he said.
“I was really surprised how aggressive you have to be.
“They are really aggressive to you and you have to be more aggressive back to show you are not afraid to push and rub.
“There were a few times where I got sandwiched off the line between two bikes and one time at turn one I felt a front wheel hit my left foot, which pulled my foot off the peg.
“I have never experienced that, but it did not really bother me, it just meant I had to get a little bit more aggressive.”
With that in mind, Skeer continued to push hard, often picking up places off the line, but losing some into turn one.
However, he always managed to pick up a few positions during the race.
He said he felt he was becoming more comfortable with the bike as the weekend unfolded, despite having some handling issues, which included coming out of the fast turn 12 onto the main straight.
“Trying to get onto the main straight you have to come around turn 12 fast,” he said.
“I had a few front end problems, which was not limiting my speed, but making the bike unstable coming into the corners.
“Coming out I was getting a lot of ‘tank slappers’, with the front wheel lifting and getting light.”
With all that came with the new bike, the new class and faster, more aggressive riders, Skeer still managed to finish with a 10th place, an 11th and a 13th over the course of the weekend.
As the round progressed he continued to lower his personal best time to 1.41.176, showing he was coming to terms with the new bike and enjoying the competition.
“The experience is completely different,” he said.
“The way you ride the bike is completely different.
“In the Moto3 class there was never as many people into turn one at once and with the bigger bikes, you have to really muscle them around.
“I feel really comfortable on the bike, so now its a matter of cutting two or three seconds off the times, which starts to become harder.”
And Skeer’s effort did not go unnoticed at the top, with Suzuki itself looking to come on board to help out for the season at some level.
Skeer heads to Wakefield Park on March 6-7 for testing, before returning on March 16-19 for the next round.
