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2005 Australian Superbike
Championship - Round Three - Wanneroo Raceway Team Report - Kawasaki May 30th, 2005
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2005 Australian Superbike
Championship - Round Three - Wanneroo Raceway Team Report - Kawasaki May 30th, 2005
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| In a frantic weekend of high
hopes and great racing the Kawasaki Racing Team comes away from
WA with a swag of points. Both Superbike and Supersport
championships are now wide open with KRT riders Jamie Stauffer
and Josh Waters in the thick of it. At this stage it is not
clear what the final points in the Superbike Championship will
be as Honda rider Josh Brookes result in the first race is still
subject to confirmation. Superbike Jamie Stauffer thoroughly enjoyed his qualifying sessions, and his time for second place was just 0.42 seconds behind pole setter Shawn Giles. “It would have been good to get pole, but I’m on the front row and know I can get good results from there… the ZX-10R is great off the line. So, I’m pretty happy with qualifying. “For the first five or six laps I was going well and leading the first race, but then the bike developed a chatter in the rear tyre. Unfortunately the race got red-flagged after eight laps and I had to start the second, 12-lap part with that tyre which slowed me down. Still, I came third once the times were collated so it’s not too bad. We were told Josh Brookes got a 20-second penalty for re-joining the track in the wrong place but the results published up ‘til now don’t reflect that. We’ll have to wait and see I guess. “In the second race I was also going really well when the rear started chattering again. I just had to slow down and finished third again… I’m obviously disappointed that I couldn’t win here. I’m sure we’ll sort out the problem before Mallala and I’m very much looking forward to racing there again next weekend.” Supersport Josh Waters qualified his ZX-6RR in second place just 0.017 seconds behind pole setter Josh Brookes riding a Honda. Local man Bryan Staring, also Honda-mounted was a close third just 0.009 behind Josh and Yamaha’s Robbie Baird rounded out a very close front row. Kawasaki rider Chris Seaton was fifth on the grid – an excellent effort for the privateer. “I was pretty happy with qualifying – it’s so tight at the front that the races will be extremely close which will make it fun,” said an enthused Waters. Race One saw Josh get a good start and he challenged Josh Brookes for the lead over the first half of the race. “It was going really well and I knew if I sat with Brookes I could take him towards the end of the race. But I lost a bit of horsepower towards the end of the race and in the end had to settle for second. We’re not sure what’s wrong with the bike, it’s obviously something minor as I could still race up front, but just to be sure I’m going to ride the spare in race two.” Race Two was another close affair, with Josh finishing within 1.5 seconds of the leader. Yet the KRT teenager came fifth! “I’m disappointed with that, I got tangled up with some lapped traffic at the end and the spare bike isn’t quite as fast as the Number One so I didn’t have the luxury of being able to out-drag everyone to the line. But to finish within 1.5 seconds of the leader and still come fifth shows how close this championship is going to be. The good thing is the bike’s getting better and better and it’s now handling just the way I like it and the tyres really hang on well. We’ll check everything on the Number One bike in time for Mallala. I’m really looking forward to riding there – I held the lap record for a while last year and it’s only been beaten by a tenth of a second so I’m sure we’ll go well.” Team Co-ordinator Scott Breedin reflected on the team’s performance, “We had such high expectations because we knew we could do well here at Barbagallo. The results are good but not quite as good as we know we can get. We’ll work with Michelin to see whether Jamie suffered a tyre or a bike problem, and I’m confident that by next weekend we’ll have a solution to that issue. I feel for both riders because I know they could have won races if they didn’t have those niggling problems. In any event, we came away from here with a lot more points in each championship and we enjoyed being here. We’re also confident that we can do well at Mallala next weekend, so we’re in good shape.” |
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