-- Mac Park hosts Hartwell Rnd 2 - Day breaks records
-- By Steve Thibou

It looks like two rounds before any other Victorian Championship commences are proving a valuable start for the Hartwell Motorcycle Club. After 107 entries in round one at Winton, the club boosted its entries for Round 2 to 108, with 130 bikes at Mac Park S.A. on 10th and 11th March.

This interstate meeting sees many make the 5-6 hour journey to Mount Gambier in South Australia. A lot of competitors camp trackside from as early as Thursday night so they can get some practice in on the tight Mac Park circuit on Friday. Many riders and family’s attended a dinner and trivia night at the circuit on Saturday. It was a packed house with almost 100 people in the clubrooms.

This weekend saw many races red flagged on the tight Mac Park circuit, and as a result the Veterans race was cancelled.

In the Over 600 Expert in Race 1 there was .631 sec separating the first three riders. Local expert David Trotter won from Nathan Mawson who qualified in pole and a close third was ASBK rider and Broadford lap record holder Ben Nicolson on the Kawasaki ZX10.

Veteran and Superbike track record holder Steve Tozer finished fourth on his new ex Glenn Allerton BMW1000RR.

Results for the full weekend changed slightly with David Trotter on 90pts, Ben Nicolson on 88 pts and Nathan Mawson on 74pts. Mawson still leads the championship by 8 points from David Trotter.

A strong showing of 12 riders contested the juniors; Lawson Walters on the RMU80 machine won all four races from Olly Simpson riding the Honda CBR150. Olly took delivery of a Moto3 bike on Tuesday and was running the bike in on Friday and Saturday in preparation for the ASBK round at Broadford. He also managed to finish 2nd in the 250cc class behind David Anderson.

Records were broken multiple times in the 600cc Expert and Non-Expert class race, current track record holder Levi Day broke his previous lap record with a time of 1:12:283. Day then broke his record again on Sunday with a 1:11:943 only .230 sec from the overall track record held by Steve Tozer.

I asked Levi what changes he has made for the record breaking improvements, "basically my dad and I have just been spending a lot of time working through learning the suspension and I've also been trying to learn as much as I can about giving feedback on what the bike is doing out on track and why it is doing it. So I guess the improvements are coming down to dad and I putting a big effort into understanding how the set up works and so on."

The Greg Bailey feature race of 20 minutes was one of the highlights of the round with 600cc Lap record holder Levi Day and Ben Nicolson dicing the whole race. Levi Day had a near highside on lap 10 which saw Nicolson take the lead, Levi Day later regained the lead on lap 14 to win the race by 5.4 seconds.

It just gets better for 600cc Novice rider James Patrick who has started the year with 7 wins from 8 races to lead the championship by 56pts from Dixon 139pts and Lowry 123pts.

A combined class race for Historics and Thunderbikes attracted 11 competitors and saw the Chris Rostron on the 1984 Kawasaki GPZ900R that won the first Period 6 race at the Island Classic ridden by Ryan Taylor take to the track. This weekend it was Chris’s turn to put the bike on the podium, however a DNF in Race 1 , 3rd in Race 2, a jump start in Race 3 and then a 4th in race 4 has given the top billing to Steven Taylor on the 1990 Yamaha FZR 1040 who won the Period 6 class.

Sidecar action has seen the front pair win two races each over the weekend, Duncan Rogers & Rod Bell still lead championship with 182pts over Justin & Melissa Foot 155pts.

- Results for Round 2
125GP – Lachlan Hill
250CC – David Andersen
600 Expert – Darren Trotter, Non-Expert – Bruce Howie, Novice – James Partrick
Formula 400 Stock – Dean Van Hoof, Modified – Paul Cassingham
Greg Bailey – Nathan Mawson
Juniors – 150cc Olly Simpson, 70cc Mitch Simpson
Supermono – Paul Newcombe
Supermoto – Paul Newcombe
Over 600 Expert – David Trotter, Non-Expert – Tim Dowbnia, Novice – Jade Merrett
Greg Bailey – Ben Nicolson
Period 4 – Richard Collin
Period 5 – Andrew Laid
Period 6 – Steven Taylor
Pre Modern – Wayne Nicolson
Superlights – Garry Gapes
Thunderbike – Andrew Lear
Sidecars – Duncan Rogers & Rod Bell

- Championship Leaders after Round 2
125GP – Jake Thomas
250CC – Olly Simpson
600 Expert – Darren Trotter, Non-Expert – Bruce Howie, Novice – James Partrick
Formula 400 Stock – Peter Wadley. Modified – Tim Podt
Greg Bailey – Nathan Mawson
Juniors – 150cc Olly Simpson, 70cc Jacob Street
Supermono – Garry Arbrew
Supermoto – Adam Nicolson
Over 600 Expert – Nathan Mawson, Non-Expert – Tim Dowbnia, Novice – Jade Merrett
Greg Bailey – Nathan Mawson
Period 5 – Andrew Laid
Period 6 – Tony Foley
Pre Modern – Wayne Nicholson
Superlights – Ron Matthews
Thunderbike – Glenn Kettle
Sidecars – Duncan Rogers & Rod Bell

Next Round 3 is on 2nd/3rd June at Phillip Island, incorporates the 2nd Round of MRRDA series.

- Pictorial - Gallery A - Gallery B