Rockingham Motor Speedway opened its gates to the British Superbikes for Round 7 of the series last weekend. 

The usual throng of Aussies were out to consolidate or improve on recent performances.

In keeping with the ongoing theme of the 2003 season, action aplenty was on the menu, and Rockingham, two hours North of London, was the lucky venue. Utilising banked sections of track from the Ascar series makes for exciting, and sometimes treacherous, action, but no one was prepared for what greeted the teams and riders on Friday.

White lines on the racetrack, marking out its edge, devised to obviously warn off unwanted unions of riders and concrete, always looked like a recipe for disaster. Only after Australian Dean Thomas fell foul of the slippery lines, crashing perilously into the barriers, did the organisers decide that the wax and paint combo had to go. Subsequently, Friday and most of Saturday were wasted whilst the controversial lines were removed. This left Dean and his Vitrans team requiring an express flight from Holland with a spare bike, however several classes were forced to go home having not even revved their bikes in anger!

Once proceedings were underway, it was decided that the three televised classes would remain, prompting Superstock’s David Johnson to take up camp at the freestyle BMX expo and show the youngsters the ropes. Left to fly the Southern Cross were Supersport’s Dean Thomas, surprisingly unhurt by his 140mph get off, and privateer Kim Ashkenazi. The Superbike class fielded its usual host of fearless nutters, and also showcased the Aussie duo of Paul Young and Glen Richards. After joining the series at last round’s Brands Hatch stop on the BSB circus, Cessnock charger Nigel Arnold was also back for more, and looking for Privateer glory on his PDM Racing GSX-R.

Two practice sessions were the order for Saturday afternoon, and after the series rules denoted that grid orders would now be aligned with championship positions, the track time was used by many for and bike and tyre set-up.

Nigel was playing around with various tyre compounds and suspension settings, and by the end of proceedings found himself fastest privateer, underlining his huge potential for rounds to come. Unfortunately for him and the team, this result was to be fruitless, as starting from the back due to the lack of a true qualifying session, left him with a mountain to climb and many slower riders to pass come race day.  “It’s great to be fastest, but I’m not looking forward to getting through the field in the opening laps”, lamented a melancholy Arnold Sunday morning adding “We’ve altered the suspension settings to help the bike’s stability and the Dunlop tyres we’ve tried are fantastic around here."

Race day came and so did the sun, bringing with it grandstands full of program wielding bike fanatics, waiting to see whether Renegade Ducati man Michael Rutter could bridge any of the monumental series lead that his nemesis Shane Byrne (Monstermob Ducati) enjoyed.

As well as the Antipodean flavour of the series, Japan’s latest wild man, Yukio Kagayama, had showed promise during Saturday’s timed sessions and had pledged that today was his day. His team mate John Reynolds, already a Rockingham winner in season’s past, would no doubt have much to say during the two races, as would Honda riders, Mark Heckles and Steve Plater.

South Australian Glen Richards, having set the series alight with some blistering rides on the small (ex Chris Walker WSB) Kawasaki was starting from 4th on the grid courtesy of his 4th place in the championship. Speaking to Glen Saturday gave me the impression that Rockingham was a place he felt comfortable with, and a circuit that offered his more powerful counterpart’s no obvious advantage. “The times are all pretty close so it’s important to get the bike right. To be on the front row is great, so that’s going to be a big help I think”.

It was indeed going to be a titanic tussle, but with at least eight riders seemingly in with a chance of post race silverware, it was anyone’s guess as to whom. Youngy, thanks to a superb Knockhill performance, which saw the talented South Australian grab a much deserved 2nd place, and a boost up the Championship standings, was on the 3rd row, and ready to make it count in the opening race. 11th on a bike so obviously inferior to it’s peers was a great result one year ago, so pushing hard on and off the banking this season was going to be an opportunity Paul would relish on his 2002 spec' factory R1.

Superbike Race 1

The opening laps of race one provided the many thousands of British fans with some frenetic action, as many as six different riders tasted the lead. It became apparent very early that both Michael Rutter and series leader Shane Byrne weren’t going to settle for anything less than top spot on the rostrum.

Unfortunately for them, Kagayama had got his hands an altered script, and by half race distance had stretched out an unassailable gap on his pursuers. Glen was busy hanging onto 6th spot on the back of a group, that had he led, could have seen him on the rostrum. Sadly, as his tyres faltered mid race, the Hawk Kawasaki pilot, and soon to be Father, lost the tow and settled for a gallant 6th place by the end, leaving him to lament what might have been.

Paul Young held his young team mate John Kirkham and Hawk rider Lee Jackson at bay, displaying some awesome braking that had the R1’s back wheel in the air every lap into turn one, until a broken clutch component ended his charge, ruling out a strong top ten finish.

