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    fx

    Dec 08 2015

    Australasian Superbike/FX Superbike Rd 7 Finale 2015

    FX Superbikes 2015 Finale

    Finishing the year at Sydney Motorsport Park is a huge highlight for the whole Australian SuperBike racing fraternity. With most of the category championships still up for grabs, and some very finely balanced with as little as one point separating riders, this final round is closely watched by team statisticians.

    It is an especially nervous time for family, too. In fact, I stood beside Brayden Elliots’ aunt while Brayden rode for his tilt at the Swann ASBK Supersport championship on Saturday in which he was tied after six laps with arch rival Callum Spriggs, and my ears are still ringing from the enthusiastic yelling and screaming.

    In a move away from the usual Saturday/Sunday race meetings, ASBK organisers elected to make it a Friday/Saturday schedule with racing starting later on each day in order to run the timetabling through into a “twilight” meet in an attempt to offer “after work” racing for spectators on Friday night. It’s a creative attempt by organisers to bring more spectators to the event and cater for our ever changing social habits.

    Friday saw the completion of the FX Extreme 2015 racing calendar. Whilst most were racing to end the season strongly Sugar Plum Racings’ Richard Draper was just pleased to be back in leathers following an absence since May due to shoulder surgery. Also in Pro Twin Craig Masters had spent the morning sorting out serious brake issues only to have to push the bike all the way back from turn 18 due to an oversight when someone forgot to fill the fuel tank. As he said”…with a thousand other things going on someone forgot to fill me up”.

    Race one of Pro Twin/Naked Bikes early on Friday was a terrible way for championship frontrunner Kris Keen to start his campaign to win his championship. Both his bike and Chris Perini’s both failed to start off the grid and had to be pushed aside. Ben O’Connor jumped the start earning him a 5 second penalty. Craig McMartin was having a stellar race until Beau Beaton, who’d been shadowing him closely, jumped him on the second last lap taking the lead. Not happy McMartin waited his chance and slipstreamed Beaton all the way from turn 18 crossing the line two thousandths/second ahead of Beaton. Visually there was no appreciable difference between the bikes at the finish line. They actually looked like they crossed the line in a dead heat. Race Two saw neither Beau Beaton or Craig McMartin start. This left the field wide open for series leaders Kris Keen and Adrian Pierpont to further stamp their ownership on the title race. Unfortunately Darren Jones had other ideas with an 8 second runaway win from Pierpont as he and Keen crossed like Siamese twins side by side with only five thousands/second separating them. It’s incredible that the timing equipment can record such miniscule time differences.

    Formula Oz, sometimes known as the “race what you brung” event, saw double duty for McMartin, Perini and Beaton. Beaton was pushed off the start grid with engine trouble and Perini failed to finish. McMartin however was mixing it up the front with category champion Paul Byrne, leading for most of the race until a last lap charge from Byrne took the lollies away from McMartin . Third place Ben Henry stayed comparatively close to the leaders and had left the main pack well behind. Race two was also a close affair as Beau Beaton got his troubled bike going again and put on a spectacular race with Paul Byrne that had the crowd running back and forth across the pit rooftop not wanting to miss any of the action. Once again Ben Henry had a nine second lead on the main pack but was unable to find the extra second he needed to get past Byrne to challenge Beaton. Side by side across the line and Beaton just edged out Byrne for the win.

    Fridays Superbikes set up a tension filled expectation that something awesome was about to unfold. The last race on the FX Xtreme calendar did not disappoint. As the lead group of Troy Herfoss, Wayne Maxwell , Glenn Allerton and Cru Halliday ripped up the track it was very obvious that the championship was going to be earned the hard way today. And so it came to pass that Herfoss finally got his championship when pushing so hard Maxwell took a tumble at turn nine leaving Herfoss the 2015 FX Xtreme champ. Unhurt but disappointed Maxwell could only look forward to Saturdays three-race ASBK program to avenge his loss.

