and inflict a great deal of damage on their bike
and, of course, themselves. So getting any extra
seat time is a real benefit. Add in the island’s
drastic changing weather as well as the pressure
of riding at the biggest meeting of the year in
Australasia... and you can see that a rider needs
to do whatever they can in preparation.
Race 1 Friday evening
Chandler settled into the first race with seven or
eight riders, with him running 10th to 15th. He led his
group on the last lap, which he later explained wasn’t
what he wanted to do. “I didn’t want to be in the
front on the run to the finish line” he told Kiwi Rider.
Chandler even tried leaving a decent gap at
turn 10 but only one rider took the bait. The
rest all slipped in behind and, as Chandler had
predicted, motored on past, out of the leaders’
of the groups slipstream to the finish line.
His 11th place finish was at least an improvement
over his 12th in qualifying. There were 5 riders in
his group within a quarter of a second at the line.
Race 2 Saturday evening
Chandler had a huge moment going into turn
two on the first lap, which pushed him onto the
grass on the inside of the turn. A miraculous
recovery, as the bike flicked sideways, saw the keen
Kiwi regain the track in around 25th position.
He was up to 15th by the end of that first lap. In
an attempt to break away, Chandler led a group of
12 bikes up in 10th position over a couple of laps.
That slipstream thwarted his efforts and it
was a constant battle as his fellow competitors
dived inside and out after drafting each
Photo: Mark Kennedy
Kiwi Rogan Chandler #115
74 KIWI RIDER
other from one corner to the next.
Chandler tried to use the slipstream on
the drag to the line but a couple of riders
managed to relegate him to 12th at the finish.
A good effort after his ‘interesting’ start and
something to build on for the future.
Race 3 Sunday morning
With the race restarted after a crash off the line,
the weather had competitors guessing. Some chose
wets, some chose dry tyres, including Chandler.
Chandler had his best start of the weekend,
moving from 12th on the grid he worked up to 6th
on the first lap. The lead group, except for Oliver
Bayliss (son of legend Troy), was on wet tyres.
Chandler was down to 7th at the end of the second
lap but was still the same 1.8 seconds behind the
leaders he had been half way around that first lap.
Then the heavens opened and the first to go
down was young Bayliss. The 13-year-old lucky
not to get collected as he sat up in the sand
trap as two other riders bikes, one Chandler’s,
fell at high speed, firing into the gravel trap
outside turn one, narrowly missing him.
Seth Crump, who’s Dad Jason is a multiple
world Speedway Champion, led the next lap
which was enough to win him the race, as the
red flag was shown before they crossed the
finish line on the next lap. This meant the
result was taken back to the previous lap.
Chandler sustained an injury to his hand but
showed he had the required pace over the
weekend. With 37 riders in a class and so much
talent and testosterone floating about, all he
needed was perhaps just a touch more luck.