Australian Superbike 2008 - Round One - Eastern Creek

Australian Superbike 2008 - Round One - Eastern Creek - Day One Morning Report
By, Trevor Hedge

A fine but slightly cloudy morning at Eastern Creek and track temperatures of around 30 degree Celsius greeted riders this morning as they readied themselves for Australian Superbike season 2008.

Previous years have seen the championship naming rights sold to a sole sponsor with Yamaha Australia through their YMF Loan financing arm the major sponsor in recent years.

For 2008 organisers have chosen to sell individual naming rights to each round and the Eastern Creek series opener has been sponsored by Kawasaki.

Earlier this month Australian Superbike competitors first blooded themselves at Phillip Island as part of the supporting act to the World Superbike Championship. The Australian Championship Series will again not visit what is widely regarded as Australia's best motorcycle racing circuit. Instead the series will visit Eastern Creek twice, the Sydney venue hosting both the series opener and the series finale. South Australia's Mallala Motorsport Park will host round two on April 20. Winton Motor Raceway near Benalla in Victoria will be the scene of round three on June 1 before the series heads to Queensland for a double header round on July 12 and 13. The Northern Tasmanian circuit of Symmons Plains will host the penultimate round on August 31 with a lengthy break before the aforementioned season finale at Eastern Creek on October 19.

At the Phillip Island World Superbike event it was Suzuki dynamo Shawn Giles going head to head up front with reigning champion Jamie Stauffer aboard his Yamaha YZF-R1.

At Eastern Creek this morning however it was young gun Jason O'Halloran firing the first shots with a 1m31.61 scorcher on his 2007 model Honda Fireblade. O'Halloran started his senior road racing career with Honda but more recently rode a YZF-R6 for Yamaha in Australian Supersport where he bested reigning Supersport Champion for the Title in 2007. Rather than carry that #1 plate into the 2008 Supersport season though O'Halloran was desperately keen to score a Superbike berth for 2008. Honda obliged and took the Wollongong lad back into their fold for 2008 with the promise of a shiny new Fireblade in the offing. The 20 year old finished third overall on debut with the Teknic Honda squad at the Phillip Island World Superbike support events but is determined to go better than that in the series opener at Eastern Creek this weekend.

Second on the morning timesheets was Team Suzuki veteran Shawn Giles with a 1m31.819 on the GSX-R1000 pushing Jamie Stauffer into third spot on the charts. The YZF-R1 mounted Champion recording a 1m31.936 while brother and Yamaha teammate Dan Stauffer was fourth quickest with a 1m32.385.

Suzuki teamsters Craig Coxhell and Robert Budgen also recorded times in the 1m32s bracket to put them ahead of Honda rider Glenn Allerton (1m33.07). Leading the morning charge for round sponsors Kawasaki was new signing Scott Charlton. A 1m33.61 on the all new ZX-10R slotting him just ahead of teammate Shannon Johnson (1m33.69) in the morning session. Zac Davies rounded out the top ten as the top privateer entrant with a 1m34.67.