What's New at Phase One

4 Hours of Liege at Mettet

 First win of the year for Sweatshop Phase One

Stephane Mertens and Brett Richmond scored a magnificent first win of 2012 at the new "short" Mettet circuit in Belgium, over the weekend of 26th/27th of May.

In 2nd place, making it an all British affair, were Steve Boam and Steve Clark on their Harris Suzuki, 3 laps in arrears, leading home Roger and Laurent Ruiz, on another Suzuki in 3rd. 

The 2 leg x 2 hours race was held in marvellous conditions with bright sunlight, air temperature at 29C and the track at 50 C. The team qualified on pole, on their Continental tyres, with a time of 1.16.38 (Mertens/Richmond average), from a field of 21. The main competition was from the Moto Guzzi of the Lambrechts father/son combination, with a time of 1.18.04.


Sweatshop Phase One started leg 1 with Brett Richmond and finished with Stephane Mertens, each rider completing approx. one hour.
The race was trouble free until 20 minutes from the end when Mertens made an unplanned stop suffering from a blown exhaust header gasket. The team elected to push on and secure a win and fastest lap (Richmond 1.15.7).

Leg 2, held on the Sunday went by the textbook, with two 55 minute stints and a 10 Minute Mertens short end stint to take the flag and again fastest lap (Mertens 1.14.7).

In summary, the season has started well, with fastest lap in Cartagena and sixth place, followed by this excellent Mettet performance. What a great event! The winters hard work seems to have paid off. We were absolutely honoured to be riding against the likes of endurance stars like Ruiz and Hubin. A great weekend. Thanks to all our supporter, sponsors and of course Brett and Stephane for doing such a great job.
Full results at http://www.ris-timing.be/v2/rac-trophy-26-27-mai-2012/

Spa is next and we are ready. Hugh Brasher and Peter Linden will be back to fly the flag for Sweatshop Phase One. See you there we hope. Classic Spa 4 hours is over the weekend of 29th June.

Photographs by Jacco Dijkhuizen



Plus some more pictures, taken by Pascal Kinds