    Saturday the Swann Australian Superbike program was unleashed and the day started with the eFXC electric bikes. Making a medium-high pitched whirring sound rather than a throaty roar it was quite strange to see these bikes hurtling down the main straight at 239 kph semi-quietly. The Voltron Evo piloted by Danny Pottage is clearly the faster bike and competently ridden giving him the 5 race wins during the weekend.

    The Ninja FX-300 battle deluxe was really about who was going to take the second and third place trophies. Paul Young has a significant point lead and his two race wins today solidified his championship position. Only 21 points separated the next four riders which included Tony Jones and Jack Dawes who split the best results for the minor placings with Jones recording a 1-4-4 race record and Dawes a 3-2-2 all podium day.

    Supersports was earmarked on the program as a definite “do not miss”! In particular all year there has been a fierce competitive chemistry between Callum Spriggs and Brayden Elliot. Coming into todays racing only nine points separated the pair. Add to the mix Michael Blair who wasn’t out of contention either only 24 points back of Elliot. So when Blair took race one with Elliot in second, Spriggs lead was dwindling. They were coming after him. Race two and Elliot reversed the win-second relationship with Blair and Spriggs was relegated to fourth. The tension on the pit lane balcony was palpable. As I mentioned previously Elliots’ aunt was a nervous wreck. So race three, the absolute final race of the year and Spriggs and Elliot are separated by only one point. A real cliffhanger. Eight laps from glory. They line up, the starter sends them on their way and Elliot gets the better start. Spriggs hasn’t started particularly well all day and ends up hitting the first turn in sixth. Troy Guenther decides to throw it all down and squeezes Elliot wide in turn two to take the lead. Elliot seems to settle in to a “stay close to Guenther” mindset all the while keeping a watch in his rears hoping like crazy that Spriggs gets caught in traffic. Calculating on the fly it appears that all Elliot needs is for there to be one rider between him and Spriggs come the chequered flag.

    By lap five Spriggs has jumped up two places sitting in fourth. Elliot turns on the power and is now trying everything he can to edge past Guenther. He does on two occasions through turn two only to be thwarted by Guenther holding him at bay both times. Its mid lap seven and Spriggs eventually gets past Blair into third spot and is hammering towards turn nine looking to try and put a final move on Elliot. Spriggs brakes super late into nine and finds himself so wide on the exit that he’s in the dirt. Lost opportunity and Elliot squirts away. Elliot now knows that he must get past Guenther if he is a chance to win the championship. Elliot jumps on the juice even before he’s out of turn eighteen trying to slipstream Guenther down the straight. He’s so so close… even riding the fastest lap of the race at 1:30.06 with a top speed of 256kph. He’s within two one thousands /second of Guenther across the line. First-Guenther…Second -Elliot…Third – Spriggs. BUT…its not over yet. The drama continues. Now both Elliot and Spriggs finish equal on 373 points. TIE!!! The rules say that a countback on quantity of podium finishes are the mechanism by which a stalemate is to be broken. With eleven podiums Spriggs is awarded the victory in this most enthralling series.

    The Superbikes came to battle with an already tied series. Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha) and Troy Herfoss (Honda) are locked at 316 points. Allerton (Yamaha) is not out of it either only 34 points adrift. Three races away from deciding the “king of the mountain” Australian SuperBike Championship. And race one was exhausting to watch. It was by far one of the best races of the series. Herfoss held pole. Crappy start and all of a sudden in the blink of an eye he’s in fifth place by turn two. Jamie Stauffer (Honda) grabs lead but with superior straight line speed Mike Jones (Kawasaki) takes it away from Stauffer. Stauffer puts on an underarm move on Jones at turn two but runs his line wide and Jones takes it back with a “thank you very much” move. Stauffer using his craftiness takes and holds the lead while Herfoss took no prisoners moving back up to third and attacking Jones. Running wide on the last lap Herfoss’ chances went out the window and Stauffer held on for a magnificent win. Maxwell finished fourth. Advantage Herfoss! Race two and Mike Jones just went nuts. Herfoss hung on and Maxwell too. They both knew that there could be no other rider between them if they were going to keep the points differential to a minimum. Maybe there is something in the saying…” keep your friends close but your enemies closer”. Race two finished Jones to Herfoss to Maxwell. Just out of the podiums Glenn Allerton was only five onethousands/second away. Race three and for the first time all day Herfoss saw what the back of Maxwells bike looked like. Jones once again took off like a scalded cat and Stauffer, who didn’t feature in race two, suddenly unleashed the beast he had brought to race one. He and Jones ended up only one- onethousandths/second apart at the line and Maxwell so close they could have all been triplets. Herfoss was within two seconds of the lead group but one suspects that he already knew what the outcome of this race meant for him. If the fact that he came in the back gate standing on his pegs with arms outstretched to the heavens and one finger on each hand pointing skyward said anything then we all knew that we were looking at the new 2015 ASBK Superbike Champion.

