Firebird Raceway in Phoenix Arizona, saw its lap record which stood for two and half years, fall to Australian charger Damian Cudlin on the weekend. Making his debut appearance in the US, Cudlin was entered under the Evan Steel Performance banner for the weekend and took the opportunity to test for the ESP Team, a highly respected squad in the AMA series. Piloting ESP supporter Dave Ciesielski’s 2004 GSXR750 on the Saturday, Cudlin got to grips with the tight and twisty Firebird circuit before making a late change to a 2006 GSXR1000 on Sunday morning. In what looked likely to be a difficult switch with just 5 laps of practice on the machine, Cudlin stunned onlookers as he blasted his way from the 7th row of the grid to win the opening SBK race. “That was a lot of fun to jump on the 1000 after riding the 750 on Saturday. Dave gave me the use of his baby to learn the track, which was really good of him, but when Chris Hernandez offered me his bike I couldn’t wait to ride a 1000 in anger around here.” Cudlin smiled. “I want to thank the pair of them for giving up their machines. I don’t think I’d lend my bike to some dodgy looking foreigner.” With some further changes made to the set up of the Suzuki for race 2, Cudlin looked in control as he stormed to the front before a red flag caused the race to be stopped. Re-griding for the 2nd start, Cudlin got another blistering jump off the line before running into brake problems on the 3rd lap. Forced to ease the pace Cudlin coasted to 2nd place as the crew got to work changing the brake system for the final feature race. With his worst start of the weekend, Cudlin entered the 1st turn mid pack before being forced to run into the dirt after heavy contact with another rider. Undeterred Cudlin put in a determined display and caught, then passed leader Kane Lasky on his ZX10R Kawasaki. Building a healthy lead Cudlin laid down his fastest times of the weekend, breaking the existing lap record with a 54.2 and going on to win the race in convincing style. “That was a great way to end a weekend which overall was pretty challenging. Evan, Phil and Dave all worked their butts off getting the changes done to the bike that I needed and I think we did a good job in the time that we had. I want to thank them for giving me the chance to show them what I can do.” said the young Aussie. “It was nice to break the lap record, but if I come back again it’ll be going lower than that.” Cudlin is now assessing his options for an attack on the AMA series in 2009 where it is believed he is most likely to ride despite a successful stint in Europe for the last 3 years. Watch this space…