Published: Wednesday, 19th December, 2007 08:30
Bike racing siblings are stars of the track
By Faye Thomson
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Super Sammi Tasker has been in fantastic form on her mini moto.
AFTER another tough year of full-on race events, brother and sister Andrew and Sammi Tasker have again notched up good overall results – picking up numerous trophies throughout the season.
The youngsters from Clackmannan, aged 13 and 14, had to fit in their racing activities in 2007 around their studies at Lornshill Academy.
Not only did both compete in the eight round Scottish Mini Moto Championship consisting of 32 races per class, and racing on circuits all around Scotland – they also raced throughout the year with the Kirkcaldy and District Motorcycle Club (KDMC) at Knockhill and the Melville Motorcycle Club at East Fortune near Haddington.
At the end of the season Sammi finished in the top eight mini-moto racers in Scotland in her junior class. She raced a 39cc 4.2 horsepower engined Italian racing Polini GP3 bike, and in the higher powered production class, used her 8.5hp machine.
Sammi missed out on the overall third place trophy by only two points. Her reaction was, “If only I didn’t crash so much in the last meeting, but there’s always next year.”
Though not in the trophies at the end of the year, she is still the fastest female mini-moto racer in Scotland.
And now that more racers are getting involved in the sport, Sammi’s looking forward to taking on the lads.
On her full sized Italian Aprilia RS125 racing bike, Sammi finished 14th out of 28 riders, and is the only female to race within her class at Knockhill this season.
Sammi has a few stories to tell about her racing exploits in 2007. Her adventures included stalling her bike on the start line, crashing her bike into the pits, DNF’d (did not finish) two races due to mechanical glitches – one where her drive sprocket came shooting off – loss of brakes on more than one occasion and two engines ‘blowing up’ within the space of four weeks.
At least she is now on first name terms with the guys in the rescue trucks.
On a more positive side, at the end of year presentation dance held in Dean Park Hotel in Kirkcaldy, Sammi was presented with the Best Presented Rider and Bike of the Season Award which she received from her all-time favourite superbike and supersport champion Scotsman, Jim Moodie.
Sammi has also been chosen to join the all-female British race team, Feisty Racing, and has been invited to compete with the other team members at race tracks such as Donningon Park.
As far as Andrew is concerned, he favoured much better throughout the year, on both mini-moto and the big bike racing scene.
On the mini bikes, after a bitter battle throughout the year with not only Scottish, but also English riders, Andrew won the Scottish Championship for the Junior Class for the second time in three years (he was second last year).
This class was so close that it went down to the last race of the season where Andrew had to win to stand any chance, as he was trailing by seven points going into the last race – more than a tad exciting for all involved and ended up winning the championship by 15 points.
In the middleweight class, where Andrew was racing the newer Polini GP4 machine, he came in second and in the Open Class where all the best riders from all classes race on any type and spec of machine. Andrew ended up third overall – a great achievement considering he was up against the lightest and the best of the best on new open class GP4 55cc racers and Andrew was on a five-year-old GP2 machine.
All three trophies were presented to Andrew at the Forth Bridges Hotel in North Queensferry by World Supersport contender Craig Jones, who also started out racing mini-bikes and finished sixth in the world on his Honda CBR600RR machine.
Onto the big bikes, Andrew who has had to race against his little sister all year on his own Aprilia RS125 – and to be honest faired much better with very little in the way of major mechanical failures apart from wrecking two pistons and cylinders during practises early on in the season.
He finished second overall in the Knockhill Formula 125 series and again this was presented to him by Jim Moodie. This is a superb achievement considering this was his first full year’s racing in this class.
The 2008 racing season starts in March and both youngsters are very much looking forward to another exciting year’s activities with both again racing their Aprilia RS125s and now having their own spare bike.
Sammi and Andrew’s parents would like to take the kids south of the border to allow them to race on more tracks such as Croft, Cadwell and Donnington if possible, but they will have to wait and see what can be arranged due to clashing race dates.
As far as mini-bike racing goes Andrew is going to take a back seat and help dad prep Sammi’s mini-bikes (she’s happy now as she has just inherited Andrew’s GP4). He is also tutor his sister as much as possible throughout the season, as she is determined to get into the top three for next year and again be the top female racer in Scotland.
Team Tasker would like to thank all the people who have made it possible for the kids to do their racing through the years – Ann Brown at the Motor Company Alloa, wee Jim in Kincardine for the many fabrication repairs, Jim Allan Motorcycle in Falkirk, Roy for suit repairs, Shug of Fastrack Water Services, Strathaven Van and Truck sales, Clackmannanshire Community Chest, The Sign Shop Alloa, Alan Macintosh of Macintosh Motos, Wallace Mitchell Racing, Tony Cox and all the team’s friends and family for their continued help and support.
If anybody would like to get involved with motorcycle racing, or would like to help the kids out in any way with their next year’s events, please contact the website which Sammi and Andrew themselves are now in the process of building www.teamtasker.co.uk
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