Australian Superbike 2008 - Round Four / Five - Queensland Raceway

Australian Superbike 2008 - Round Four / Five - Queensland Raceway - Yamaha FZ6 Cup

The weekend’s GYTR FZ6 Cup ‘double-header’ round produced some of the season’s closest racing, with Queensland Raceway welcoming new race and round winners and shaking up the championship standings with dramatic effect.

Rounds 4 and 5 of the series headed to the notoriously bumpy and technical circuit in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, and with a large haul of points up for grabs there were a number of riders hedging their bets on podium finishes.

Practice kicked off on Thursday, with riders arriving a day earlier to accommodate the extended schedule.

The afternoon session saw all riders make major gains in lap times, setting up for a close qualifying session on Friday.

All 13 riders went quicker in the second session, and it was Queenslander Beau McKenzie, the winner of the previous round at Winton, who stood up to take pole position, his first for the year.

Chasing down McKenzie’s 1:17.413 lap and in P2, P3 and P4 on the front row respectively were Rick Olson (1:17.653), Zack Thackeray (1:18.146) and Brendan Watson (1:18.228).

Saturday’s opening race produced a series of thrilling duels throughout the field, none more so than the clash between top qualifiers McKenzie and Olson, with both riders unfortunately recording a DNF as a result.

Zack Thackeray was the first rider to cross the line, taking his second win in season 2008, and setting the trend for the remainder of the weekend. Watson took second, with Duncan Middleton rounding out the race podium.

Race 2 of round 4 saw the same riders feature on the podium, however it would be Middleton who capitalised at the end of the 7 laps, taking his first race win by a margin of just 0.398 seconds over Thackeray, with Watson taking third.

Thackeray added a round win to his tally, finishing the event on 45 points, 2 clear of Middleton in second and a further 7 points ahead of Watson in third.

It was a case of de ja vu for the Cycle Torque journalist, who backed up on Sunday to record two from two race wins and collect a perfect 50 points for the round in front of an encouraging Queensland crowd.

Second place in round 5 went to polesitter McKenzie by virtue of his second and third place race finishes, with Olson just a point behind following his second and fourth places.

Though the competition throughout the weekend was intense, all riders commented on the level of sportsmanship throughout the field, an endearing quality of the grassroots class.

Thackeray was elated to walk away with a bag of wins from the weekend, and said he had enjoyed the racing immensely.

“The wins didn’t come easy, the top riders are very equal so it was it a matter of planning a move and making it stick,” said Thackeray.

“I had to go late under brakes a couple of times, and also found some advantage in the slipstream which allowed me to get by.”

“This weekend has definitely been a turnaround for me, I’ve made back some good points in the championship so I’m looking to continue this run, stay upright and keep challenging for wins.”

Thackeray engaged in an entertaining battle with Olson during the final race of the day and was full of praise for the rival rider’s sportsmanship on track.

“He’s very safe to ride against, I’d been waiting to battle it out all weekend and it was a lot of fun. I managed to get close enough to put an inside move on him in the end, but all in all it was a great race.”

Olson echoed the sentiments, and added his thanks to the members of the paddock that pitched in to help repair his damaged FZ6 racer after his spill on Saturday.

“Today was a much better day for me, it was good to get up there and grab third, I enjoyed the battle with Zack, he has really come on strong since Winton,” said Olson.

“I missed out on quite a few points yesterday but the top 6 aren’t separated by too much, we can bounce back with some strong race results in Tasmania.”

Beau McKenzie, Sunday’s second place getter, is now also second in the championship, and continues to make inroads on Brendan Watson.

“The track temperatures were quite low on the Sunday afternoon, it made the bike a bit tougher to ride and was a challenge to fend off the fast guys and keep the bike upright,” said McKenzie.

“It was a good weekend all up, the replacement bike took a bit of getting used to after I crashed in the opening race on Saturday but I came back pretty well.”

“I’d like to thank everyone for a good weekend, its great to be part of such a close-knit class of riders.”

Duncan Middleton, winner of race 1 on Saturday, said he was happy with his result and said his good start played a big hand.

“I had a good battle with Zack around the back of the track and had some good pace, I’m really starting to get the hang of the bike and looking forward to some more top results.”

The next round of the GYTR FZ6 Cup will be held at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains Raceway from August 29-31.

Pos	Name	Round 4	Race 1	Race 2	Total
1	Brendan WATSON (NSW)	203	16	17	236
2	Beau McKENZIE (QLD)	189	20	18	227
3	Keith GREENTREE (NSW)	180	12	15	207
4	Zach THACKERAY (NSW)	156	25	25	206
5	Adam DAWES (SA)	168	15	11	194
6	Rick OLSON (NSW)	155	17	20	192
7	Duncan MIDDLETON (NSW)	155	18	16	189
8	Chris KNOX (NSW)	141	10	10	161
9	Gavin HAINSWORTH (NSW)	131	13	14	158
10	Rennie SCAYSBROOK (NSW)	110	11	13	134
11	Amy O'MARA (NSW)	99	9	9	117
12	Michael MARSH (VIC)	81	8	8	97
13	Nakeeta QUAYLE (NSW)	82	0	0	82
14	Phillip BURKE (NSW)	70	0	0	70
15	Danny MOULTON (VIC)	69	0	0	69
16	Rohan TUNGATE (NSW)	59	0	0	59
17	Sam HEATH (QLD)	29	14	12	55
18	Karen WEBB (VIC)	44	0	0	44
19	Greg VAN BEEK (VIC)	36	0	0	36