Source: Supplied.

It’s difficult to understand the challenges that Anthony West faced in the lead-up to his miraculous World Supersport Championship (WorldSSP) podium at Phillip Island on Sunday, but as he does, the Queenslander put forward a relentless performance when the lights went out.

Storming from 22nd on the grid to third in the restarted 10-lap showdown, wildcard entry West made it onto the WorldSSP rostrum at home for the second year in a row, but this time it was even harder than one year ago and once again against the odds.

Engine problems hindered his progress throughout race week and, despite high expectations from onlookers going in, West was toward the tail-end of the field throughout much of the weekend. Signs of improvement came in the morning warm-up after borrowing a motor and doing an all-nighter to make the race, where he soldiered on for a fantastic third-place finish.

“I’m not coming here anymore dreaming that I’m going to get a factory bike because I’ve just blown everyone away on a bike with 10 horsepower less,” West told CycleOnline.com.au. “I know the realities of the world championship, the politics and the money that’s involved. It’s more about personal satisfaction to come here and, in a way, tell them to get f–ked [laughs]! It’s kind of like that, so it’s awesome to get my friends together and have my dad here. It was super-stressful and we had huge problems, mostly because of budget.

“I’m happy we pulled it off and beat all of these guys. I was being optimistic about doing these next two races, which I posted on social media, but in reality I just don’t have the money. As much as people put in, all of it goes into this race, plus a lot of money from X50. I probably spent around 15 grand for everything else, so you couldn’t do it any cheaper than that. These guys have worked for free, sometimes putting their own money in, and it’s still an expensive race.”

A podium at Phillip Island should have West in the frame to ride injured world champion Kenan Sofuoglu’s factory-supported Kawasaki Puccetti Racing machine at the upcoming Thailand round, however that’s unlikely according to the well-travelled 35-year-old, despite interest from the team.

“I spoke with the team boss and he’s shown some interest to ride Sofuoglu’s bike, but there was a decision between Sofuoglu and Kawasaki that they didn’t want anybody to ride it here,” said West. “I don’t know if Sofuoglu’s going to like me getting on his bike and winning on it… I’m confident we could fight for a win on it, because it’s a nice bike and I’d love to ride it, but I can’t see that happening. He can be a bit strange about things like that, so I’m sure he won’t like it and he brings a lot of money to the team and has a lot of say. Being world champion, you get even more say. I’m sure he doesn’t want anyone riding his bike, because it’s like taking someone’s girlfriend [laughs]!”

West said it was a real team effort and, much importantly, a result that came after receiving a great amount of support from friends and an ever-growing fan-base in Australia after almost two decades on the world stage. The result was just as much for those people, as it was for him, and he’s not getting too hopeful that this will put him back in the world championship full-time.

“It definitely feels good,” he added. “I’m not going to get too excited in terms of my career, because I’ve done this over and over and over again, so I know that there’s too much money involved and too many politics involved. Unless a massive sponsor comes out and gives me a whole lot of money to go racing, it’s going to be difficult. We’re kind of lucky with the track here, because you don’t need the best bike on this track.

“If we went to another track, the bike would be smoked and we’d be nowhere – because Phillip Island is fast and flowing, you can really push hard and carry corner-speed. We’re actually eight or 10 horsepower down. This is a borrowed engine, it’s tired and didn’t have the horsepower that we could have, even as an Australian-built bike. I had the guys working in the box until 2:00am, 5:00am every night and I didn’t give them the best conditions or equipment.

“We don’t have the money or budget to do it properly, but we did the best we could. I’m so happy with the GoFundMe page, people putting money in, buying shirts and caps, plus I even had to borrow money to start with from my dad. Hopefully, I think I can pay him back at the end of this. I’m going to end on zero by the end of this weekend, anyway. It’s just been a huge efforts with friends of mine for years and I’m really thankful for all the help from people within Australia. I’m surprised and it’s been awesome.”