After much anticipation, the Rowe Racing Team finally had their first chance to visit South Australia’s newest race track, ‘The Bend’.

PIC: The facilities at new race track The Bend are second to none (Credit: Stephen Cooper)

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Located in regional town Tailem Bend, we had hoped to ride there sooner, but Royce’s recovery from a recent knee surgery is unfortunately taking longer than expected. After having a number of screws removed from one of his knees, general pain and restricted movement is still occurring, but definitely improving.

 

The team were very impressed with ‘The Bend’, finding it be an exciting, technical track. The facility as a whole is equal to anything we’ve seen around the world.

PIC: The Ducati loved the smooth new surface ’round The Bend (Credit: Stephen Cooper)

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Having this new track so close to home will make our testing and development much easier. Up until now, we’ve had to travel to Phillip Island to ride a fast world-class circuit, which is a 1000km drive each way. This is especially helpful for our Isle of Man testing, as the longer the straight is, the better!

 

The Triumph debuted its new colour scheme on the day – red and gold – to match the Ducati. The paint work was an excellent job as usual by Andrew at Custom Refinishers Australia, located at Inglewood in the Adelaide Hills, who is one of our great sponsors.

PIC: The Triumph in its new clothes (Credit: Stephen Cooper)

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All went well on the day, apart from a slight glitch with the fuel pump on the Triumph which we were able to fix fairly quickly. Regardless, the main aim for the day was just to let Royce see the new track and start to learn it. He managed a PB lap, which wasn’t too hard given he hadn’t been there before.

 

Once getting over the excitement when told how personal best laps work, he had this to say:

“You would think memorising just 18 corners compared to over 250 would be a walk in the park, but there is lots to learn at this technical track.

“Being brand new, there’s not a lot of visual cues around or on the track. From what I’ve experienced so far, I reckon this should be a great track for some fun overtaking manoeuvres.

“This was the first time getting on the bike since my latest surgery, so my knee was still a bit swollen and tight, so I had to take it easy.

“Both of the bikes ran great, so I’m really looking forward to getting back out there again soon!”

PIC: ‘Hmm, that thread looks a bit ruff!’ – Moddey, Workshop Assistant

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The team still have a lot of work to do on the Triumph and hope to continue testing on a regular basis over the coming months.