Reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Andrew Badcock will step out of the riders seat at the conclusion of the 2011 Castrol EDGE Winternationals, and when he does so he hopes to be celebrating back-to-back ANDRA Pro Series Championship wins.
The Castrol EDGE Winternationals is an entertainment extravaganza held annually at Willowbank Raceway across the Queen’s Birthday weekend (June 10-13 in 2011) and is the season-finale for the ANDRA Pro Series – the elite professional level of drag racing in Australia.
Badcock is currently hunting his second consecutive ANDRA Pro Series Pro Bike Championship title, after last year’s Castrol EDGE Winternationals saw him secure his maiden championship despite the pending birth of his first child and engine issues which almost saw him fail to qualify for the event – a result which would have seen him lose his grasp on the title.
“My wife Liisa was due to give birth to our first child Jayden two weeks after the 2010 Winternationals, but we were all worried he was going to come early,” said Badcock, rider of the Dutch Master/Harvest Time Hydroponics/Suzuki Springwood Pro Bike.
“Luckily he instead went the opposite way and came two weeks late, and I was able to travel up from Tassie to compete at what was one of the biggest events of my career to try and secure the championship.
“Unfortunately it was the event from hell, with some silly mistakes and a hurt engine seeing Trevor Birrell (bike owner) and I struggling to qualify, which would have been a disaster, but luckily we were able to pull it together and qualify on the bump spot.
“While we didn’t make it through past the first round, it was enough to achieve the goal I had set out ten years ago while a 21 year old member of a Tassie bike club – to win a Pro Stock Motorcycle championship and get my name in the ANDRA rule book.”
Since that win, the Badcock family has relocated to Liisa’s home-state of Queensland, settling in Daisy Hill, with baby Jayden set to be on the sidelines cheering on his dad when it comes to this year’s Castrol EDGE Winternationals which will be his last Pro Stock Bike event for the foreseeable future.
“I lived in Queensland for about eight and a half years, the weather is so great up here and it is Liisa’s home, so it is nice to be back near her family with the little guy,” said Badcock.
“We have relocated our business Pro Cycle Dyno Industries from Tassie to Slacks Creek and it is coming along very nicely, with a brand new dyno and engine assembly room in place and a few local drag racers already using our services for their bikes.
“With the business and the relocation, and Trevor having raced in this category since it started way back when, the time is right to step out of it for a bit and a new guy on the scene – Scott White of Darwin – will be taking ownership of the team for the 2010/2011 season.
“Hopefully in a few years I will come back into it, but we will see – I remember when I returned after two years away a few years back it took a few events before I got the nerves down, you never understand how quick those bikes are until you get on them and with the constant development there is always catching up to do when you have been out of the game!
“What would be really nice, and what I think we can do, is to secure back to back championships – we are right up there in the title fight at the moment and now that we have the bugs ironed out, hopefully we can repeat the winning streak we had last season and secure the title.
“The start of the championship chase has been difficult as we have been testing a new engine combination, but now we have the ‘old faithful’ engine back in the bike – which we won with last season – and the recent Top Fuel Championships event at Willowbank showed that we have the consistency.
“If we can keep running like that, I think we will be pretty unbeatable, and that is a good feeling to have!”
Badcock is currently second in the ANDRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championships standings, seven points adrift of Maurice Allen and six points ahead of third-placed Lachlan Ireland with one round of racing to be run before the category heads to the season-ending Castrol EDGE Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway on June 10-13.
Badcock will be joined on track by racers from all six of the ANDRA Pro Series (Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, Top Doorslammer, Top Bike, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle) and the Rocket All Stars Racing Series sportsman categories, with in excess of 500 racers set to hit the Willowbank Raceway quarter-mile across Friday June 10 to Monday June 13.
