Webmaster posted on April 28, 2010 23:48
All eyes and talk in the pits was on Paul Smith after leaving his factory race team to start his own new team with Barry Francis Honda it would be fair to say that there was a lot of speculation on how he would go on the TRX700XX.
Team mechanic Pete Wilhelms had his work cut out for him as he had just over a week to turn the mild mannered trail bike into a full on whoop eating desert racing machine. But that’s what Pete dose best and with aftermarket parts tuning up from our long time loyal sponsors just in the nick of time he was able to produce a race quad ready to take on the toughest quad race down under.
Thumb Pump is started by Le Mans start meaning the riders have to run 50M to their bike plug in their lanyards before starting the engine. Smith has never been known for his speed on two feet and was only able to get away in about 6th in his class, but it didn’t take too long for the field to settle down. The field had to do 8 laps of the 27km loop on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.
Luckily for Smith Pete had installed a long range 18L IMS tank with a dry break filler from Cernics, meaning that Smiths 700XX was the only quad able to go halfway without having to refuel and when he did it was only about a 3sec stop to fill the big girl.
By the halfway mark on the 1st day the track had turned into 27km of quad eating whoops and the whole field was doing it tough. Although the Fox Shocks from Hardiman ATV were loving it people were actually going down the track to the long whooped out straight just to see the 700XX mowing the rough stuff down.
At day’s end Smith had moved into 4th position outright and 3rd in class.
With 4 laps to run Sunday there were some stiff body’s climbing out of swags to go for breakfast. Racing could not start until after midday due to Anzac Day and after a minute silence it was a Le Mans start again. On Lap 2 Smith caught 3rd place Aaron Ovens and that’s where he ended up at the conclusion of the race.
A weary Smith said after the race “This is a good result for us I think, it’s our first time out and with no seat time on the 700XX before the event we have learnt a lot from this.
I’m amazed by just how well the big girl handles the fast open rough sections, the Fox Shocks done it easy.
The motor is stock for now, all we added was Vortex’s all new 700XX ECU and that really livened it up. I struggled in the tight stuff but that’s to be expected of such a big heavy bike I can’t wait to get it up to the Desert.
I just need to thank the Howard Family for coming over from WA and being so awesome and helpful to us again”
Barry Francis Motorcycles-Honda Australia-Ficeda Accessories-AXO-Shark Helmets-Hardiman ATV-Fox Shox-Vortex Ignitions-47 Industries-Cernic’s Racing-Kenda Tyres-Bel Ray Oils-CRC-OMF