Eastern Creek NSW 4/2/06
Joe Harvey - Jackson Racing - YZ250F

Qualifying

A very late start at after waiting for the karts to finish saw Joe qualifying well, he entered in S3 Championship class and Clubman-Expert class so used the extra time to his advantage. We made a few minor adjustments and got the Yamaha working really well. He got provisional pole in the clubman class and in the S3 final qualifier he sat on 5th position. Second row but close enough to the leaders.

Race 1
A great start saw Joe dicing with the front runners from the off, after two laps he moved into third, then disaster struck in the dirt section. He landed off a jump onto a sharp edge causing a compression puncture to his rear tube. He completed the race very slowly with a flat tyre, being lapped and finishing with two points in nineteenth position.

Race 2
A bit of time between races and the decision made to drop Clubman X class enabled us to pull the wheel out and fit, groove and balance a new Shinko slick, Joe deciding it was easier to balance the tyre with the groover than with weights, definitely the way we'll go in the future !!!
A new format for 2006 saw us lining up in 19th position on the grid, a very long way from the leaders and a lot of work to do. Getting past riders on every lap Joe managed to come home a superb 6th--an average passing rate of one rider per lap on a track with no passing room anywhere. His best move saw him take three riders in two corners--brilliant to watch.

Race 3
As a result of the earlier delay with the karts it is now 12.30am the latest Joe has raced but ideal if we were televising live to Europe !!!!
The new rules gave Joe a better start position for race 3 and by the end of lap two he was in sixth directly behind the American motocrosser Timmy Weigand. For the next nine laps Joe looked for a way round at every corner obviously all over him on the bitumen. But on the dirt, where Joe had made most of his moves all day, the American was more than his match.

We had to settle for 6th in the race and 9th in the Championship.
 

-- Images from Press Day --