THE Master of Mac Park was decided by a dominant margin on the weekend, with Arthur Sissis claiming the title after a strong performance all weekend.
In the feature race of the weekend on Sunday afternoon, Sissis continued his dominance.
He skipped out to an early lead and never looked troubled.
By the time the front runners reached the Laurie Fox straight for the first time, Sissis had already gapped the chasing group, which included eventual podium finishers William Strugnell and Dallas Skeer.
Skeer was up against it on his 600cc Suzuki, while Strugnell had to use a spare bike over the weekend, when his BMW superbike had mechanical issues.
Mechanical gremlins also plagued expected front-runner Ted Collins, whose BMW superbike did not make the grid.
After the first lap it was apparent Sissis would not be caught, as he pushed hard to improve his lap record, which he broke on the Saturday.
Sissis held that record after taking it from Strugnell in a recent meeting and managed to break it again, but not in Sunday’s feature race.
Despite new tyres, the conditions did not allow for a faster lap, but that did not detract from his performance, as he pushed on to cross the finish line by a large margin.
Meanwhile, Strugnell and Skeer remained close throughout, although the former began to open a healthy margin as the race wound down to claim second place.
Skeer had opened up a clear gap from the next challengers, so it was simply a matter of remaining upright and pushing to the finish for his third place on the podium – an impressive effort considering the cubic centimetres the young Furner racer lacked compared to Sissis and Strugnell.
The big crowd was certainly entertained throughout the race, despite the expanding margins at the front, with the majority of competitors lifting the front wheel as they powered past the start finish line each lap.
Despite his dominant performance all weekend, Sissis said he was disappointed he could not cut more time off the lap record.
“I had been going alright all weekend, but I would have liked to have gone a bit faster in that last race,” he said.
“I had the track record before and I wanted to beat it by a lot, but I did not.
“I was expecting to go quite a bit faster.”
However, the weekend was certainly an impressive effort from the Adelaide racer, in his first attempt at the Master of Mac Park event.
“I have been to Mac Park a few times, but I have never done the Master of Mac Park before,” he said.
“I used to come to Levi’s training days, because I could just do laps.
“It was good practice.
“I have not actually done many race meetings here, but I have done a lot of laps around here.”
Once out in front it would have been easy to relax, but Sissis was focused on the lap record, along with staying upright.
“I was fast for most of the races this weekend, so I knew I just had to ride my own race,” he said.
“I knew I was fast enough to win, but you lose a bit of concentration out in front.
“There is $1000 up for grabs and I did not want to crash.”
For Skeer it was a pleasing weekend, which saw him not only claim third place in the Master of Mac Park, but also dominate in what was the fourth round of the South Australian supersport series, which he now leads.
“We led every 600 race from start to finish, but did not quite get down to the times we wanted,” he said.
“We were still down to the fast times we needed, but it would have been good to get closer to the lap record.”
However, to now lead the SA titles was important for Skeer, after missing the first round.
“To be able to have the lead in the championship is pretty good,” he said.
“We had a clean sweep here this weekend and Round 2 here as well.
“In Tailem Bend we had two seconds and a sixth in the wet.”
With that performance Skeer’s season is set up.
It is his first season on the 600cc bike, with the main focus the Australian Supersport titles.
But competing in the SA series simply adds more time in the seat, resulting in more experience and faster times.
“I feel confident on the bike, so it is just finding that extra half a second now, which is hard to do,” he said.
“We will keep chipping away and hopefully Tailem Bend will be good.”
But the weekend was all about the Master of Mac Park, a race that attracts plenty of attention from riders outside the region.
To perform well at the track as a “local” is obviously important to any rider, especially against bigger machinery.
“The track is one of the best in Australia, but also one of the most challenging,” Skeer said.
“To finish third in the Master is pretty good against the 1000s.
“It was hard to beat the superbikes.
“Lucky here it is a shorter track so they do not get away heaps, but they still got away a bit.
“It is hard to bring them back when they have already got a gap on you, but it went pretty good overall.”
