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2003 Australian Supermoto Championship - Round 4 - Coffs Harbour (NSW) July 28th, 2003 - By, Trevor Hedge |
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2003 Australian Supermoto Championship - Round 4 - Coffs Harbour (NSW) July 28th, 2003 - By, Trevor Hedge |
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A healthy crowd of onlookers witnessed the exciting spectacle of Supermoto racing in full flight at Coffs Harbour's Raleigh Raceway last weekend. Bad weather had struck at all previous rounds of the Yamaha sponsored Australian Supermoto Championship but at Coffs the sun broke through and provided ideal weather for racers and spectators alike. Competitors voiced their approval of the Raleigh layout with its tight and tortuous kilometre of tar which joined with a specially constructed 200 metre dirt section for the Supermoto event. A ‘tabletop’ jump and a pair of ski-ramp style jumps provided good launching pads for the hybrid Supermoto machines to get some good ‘air’. Mark Avard (Husaberg) returned from a recent visit to America where he thrilled the USA crowd with his luridly ‘slideways’ riding style and put on an equally impressive show for the enthusiastic crowd at Coffs. Avard made the trip up the coast from his home near Lake Macquarie (NSW) and took clear wins in the first three races. But not everything ran to plan for the 34-year-old as his FS650 Husaberg broke a spark plug before the final race. Thankfully a generous fellow competitor lent the championship leader his machine which Avard put to good use for a sixth place finish. That result combined with his previous three wins was enough to earn Avard the overall round win from Graham Cheney (KTM) and Stuart Bennett (KTM). Avard has now extended his championship lead to 35 points over Bennett with two rounds remaining. “The track was awesome and by far the best we have yet competed on in Australia,” enthused Avard about the Raleigh Raceway layout. While Avard has been dominating the big-bore S1 class of Supermoto competition ex 500cc Grand Prix competitor Mark Willis (Honda) has been doing likewise in the S2 category. This class is hotly contested by a talented field of players on machinery limited to only 450cc in capacity. Willis had experienced some machinery problems at the previous round and lost the championship lead to Victoria’s Adam Altham (Yamaha) when the Australian Championship recently visited Queensland’s Stanthorpe Raceway. This time it was Altham’s turn for some machinery woes when he was forced to race on borrowed machinery. This left Willis in a class of his own to easily take a quartet of victories in an impressive display of class riding. Altham was left to share the second positions with Team Suzuki’s Danny Ham, each rider scored two second places but Altham scored the overall second for the round due to better results over the four races. Lapped traffic became a factor in some of the battles between the duo and Ham’s motocross winning expertise came to the fore through the dirt section. But Altham’s second overall at Coffs was enough for him to retain the overall S2 Championship lead from Brisbane’s Mark Willis. Only 13 points separate the highly competitive duo and the heated battle will recommence in earnest when the Australian Supermoto Championship moves to Tamworth on August 10th for the penultimate event of the six-round Australian Championship. The final round for 2003 is tentatively scheduled to be held in Tasmania on November 23. |
Mark Willis celebrates in style
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2003 Australian Supermoto Championships Series Navigation to MCNEWS.COM.AU series content |
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2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 1 - Bairnsdale
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 2 - Wagga Wagga
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 3 - Stanthorpe
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 4 - Coffs Harbour
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 5 - Tamworth
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 6 - Hobart
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2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 1 - Bairnsdale
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 2 - Wagga Wagga
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 3 - Stanthorpe
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 4 - Coffs Harbour
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 5 - Tamworth
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 6 - Hobart |
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Search the site - Late Braking News - Forum Bike Tests - Features - Wallpaper - Australian SBK - Australian MX - 2005 MotoGP - 2005 World SBK - British SBK - American SBK -
MCNEWS.COM.AU
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2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 1 - Bairnsdale
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 2 - Wagga Wagga
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 3 - Stanthorpe
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 4 - Coffs Harbour
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 5 - Tamworth
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 6 - Hobart |
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Search the site - Late Braking News - Forum Bike Tests - Features - Wallpaper - Australian SBK - Australian MX - 2005 MotoGP - 2005 World SBK - British SBK - American SBK -
MCNEWS.COM.AU
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2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 1 - Bairnsdale
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 2 - Wagga Wagga
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 3 - Stanthorpe
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 4 - Coffs Harbour
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 5 - Tamworth
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 6 - Hobart |
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Search the site - Late Braking News - Forum Bike Tests - Features - Wallpaper - Australian SBK - Australian MX - 2005 MotoGP - 2005 World SBK - British SBK - American SBK -
MCNEWS.COM.AU
|
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2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 1 - Bairnsdale
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 2 - Wagga Wagga
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 3 - Stanthorpe
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 4 - Coffs Harbour
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 5 - Tamworth
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 6 - Hobart |
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|
Search the site - Late Braking News - Forum Bike Tests - Features - Wallpaper - Australian SBK - Australian MX - 2005 MotoGP - 2005 World SBK - British SBK - American SBK -
MCNEWS.COM.AU
|
|
|
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 1 - Bairnsdale
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 2 - Wagga Wagga
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 3 - Stanthorpe
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 4 - Coffs Harbour
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 5 - Tamworth
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 6 - Hobart |
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|
Search the site - Late Braking News - Forum Bike Tests - Features - Wallpaper - Australian SBK - Australian MX - 2005 MotoGP - 2005 World SBK - British SBK - American SBK -
MCNEWS.COM.AU
|
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2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 1 - Bairnsdale
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 2 - Wagga Wagga
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 3 - Stanthorpe
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 4 - Coffs Harbour
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 5 - Tamworth
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 6 - Hobart |
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|
Search the site - Late Braking News - Forum Bike Tests - Features - Wallpaper - Australian SBK - Australian MX - 2005 MotoGP - 2005 World SBK - British SBK - American SBK -
MCNEWS.COM.AU
|
|
|
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 1 - Bairnsdale
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 2 - Wagga Wagga
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 3 - Stanthorpe
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 4 - Coffs Harbour
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 5 - Tamworth
2003 Australian Supermoto -
Round 6 - Hobart |
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|
Search the site - Late Braking News - Forum Bike Tests - Features - Wallpaper - Australian SBK - Australian MX - 2005 MotoGP - 2005 World SBK - British SBK - American SBK -
MCNEWS.COM.AU
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