Round 1 of the revamped Australian Supermoto Titles took place at Eastern Creek complex on Saturday February 4th. Following on with the success of the Homebush event ASM were granted the rights to run the Australian Titles.

With a new promoter and increased manufacturer support the series came to life on this memorable Saturday evening. The Eastern Creek round was part of the Blacktown Centenary Games and as such the venue was used for a Go-kart meeting supposedly until 2pm. The Go-Kart organisers ran way over schedule which caused the delay of the new Aussie Titles. Once underway it was evident that there was some new blood in the paddock and it was definitely RED.

After GHR Honda rider Ben Grabham’s success at Homebush the team was contracted to run in the 2006 Aussie titles. Ben Grabham is to compete on a CRF250R in the S3 Class and on a CRF450R in the S2 Class. Jamie Cunningham will compete in the S2 class also on a CRF450R and in the S1 Class on the GHR Honda CRF500R.

Team owner Glenn Hoffmann stated “There is three Titles up for grabs S1,S2 and S3 and we are turning up, so obviously our goal is to win all three titles. We have only had a few weeks to put this all together, some bikes were run in at qualifying today that’s how new the units are. Jamie and Ben are extremely talented and they are still learning what to do at Motard, as is the crew .”

History has shown that this team are fast learners and this title chase was to be no different. At the end of the night Ben had won the S3 class on his CRF250R with a perfect score. He won all three races and diced with American import Tim Weigand . The first race had the riders swap positions several times, regularly leaning on each other into corners. During race two and three Ben walked away from the competition and was never headed on his 06 GHR Honda CRF250R.

In the S1 class Jamie Cunningham was riding a CRF500R. The kitted bike allows the team to race in this category and compete against 650 Husabergs,540 KTM’s and Twin cylinder 550 Aprilias along with other Japanese kitted bikes. After the first race Jamie finished third behind Adam Cini and Rob Jones. The team made some adjustments to the bike and Jamie came out in race two and won the eight lap event by 22 seconds. Race three in the S1 event was another GHR Honda whitewash with Jamie again winning by over 10 seconds.

Despite some of the oppositions much larger capacity the bike and rider dominated in the second two events. Jamie commented “ the engine and bike were brand new in the first race so I did not rev it as much. After the first race the boys made some adjustments and the engine loosened up, she was good mate” said a typical laid back Jamie after destroying his opposition in this class.

In the S2 class, controversy was never far away. Due to the big field early races did not count but simply placed riders into the two race final. In the first S2 final Ben had an incident on the first corner and was last out. Jamie battled hard and placed 4th outright with Axis Honda rider Rodney Taplin winning the race from American Cassidy Anderson and Stuart Bennet, with Ben coming through the field to end up sixth.

Unfortunately due to a protest by Husqvarna the race was judged a non event due to Herfoss being supposedly incorrectly red flagged. In the re-run of the first S2 Final Taplin was again victorious on his CRF450R followed by Bennett ,Cini, McCoy, Jamie and Ben.

In the second final of S2, Bennett diced hard with Taplin and just took the win followed by Ben, Adam Cini, Cassidy Anderson and Herfoss. Unfortunately Jamie was taken out while in the top five and DNF’d from the incident. At the end of two finals Taplin had a win and second, Bennett a second and then a win. While the points were equal the round was given to Bennett because he won the last race. If not for the protest Honda would have won outright the S1, S2 and S3 class.

Glenn Hoffmann commented ”We’re stoked, 2 out of three class wins and both riders now know they can win any category we take aim at. We have a lot to learn with Motard but the crew and riders will only get better as we acquire experience. Jamie is struggling in the points for S2 after his DNF from being taken out by another competitor but trying to win all three titles is a realistic proposition for our team.”
 

-- Images from Press Day --