Kevin Curtain (Nikon Yamaha) drew first blood in the opening Australian Superbike encounter under perfect skies at Queensland Raceway today. The race had to be re-started after a crash on the opening lap. Curtain took advantage of a good run off the line at the re-start to ensure he was never headed. The Suzuki pairing of Giles and Coxhell had to settle for second and third respectively.

But the tables turned in the second race when Curtain had a fall at the fast turn one while dicing for the lead with Shepparton’s Craig Coxhell. The drama didn’t end there as Coxhell lost a lot of places in the incident with Curtain which left Shawn Giles to take the advantage and a clear lead. In the closing laps Giles started to suffer from grip problems as his rear tyre cried enough, this allowed his young team-mate to close and pass the three-time Shell Advance Australian Superbike Champion. Coxhell took the win from Giles as Honda’s Kirk McCarthy battled with Daniel Stauffer for the final podium position, McCarthy getting the nod.

Giles was incredulous after the race, “At first I thought it was my clutch slipping as the bike was revving hard but I was getting no drive, but the next lap around I noticed the huge black marks I had left the lap before, which made me realise that it was in fact my rear tyre that was spinning rather than any clutch slip!”

In Australian Superbike the riders are allowed only two sets of tyres for the three races so the final encounter came down to who had the most grip and could preserve that grip the best. Due to Curtain’s early fall in race two this left the Newcastle rider with perhaps the freshest rubber for the final showdown for the day. Curtain did take the win in that final superbike race for the weekend but it was Suzuki’s Shawn Giles who took the overall round victory from team-mate Craig Coxhell.

Coxhell retains his lead in the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship on 195 points, from Giles on 180 and Curtain third overall with 176 points. This means the championship is still wide open with a single round remaining in the 2003 series. The final round will be played out at Sydney’s Eastern Creek on the weekend of August 31.

19 year old Brendan Clarke (Nikon Yamaha) upstaged his team-mate Kevin Curtain to take a clean sweep of the 600cc Supersport races. Clarke repeatedly smashed his own lap record around the bumpy 3km Queensland track in a dominant display. Curtain had a fall in the final Supersport race which cost him plenty of points and allowed Clarke to narrow the gap to only 17 points from the championship leader. This sets the scene for a thrilling finale at Eastern Creek late this month. Second overall for this round was Kawasaki’s Russell Holland who battled all day with Honda’s Josh Brookes which made for a young podium at this level of racing, with the top three finishers all 19 and 20 years old.

The supporting classes of racing ensured the large crowd entertained all day. Western Australia’s Peter Taplin left this round with an Australian Championship under his belt after dominating the 250 Grand Prix class all year.

Mildura youngster Joshua Waters took the 125 GP round win from fellow Mildura rider Mick Kelly. Sydney 15-year-old Jason O’Halloran also scoring a podium finish at this round. The round win earned 16-year-old Josh Waters the Australian 125 GP Championship crown with an insurmountable 91 point lead over O’Halloran.

Local rider Gareth Jones took out the 250 Production class to close the points gap to Taree’s Caleb Stalder while the South Australian pairing of Neville Lush and Martin Scott extended their lead in the F1 Sidecar Championship. Western Australia’s Lindsay Fagan and Ash Voice put in a great performance to move up to second overall in the F1 Sidecar Championship.

Exciting battles were played out between Taree’s Alex Cudlin and Ballarat’s Leigh McKenzie in the Superstock class with Cudlin taking two wins to McKenzie’s one. McKenzie still has a healthy 30 point lead with three races remaining in the 2003 series.

Individual race notes are available with the results from each race which can be viewed by clicking the links at the bottom of this page.

The Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship finale takes place at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway on August 29-31.