Nigel Arnold, battling from the rear of the grid, achieved a brilliant 5th place in the hotly contested Privateer Cup. A feat all the more impressive given his position on the gird and his lack of experience with the big Suzuki. The second race was shaping up to be a cracker for the New South Welshman; so after a few adjustments to the wheel base and another calculated choice of tyre compound, only time would tell.

600 Supersport

Dean Thomas, displeased with the obvious fact he was much quicker during practice than his 5th in the series and subsequent position on the grid would indicate, needed to get away with Championship leader Karl Harris if he stood any chance of winning.

Concerned that the Dunlop shod bikes were appearing to work better on the Rockingham tar than his Pirellis, and the fact that Harris, starting from pole is notoriously fast early in races, meant that for Deano, these were indeed worrying times for the man from Port Macquarie.

Nevertheless, Dean managed to co-ordinate the Honda’s clutch with the lights, launching to a brilliant 3rd place by the first corner. It didn’t take him long to displace Crockford’s Padgett Honda and move into 2nd. Harris, like had been feared, made a break for it promptly, and even this early in the race, things looked dire for Dean.

Meanwhile, motocross legend Kim Ashkenazi was having his own battles further down the field. Kim explained to me Saturday of the perils of being rider ‘and’ mechanic, and it was now apparent that he and his privately entered Yamaha were experiencing handling problems, minor point scoring positions were all that were on offer to the multiple dirt champ.

The scrap for 3rd had intensified by half distance and Dean was being made to work hard by young Scottish sensation Stuart Easton, carrying the number 1 plate. Although both Easton and Thomas managed to reel the lead of Harris in by the end, it wasn’t enough, and the Englishman ran out victor by over two seconds.

The Ducati of Easton held off Dean’s advances, but considering Friday’s high-speed excursion it was a fabulous effort on the part of Australian. Needless to say, Dean, ever the racer, would have been happier with the win. “The crash on Friday caused a lot of damage to the bike but luckily I was unhurt, although I am a bit sore” said Dean of his white line run in.

“We went for too hard a compound tyre in the race, but I’m happy to be on the podium and move up to 4th in the championship” he added.

Ashkenazi did manage to bring it how with a point for 15th, and taking into account his time away from the bitumen and lack of factory support, bigger and better things are surely only weeks away.

Superbike Race 2

Superbike Race Two was again played out under glorious blue skies, betraying my decision to wear long trousers and endure the heat yet again. Youngy, with mended clutch, Richards with customary determined stare and Arnold’s newly shod GSXR stuck behind a gaggle of slow riders, all lined up eager to do battle once again.

This was it. Last race of the day and the fans wanted fireworks. It’s exactly what they got, with Rutter, Byrne, Plater, Reynolds, Richards and Kagayama again with the gloves off and jostling for position down Monstermob.

As the race played out, Kagayama chased Shane Byrne, who didn’t relinquish 1st place without a fight. This left the chasing pack with only the minor places up for grabs. A pack unfortunately minus the green machine of Glen Richards due to backmarker trouble, exiting unhurt after 15 laps.
“It wasn’t entirely my own fault because I think the backmarker saw me and didn’t react, He knew there were people coming because he’d already been passed but he didn’t react. It’s just one of those things I guess” said Glen, now 6th in the series rather than his earlier 4th.

Nigel, again forced to do battle with the slower riders before catching the fast pack, was sent wide and onto the infield in the early laps before battling bravely to another 5th place, and posting his fastest times of the meeting. “I’m happy with the overall outcome of the weekend. We tried a lot of things with set-up and rubber and we achieved two great results considering everything” said Arnold proudly - and rightly so!

Meanwhile, Kagayama and Byrne fought a wonderful battle for the win, constantly banging fairings, each time raising the stands to their collective feet in roars of appreciative awe. The final lap resulted in the best racing of the season with Kagayama taking the victory and the double, leaving me for one, wondering how the Rizla Suzuki hadn’t been unceremoniously parked up against the air-fence some laps earlier.

Youngy, again fending off the persistent challenge of Jackson’s Kwaka, rounded out the top 12 on his Colin Appleyard run Yamaha. “The circuit is pretty unique using the high-speed banking and tight infield so finding a good set up is crucial. In the limited running time we had, the team did a good job to get us close to the perfect set up. Unfortunately we lost running time in race one, but made steady improvements for race two and the lap times finally came. Under the circumstances it’s not a bad result for the team."

The racing at Rockingham never fails to send fans home breathless, and with the hope that Ireland’s Mondello Park (newly introduced to the series this season) provides similar action packed racing, its with eager anticipation that the championship rolls on in two weeks time. Here’s hoping the Aussies can shine again.