    Words and pics by Rob Annesley

    www.shotbyrob.com.au

     

    Written by Samantha Stevens · Categorized: ARDC News, Major Events, News Archive, Race Meetings, SMSP News · Tagged: ASB, Australasian, bikes, championship, finale, fx, motorbike, motorcycle, superbike

    Jun 26 2015

    LIVE STREAM: Australasian Superbike Championship

    Australasian Superbike Championship

    Check out our live stream coverage of round 3 of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend.

    The live coverage includes Sunday’s racing, which commences at 9:40am, plus a one hour Friday evening live panel show  and an exciting announcement on the series’ future from 6:00pm to 7:00pm.

    Written by Samantha Stevens · Categorized: News Archive, Race Meetings, SMSP News · Tagged: Australasian Superbike, bike, fx, live, stream, superbike

    Dec 02 2014

    Australasian/FX Superbike Championship

    Australasian/FX Superbike Championship

    The exciting series final of the 2014 SWANN Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship Series ( ASC ) and the YMF Loan Australian FX-Superbike Championship series ( AFX-SBK ) was held in sweltering conditions on November 22 – 23 at Sydney Motorsport Park.

    Terry O’Neill, event director, stated that “..this year’s Championship series has been huge with some of the most exciting racing ever seen in this country. Every Championship category is up for grabs this weekend, and it will be hard fought, that’s for sure. We’ll see very close racing this weekend.”

    Both the weather and the racing was fierce and hot. Ambient air temperatures on Friday qualifying and Sunday racing hit the 40 degree mark, and racers had to contend with track temps nudging 70 degrees. It was a true test of man and machine in these extreme conditions. Many teams had blow up kiddies pools in and around their garages, in order to keep their racers cool between races. Others used the showers for a cool respite.

    Qld based Mark Carlsson, team boss for Jordan Carlsson Racing commented “…on Friday the track temp was 69.4 degrees. We had to deal with trying to set the bikes telemetry to allow for this. At these temperatures the bikes handling feels like riding on marshmallows. We’ve got plenty of straight line power, but the handling into corners is where you pick up places or lose them.”

    In the Ninja 300 class, Brandon Demmery and Kyle Buckley have been the hottest riders all year. Coming into this weekend, Buckley only had a two point lead on Demmery. The round and overall championship was eventually won by Demmery who was just too strong for Buckley and showed incredible consistency with a race win and two second places to win the Championship and a brand new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R.

    Sophie Lovett won the womens class in the FX 300 Ninja Cup with a clean sweep of the series and won the Championship by 58 points. She was so strong all year that she came fourth outright in the Championship.

    In the Pro Twin/Naked class KTM’s two-wheeled testosterone machine, the 1290 Super Duke R, now has an Australian Road Race Championship title under its belt.%u2028In the hands of master blaster Angus Reekie, the Super Duke R came from behind to claim the Australasian Superbike Championships Naked Bike category, while Reekie was also awarded the winner’s trophy for Pro Twins combined classification.%u2028

    For Reekie, who crashed out during practice for the penultimate round in September, it was a resumption of regular service as he and his V-twin streetfighter performed yet another clean sweep of three wins for the weekend – in the process achieving the very enviable record of having won every naked bike race he has started in 2014.%u2028

    The title is the ninth national championship for Reekie, whose cabinet already holds six Australian Supermoto, one Supermono, and one FX Pro Thunder trophies. Adrian Pierpoint and Darren Wilbow claimed second and third respectively.

