Hideout Racing

Aaron Easter

Aaron - Team Activ8 Aaron chose to visit the Croft circuit, nr Darlington for his first National meeting on board the Activ8/Stealth Racing Honda RS125. With this being only his 3rd race meeting in the 125 class, and him having never seen the tricky Croft circuit before, this was always going to be a real test of Aaron's ability and strength of mind, racing against a handful of BSB 125GP riders, and the best 125GP Club racers in the UK. He performed superbly all weekend, setting some impressive times in Free Practice on the Friday, while the conditions were very poor, with strong winds and driving rain all day (more of what we're used to then !!). Qualifying on Saturday went better than expected, with Aaron putting the Activ8/Stealth Racing Honda on the 2nd row in 7th place.

All was looking good for the race, but a poor start in Race 1, and carburetion problems with the bike meant he only managed 16th after a shortened 5 lap race. Race 2 started superbly with Aaron well up with the leading bunch on lap 1, only for the race to be stopped after another rider crashed heavily. At the restart, the bike developed a slipping clutch, but Aaron battled on for a gritty 12th place finish, still beating his time from Race 1.

Aaron - Team Activ8 We can take many positives away from this meeting, and are sure that, with a bit more experience in this tough class, and lots more track time, Aaron will soon be running at the front at every meeting. We are still being hampered however, by a lack of understanding of Junior Road Racers' needs to practice, as at present, Aaron is not allowed to attend any practice or test days, unless organised specifically for Juniors, until the age of 16 - hopefully the pressure being applied by Teams such as ours will soon see a change in the Rules, but until then, Aaron will just have to make do with the little track time we get at Race Meetings.

Next meeting is Monday 2nd May at Mallory Park with New Era Superclub, then back to Snetterton on 14th/15th May with New Era Clubman's Challenge.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who have helped make this season a dream come true for Aaron, your support means more than you'll ever know, and we hope you'll continue to support Aaron in his quest for glory.

Andy Easter,

Activ8/Stealth Racing

Dave Heal No.99,
came 1st in Privateer Superbikes.

The season kicked off with great excitement about the arrival of my new steed for the coming Superbike Championship, Honda's new Vtwin SP1 1000. Unfortunately the bike turned up late, so no pre-season testing! Brands Hatch was the first race and finishing 5th in race one showed we had some catching up to do. In race 2, I rode the wheels off the SP1 (which was some 10mph down on top speed) to finish in 3rd and nice to be on the rostrum. Many promises of new parts to improve the SP1 were made for round 2 at Donnington, one of which was to improve the ground clearance on the exhaust system and foot position.

In race 1, I was comfortably in the lead coming into the last corner when the exhaust touched down and I crashed out with the flag in sight! Not happy! Bike repaired, I finished 4th in race 2. Thruxton was the venue for round 3 and we were getting concerned about the lack of speed from the bike and general lack of development. This proves to be the case as I finish 4th in both races while John Crockford is gaining a huge lead in the Championship, notching up his 5th win. A decision is made within my Myco Motorsport Team to part company with the Honda and Revolution UK/Moriwaki with whom we were running the SP1. We decide to switch to Kawasaki on that tried and tested ZX7R 750.

This proves to be the right decision and first time out at Oulton Park I claim my 1st victory, in race two I'm comfortably in the lead when an electrical fault rules me out of certain victory. The whole team is much happier as we know victory is within our grasp. Since the move to Kawasaki, I've had a steep learning curve.
Changing bikes mid-season is not the norm, pushing hard in testing I've praised the quality of my 'Hideout' leathers on several occasions as they've prevented injury as I've pushed too hard and scrapped up the tarmac. Thanks to 'Hideout' for the best in protection my confidence and body are unscathed and I'm now on a roll having won the last 4 races in a row at Silverstone and Oulton. I'm now 2nd in the Championship just 20 points behind. (Not for long!)