Honda's report from the final round of the Australian Road Racing Championship
| The final round of the
Australian SuperBike Championship started on a sour note for Redwing HRC
after Alex Gobert suffered a big fall during Saturday's first qualifying
session. "I was on a pretty good lap when the bike spun up over the
crest which launched me in to the air, when I landed back on the bike it
bucked me off again which sent me over the handlebars. The doctors think
the hip has popped out and back in and the resulting muscle injury
made me miss the weekend's races."
Shawn Giles took two wins and a 2nd to top the final round and once again
confirmed his position as Australia's #1 SuperBike rider. Craig Coxhell
and Jamie Stauffer were 2nd and 3rd respectively in the final championship
standings. The top placed Honda finisher in the 2001 Championship was Alex
Gobert, even though the 18 year old did not race in either the first round
or this last round he collected enough points on the way to clinch 7th in
the championship. Top placed privateer in the series was Jay Normoyle who
just edged out Steven Fisher for the honour. Come race day unfortunately the Ballina local crashed out in the first leg but recorded a 10th and 7th in the final 2 races. "In the first race I was battling with Jay Normoyle to try and gain a points advantage which would see me finish in front of him for the honour of being 1st privateer in the championship. Unfortunately I lost the front on the last lap but Jay also fell so I was still in with a chance to make up the points deficit in race 2 and 3. But that was not to be as I just didn't feel comfortable in race 2 and only managed a 10th place finish. Race 3 was a little better and I was 6th for most of the race but my battery failed in the closing stages which made the bike lose a little power and I had to settle for a 7th place finish which did not give me enough points to overhaul Jay but was still good enough to ensure my spot as 2nd privateer overall in the 2001 season." Queensland's Ben Attard was having his first Australian SuperSport Championship outing and impressed all after qualifying 2nd quickest in this close fought Championship which pits production 600cc machines against each other. "I put my quick time down in the morning session but I tore the tyres up a little after doing 20 laps so couldn't go quicker in the 2nd session on the same set of tyres. I did a string of low 14s and high 13s so I am pretty confident we can run that pace all day tomorrow after we fit some fresh Pirellis to the bike, I hope for a consistent run tomorrow and some podium finishes." And the 20 year old did just that by
scoring 2nd and 4th place finishes aboard the Brisbane Motorcycle Honda
CBR 600 F4i. "This morning's race was red flagged after a crash and in
the restart I didn't get away quite so well and had to battle through the
field from 6th. I got past the Suzuki riders and set out after Bairdy
(Robert Baird) but getting through the traffic had let him get away to the
tune of around 3 seconds. I put my head down to close that gap and got
right on to the back of him but couldn't quite make a pass before we ran
out of laps. Then race 2 was run in two legs after rain fell. I was in 3rd
when the red flag came out but in the 2nd leg my clutch started slipping
and I had to settle for 4th on combined time. I was quite happy with my
first outing in Australian SuperSport, consistency is what I was after and
I am confident that we now have a good grounding to work from in order for
us to be right at the front of the pack when we go to Phillip Island in
October for the GP support races." |
MCNEWS.COM.AU