FX 2002 - Round 2 - Honda Release

Queensland's Robbie Baird came out on top in the second round of the Formula Xtreme Tri-State Series at Winton Raceway last weekend.

Baird did not have it all his own way however as Kevin Curtain also took two race wins from the four races. Baird now has a total of 169 points, eight ahead of Curtain on 161, Shepparton teenager Craig Coxhell lies third on 114 points.

Click To Enlarge - Honda's Josh Brookes continues to develop the new 954 Fireblade

Honda's Josh Brookes continues to develop the all new CBR 954 Fireblade and holds down sixth spot in the standings with 69 points.

In the FX SuperSport class CBR 600 F4i rider Shannon Johnson qualified fifth during Saturday's dry session. Johnson then went on to finish second behind Adam Fergusson in the first of Saturday's two SuperSport races, which were held in wet conditions.

"I had a race meeting where myself and mechanics learned a lot," commented Johnson, "The start of the weekend was OK, I qualified 5th fastest in the dry.

Then by the time race one came around the clouds opened up and the rain came. So the first race of the weekend was a wet one, I had a poor start from the second row and was in 13th by turn one, I then managed to work my way up to second position."

"For the second race I started from the front row and got a much better start, I was in third for the first lap but entering a fast left hand sweeper on the second lap I had a very big slide. I saved it but still had to run off the circuit and into the mud, I washed off a lot of speed before having a very slow tumble.

Johnson continued, "I picked the bike up checked all the working parts were still there and got going again. I was in 39th position and had to ride very hard as I did not want to start from that far back in the next race. I managed to get back up to 20th and was only 47 seconds behind the leaders at the finish line.

"For race three I had to now start from the fifth row. By the middle of the race I had worked my way up to fifth but then started to have some machinery problems which meant I had to nurse the bike a little and settle for a 6th spot finish. We suffered similar problems in the final race but managed to hold on for fourth place.

"We have a couple of test days planned before the Australian SuperSport Championship round at Mallala late this month so we will be working hard to get some more speed out of the bike and try to extend our lead in the national championship."

The FX SuperSport race wins were shared between Fergusson, Daniel Stauffer, Cameron Donald and World SuperSport rider Kevin Curtain.

Click To Enlarge - Fisher made a great comeback in Sunday's races after missing qualifying

In the Nakedbike class Steven Fisher had a tumultuous weekend aboard the new 900 Honda Hornet. Some problems during qualifying resulted in Fisher missing from the grid for race one but in race two he charged from the back of the grid through to a hard fought seventh place.

"I had only got 5 laps in on the bike before taking up my spot in 33rd on the grid after missing qualifying. I decided to try and pass as many as we safely could and use the race to get some idea of where to go with the suspension set-up for the following legs." Commented Fisher, from Ballina on the New South Wales north coast.

Race three Fisher did even better with a fourth place, then improved again in race four with a podium spot in third. "I was happy to get on the podium with so little time on the new bike. With a bit of a gap now until the next round at Eastern Creek next month we should have enough time to get the new bike on the pace and even further up the front."

In the Formula X Unlimited class for up and coming C & D grade racers Honda Fireblade mounted Michael Wright once again dominated and took a perfect points score away from the weekend.

Australian motorcycle racers next head to South Australia's Mallala circuit for the Australian Road Race Championships on April 26-28. The next round of the Formula Xtreme Series is at Eastern Creek Raceway on May 18-19.