The SuperBike and SuperSport categories endured wet conditions during qualifying and Honda's riders faced an uphill battle from there all weekend.

World SuperSport star Adam Fergusson was aboard a CBR 600 F4i for the weekend but was faced with starting the races from the 9th row of the grid after coming down on another rider's oil during the early stages of qualifying.

"Adam's fall meant that we faced a struggle in the races", commented Mick Smith, Honda Australia's domestic road racing manager. "We had gone 12 seconds quicker during the earlier first practice session so we knew we had the speed."

Queensland's Ben Attard had never ridden a 600cc SuperSport bike at Phillip Island before but managed to qualify 2nd quickest in the wet conditions.

Unfortunately though Ben's team had no dry base point for the bike settings when the weather cleared for the races.

"We struggled with setup once the track dried out", said the one time Australian and Indonesian Motocross champion. "I didn't give up through the race though and managed to take 7th in race 1, but unfortunately I pushed beyond the limits of grip that our compromised set-up was providing in the 2nd race and fell while trying to take 3rd. This was only our 6th meeting on the SuperSport bike though so I think we did well considering the lack of set-up knowledge to work from with the bike."

Adam Fergusson was on fire from the 9th row of the grid to set the fastest lap in both races and work his way up to 4th and 6th but with only 8 laps in each race he ran out of time to challenge the leaders. If the 2001 World SuperSport regular had more laps he looked as though he could have easily have caught and passed the leading group.

Team Manager Mick Smith was encouraged with the speed 'Krusty' had showed on the new CBR 600 F4i. "After our hiccup in qualifying Adam did extremely well to work his way from the back of the grid to take 4th and 6th place finishes.

"Considering that, we came away from the weekend very happy even though we had hoped to do better. The most encouraging thing to come out of the races was that Adam proved the new F4i has the speed to beat anyone in the field after he set the fastest laps in both races. This stands us in very good stead for our assault on the 2002 Australian SuperSport Championship." concluded Smith.

23 year old privateer rider Rory Rock had qualified 4th before recording 9th and 5th place finishes in the SuperSport races.

SuperBike rider Alex Gobert once again proved his speed in the wet aboard the Redwing HRC Fireblade by qualifying 2nd in the damp conditions.

"Qualifying went okay and to be 2nd on the grid was good." commented the youngest of the three Gobert brothers.

But like Ben Attard had done in SuperSport, Alex suffered from a lack of dry set up information to work from when the track dried for the races.

"I got off to a slow start in race 1 but the lap times were good and I managed to work up to 5th by the end of the 8 laps.

"In race 2 I left the line much better and put everything in to staying with the leaders. I made a bit of a personal breakthrough this weekend by pushing harder in the first laps. I was looking at a 4th place finish but unfortunately Alistair Maxwell got slightly better drive on to the main straight and pipped me by 6 thousandths of a second so I finished 5th once again." Concluded Alex.

Ballina's Steven Fisher was also aboard a Fireblade last weekend to take away 8th and 10th place finishes in races which saw Shawn Giles take seemingly easy wins and show the speed that has earned him multiple Australian Championships.

"No dry time was our major stumbling block on the weekend and we changed things for race 2 to try and make the bike better but we actually went backwards a little. Nevertheless I tried to ride through our little problems and managed to get up to 8th. We had hoped for better finishes in the 2001 Australian season this year but I only just missed out on being the top privateer so now we have some experience behind us with the Fireblade, we are hoping to go one better next year." Said Fisher.

This was Alex Gobert's last race for Honda Australia as he moves to take up a ride with Honda USA for 2002. "Thanks to Honda Australia, Redwing HRC, all my mechanics and those people that have helped me during my two years with Honda Australia. I learnt a lot during my time with the team and Honda is now giving me the opportunity to further my experience overseas. I hope to do them proud in the US next year."