ProGP Racing Junior Team on the podium with Archie McDonald in the ASBK

Second weekend of racing for the ProGP Racing Junior Team in partnership with JDS Moto in the ASBK Championship, with the third round of the season which saw the comback of the permanent rider Archie McDonald, after being forced to miss the races at Winton Motor Raceway due to an injury during a training session out of the bike.

The young australian made an incredible comeback, despite not being at 100% form, he was competitive during the whole weekend, every session he made an improvement and he was able to qualify second in the R3 Cup, while in the Supersport 300 qualifying session he didn’t find the perfect lap and that cost him a start in the first row and he had to start from the 9th place of the grid.

Anyway, Archie had great races, he finished second in all the R3 Cup races, showing a great pace dutring all the weekend, while in the Supersport 300 he was conditioned by the starting position, which forced him to recover in the first laps, to end with three 4th places, which resulted then in an overall podium on the 3rd place.

Considering the very small track time Archie and the ProGP Racing Junior Team had together – and McDonald’s form which clearly is not at 100% – the result of the weekend has to be considered very positive for the team, which is happy about the work made during the 3 days at Wakefield Park, looking forward to the next round for which we will have to wait a bit, as it will be held on 20/21/22 August at Morgan Park.

Omar Menghi – ProGP Racing Team Owner: “Finally, we were able to see our Archie back on the bike and this is the most important part of the weekend, no doubts. Then, I wouldn’t have expected a weekend like this, Archie was coming back from an injury and a long stop, he did an incredible job working with Jake and the team during these days to finish on the podium both in the Yamaha R3 Cup and Supersport 300, giving our team its first podium in the ASBK. It’s an historic moment for us and I’m happy about this project and how it is going. I think we have lot of potential still to show and now with more time to recover for Archie we want to show everything we have on the next round at Morgan Park. I want to make a big congratulation to Archie, Jake and the whole team and we are looking forward for the next one!”

Jake Skate – ProGP Racing Junior Team Manager: “It was an incredible weekend for us, Archie performed amazingly, we have to remember the images of him at the last round, still on crutches with a broken leg. To be here at Round 3 of the ASBK and finally getting to ride our bike was a great experience for us, giving ProGP our first podium’s in Australia. It was also the first time for the team to work as a complete unit with Archie, and it was obvious to me the professional way they all worked together, led to these results. I’m excited to see Archie improve after more healing and training and for us to all come back even stronger after the winter break!”

Archie McDonald – ProGP Racing Junior Team Rider: “I felt so thankful and welcomed to be back racing for ProGP Racing Junior Team in the ASBK Championship after having a tough time peroid while injured watching at Winton. I finally got my health and strength built in time for round three which was one of my most successful weekends racing and I couldn’t have done it without ProGP Racing and Omar Menghi’s help and magnificent bike they had together for the weekend. I had a couple of rough and challenging races on the weekend having to push the bike and myself to overtake as many riders because I didn’t get to set a good time in Q2, due to oil being on the track I had to start my three supersport 300 races from 9th on the grid , still getting 4th in each race which had me 3rd overall and the team and I were stoked considering!R3 cup was similar but qualifying was more fortunate as we set a great lap time in Q1 before not knowing about the oil on track in Q2, finishing 2nd in each three races doing everything I could to push for first but we were stoked again for the weekend that was held and all the races that were safely completed. Great to be back!!”