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YMF Australian Superbike
2005 - Round Six - Queensland Raceway Team Report - Fraser Motorcycles September 20th, 2005
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YMF Australian Superbike
2005 - Round Six - Queensland Raceway Team Report - Fraser Motorcycles September 20th, 2005
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| The 6th Round of the
Australian Supersport Championship was held in the sunshine
state of Queensland on the 16th- 18th of September. The weather
again played a part over the course of the weekend with 90km/h
winds on Friday night, and the blustery conditions carried over
into Saturday. Testing at Queensland raceway prior to the race meeting again proved to be of great value with the Fraser Motorcycle Yamaha Team’s rider Mark Aitchison topping the time sheets in both practise sessions on Friday. “I am happy with today” Mark said “The Dunlop tyres are working great, we did a race distance today and our times were very consistent, even after 15 laps I could still do a good lap time.” So much for Queensland being “great one day, perfect the next” with strong winds and some rain on Friday night. The wind carried over into Saturday with blustery conditions making it a little tricky on the race track, the dust being blown onto the track, made it slippery, and the strong wind was blowing the bikes around. The wind dropped considerably for the afternoon qualifying session, Mark decided he would wait and see what times the rest of the field was doing, then go out and put some fast laps together. The goal was to secure a spot on the front row. With 12 min remaining in the final qualifying session, Mark exited pit lane. After a couple of warm up laps Mark attitude changed as he started to charge around the (3.1 km) Queensland raceway. At the end of his 3 flying laps he had secured 4th spot on the grid which was on the front row, he was also the first Yamaha as the chequered flag came out. Mark said “The goal was to get a spot on the front row which we have achieved, there are a couple of areas that we can improve on before the races tomorrow, but on a whole we are very close to a good race set up.” Mark Aitchison # 8 in front of last years Supersport Champion Adam “Krusty” Fergusson. Sunday saw the weather that we are accustomed to in Queensland, blue skies, a nice gentle breeze, and temps in the mid 20’s. Race 1 – As the filed took off from the start line, Mark held his 4th position as the rest of the field settled down. The front bunch started to pull away and Mark Aitchison was right on the back of Brendan Clarke (Pro Yamaha) who was in turn on the back of last years champion Adam “Krusty” Fergusson (Joe Rocket Honda). Clarke was able to pass Krusty at the end of the long back straight. Mark then was right on the back of Krusty but was unable to make a pass straight away, Mark tried for the next few laps to get passed, and was finally able to, he then set about chasing down the leaders. With laps running out Mark pushed the Fraser Motorcycles Yamaha Team R6 and tagged on the back of the second Factory Joe Rocket Honda of Josh Brookes, but both bikes were evenly matched and at the fall of the chequered flag Mark was 4th just missing out on the podium. The win went too Brendan Clarke (Pro Yamaha), 2nd Joshua Waters (Team Kawasaki), 3rd Josh Brookes (Joe Rocket Honda). Race 2 - The start of race 2 saw Mark again hold his 4th position off the start and for the first lap, on lap 2 Brendan Clarke got the draft off Mark’s bike down the back straight and made a pass under brakes pushing Mark back to 5th. Clarke then made a push forward to the front. Mark’s next target was the Joe Rocket Honda of Adam “Krusty” Fergusson and unlike the first race Mark made short work of getting past, and set out for the leaders. Mark was able to catch the leading trio and looked like he maybe able to push his way through to the front, but with all 4 bikes looking evenly matched and all 4 riders trying as hard as they could, they were unable to make a pass on each other. So the win went to Brendan Clarke (Pro Yamaha), 2nd Joshua Waters (Team Kawasaki), 3rd Josh Brookes (Joe Rocket Honda), and 4th Mark Aitchison (Fraser Motorcycles Yamaha Team).”Even though we didn’t finish on the podium today we had 2 solid races, and we take some valuable points away from here which puts us 3rd in the championship.” With only one championship round remaining the Fraser Motorcycles Yamaha Team Rider, Mark Aitchison is in 3rd place, and is the equal leader in the Privateers Championship. The next race is the support races at Moto GP 14th – 16th October at Phillip Island. The Final Round of the YMF Loans Australian Supersport Championship is 13th – 15th November at Phillip Island.
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