    Congratulations to Richard Draper’s Sugar Plum Racing team. This small but close knit privateer team from western NSW contested the Naked Bike F2 class and this year also had an entry in the Ninja 300 class.

    Raschelle Sherwood’s first year in competition and she finished with third place in the womens category in the Kawasaki Ninja 300’s. Richard fought mechanical issues all year ranging from brakes to fuel to overheating but his gritty tenacity and with Lisa and Linda pit crewing for him they overcame these obstacles and Richard honoured their incredible commitment with trophies in both series over the weekend as well as the taking out the Naked Bike F2 class championship.

    FX Pro Twins was a hotly contested class. In all three races, it appeared to be the Craig McMartin and Kevin Curtain show. McMartin shot off the line in both race one and two, but Curtain reeled him in on both occasions, partly due to some fuel issues suffered in race one by McMartin and in the second race the veteran Curtain relentlessly took back seconds on each lap to eventully overhaul McMartin closing out the first two races by over 8 seconds in front of McMartin on both occasions. Race three again McMartin shot of the line and grabbed the early lead, this time he feverishly held on like a man possessed and refused to relinquish the lead eventually holding Curtain at bay to take the race win by only five-tenths. The championship series was won by Simon Galloway, who had already wrapped up the series after Round Five at Wakefield.

    Maxima Yamaha rider Aaron Morris claimed the coveted Supersport championship by the narrowest of margins. Morris went into the final race of the day in Sydney holding a three-point lead over closest rival Aiden Wagner (Yamaha), with a brand new R1 up for grabs to the championship winner. In the final race, Wagner claimed victory making it three race wins from three on the day, however Morris’ second place had the championship tied on points overall. Third overall for the round was Callum Spriggs (Yamaha). On a countback, Morris took the outright championship honours with his season tally of 11 race wins compared to Wagner’s seven, enough to clinch the title.

    New champion Matthew Harding swept the Formula Oz ranks in a Kawasaki trifecta, winning all three races to take the overall from Brayden Carr and Phil Lovett. There was only a 3-point gap in the championship between Harding and Lovett leading into the final round and Hardings clean sweep saw him finishing with a well deserved 20–point lead. British Superbike regular David Johnson also made his way on track riding a ZX-10R, finishing sixth overall.

    Four riders competed in the e-FXC category. The title races in the eFXC class was a battle between two; Danny Pottage (O’Hanlon Electric Motorsports) and Daniel Ripperton ( Ripperton Racing) . Pottage finished more than ten seconds ahead of Ripperton in both races. So dominant was Pottage that he also posted a new lap record for the category of 1:46.568. He clinched the championship victory with a race to spare.

    Team Honda Racing pilot Wayne Maxwell has comfortably taken out the 2014 YMF Loan Yamaha Australian FX Superbike Championship at Eastern Creek. Maxwell wrapped up the title after two of the scheduled three races for the day – his sixth and fourth place finishes enough to secure the title heading into the final race. Teammate Troy Herfoss would have been disappointed with his day on the track, and despite some issues throughout the day (he claimed fifth, 10th and fourth from his three races) managed to finish the championship in second. An inspired day of racing from Mike Jones (Crazy Dog Kawasaki) handed him third place in the overall championship. Robert Bugden (YRT) and Glenn Scott (Insure My Ride) rounded out the top-five in the overall standings.

    Words and pictures by Rob Annesley
    look@shotbyrob.com.au

    Written by Samantha Stevens · Categorized: ARDC News, Blog, Major Events, News Archive, SMSP News · Tagged: bike, championship, event, fx, superbike

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