IT was a tough round of the Australian Supersport Championships at Phillip Island for Furner racer Dallas Skeer.
Skeer struggled with bike setup all weekend in the penultimate round, with a ninth place overall finish, but still managed to move up one position in the season standings.
He has struggled to tame Phillip Island in recent years and the first blow came on Friday in practice, which was cut short due to rain, not allowing valuable track time.
“I have always struggled with Phillip Island,” Skeer said.
“I have grown up at Mac Park and when I was a junior rode the shorter tracks, which are not as fast.
“Phillip Island is quite a fast track.
“It is not the speed I am lacking, but I struggle with the long sweeping corners.
“You do not have anywhere else in Australia like it.
“We just have not had as much time there as we need.”
The time he did run showed the shortcomings of his setup, with the 600cc Suzuki running wide out of corners.
The final session saw the rain arrive and the end of the day for Skeer, just as he was becoming more comfortable on the bike.
Saturday’s qualifying runs saw little improvement in Skeer’s lap times as he again struggled to maintain a consistent pace.
He finished the first session in 11th place and things did not improve from there.
In the end he started in 12th, his worst qualifying of the season.
With plenty of work to do Skeer looked for the positives, with the inside line on the grid approaching turn one.
He used the five-minute warm up to try a couple of changes, but ultimately it was down to man and machine when the starter’s flag dropped.
It all began well in the opening race as he moved up to sixth place from the start, but again the handling of the Suzuki began to take its toll.
Skeer lost two places on the opening lap then was regularly passed as the bike continued to run wide on exits.
However, he maintained his composure, stayed on the bike and managed a ninth place at the chequered flag.
Further changes were made in the break before the final 10-lap race of the weekend.
That appeared to work early, with a good start and Skeer able to stick with the riders in front.
But as the race progressed the slower lap times began to show, as he fell back to 10th place.
The positive from race two was a personal best time of 1:38.943 and the move up to sixth place for the season.
“It was good to move to sixth in the championship,” Skeer said.
“The bloke I am usually racing with was on the podium and about a second-and-a-half in front of me.
“I know I have the pace to run with him and beat him at every other track.
“But when you have tough weekends it does not help if you have a DNF or a crash and I finished consistently inside the top 10.”
With just one round to go Skeer sits 20 points behind Oliver Bayliss and will finish the season well inside the top 10.
He puts that down to consistent performances across the season.
“We have finished every race except the first one,” Skeer said.
“Everyone I have moved past in the championship have had DNFs.
“We have not finished consistently as high as I would like, but in the end I have moved up.”
The final round is set to throw down its own set of challenges.
Skeer has never raced at Sydney Motorsport Park before, with just a couple of days of testing.
Bayliss would need to have another full DNF round for Skeer to move up to fifth place.
However, the young racer is keen to see what he can do on the only track throughout the season he has not raced at.
“Sydney is a lot like Tailem Bend,” Skeer said.
“It will be good to get there and see how I go.
“I do not know what to expect – every other track I know what times I can do, but Sydney I do not.
“There will not be pressure to perform better than last year, so we will just get there and get some results.
“It will be hard because there will be a lot of local riders there.
“The top three in the championship are locals, so hopefully we can get some good solid points.”
