The orange machines of KTM took the glory in the hands of Stuart Bennett (KTM450) and Graham Cheney (KTM525) during the Ssangyong Australian Supermoto Championship at the penultimate round at Raleigh Raceway near Coffs Harbour, NSW on 23 April 06.

As an added bonus for Bennett he walked away from the day leading the Championship and putting points distance on his next closest rival Adam Cini (Husqvarna SMR450) with only two races to go to complete the series.

The top four qualifiers were invited to attend superpole after Herfoss let loose in the dying stage of qualifying to take provisional pole just ahead of Bennett and Rodney Taplin (Honda CRF450). Bennett made the most of it and moved from second to pole, Taplin improved third to second and Herfoss went to third after not getting his sole flying lap quite right. Although Bennett took pole he didn’t think he got an advantage as he said “I didn’t get that lap right and thought I’d blown it, I’d actually would prefer the second place on the grid as I reckon it’s a better line.”

S2 Race One

Bennett, sporting a new twin exhaust system on his KTM, certainly did make the most of the pole position and lead the initial laps with Herfoss, Taplin, Avard, Michael Kirkness (Yamaha YZ450F) and Cini.

Herfoss made headway and eventually came alongside Bennett getting a good run off the final dirt berm and the resulting block pass on Bennett allowed Taplin the chance to move through and take the lead.

Taplin, with his deceptive smooth but fast style of riding, was reeled in by Herfoss who took charge and brought home his bike to take another win over Taplin and Bennett. Cini and Danny Ham (Honda CRF450) passed Avard in the final laps with Nick Brain (Honda CRF450) taking 7th just ahead of New Zealander Toby Summers riding Avard’s spare (Yamaha YZ450F).

S2 Race Two

Herfoss took the lead early on with Bennett, Taplin and Avard in tow. Herfoss was looking as he started to streak away, that was until he came into the left hand corner off the fastest straight and tucked the front of his bike and going down.  Taplin and Bennett went past as Herfoss remounted and gave chase.

Bennett took charge to bring home the win from Taplin, Avard a close third.

Ham had a redeeming ride for 4th ahead of Brain and Herfoss. Kirkness was eighth after having to start from the rear of the grid following a DNF in race one.

The drop a round situation closes up the championship but coming into the final round it is Bennett strong in the title hopes (212) ahead of the consistent Cini (189) and Herfoss close behind (185).

S1

Graham Cheney (KTM450) continued his last round form with the perfect weekend, pole position and three from three wins gave him maximum points enabling him to close in on championship leader Adam Cini (Husqvarna SMR510).

Cini took two second places and a third ahead of Angus Reekie (KTM525) who had his hands full fending off challenges from Ben Lucchitti (Honda CRF480) and Josh MacFarlane (Aprilia SV550).

This round saw the exotic Aprilia SXV’s fire their first shots in anger in a race with MacFarlane piloting the V-twins around the scenic track with the backing of technicians from John Sample group. Kevin Magee moved away from its association with Aprilia when bikes and spares failed to materialise in time to be competitive for the season.

The results of MacFarlane and the Aprilia team were all the more remarkable considering the bikes didn’t yet have alternative sprockets which hampered their setup for this particular circuit. According to the team, an initial batch of around 30 bikes are reported to be due in late May along with further spares to ensure they are even more competitive on the Australian Supermoto scene.

S3

Championship leader Ben Grabham was unable to attend due to an earlier enduro commitment Melbourne's Adam Altham (Yamaha YZ250F) was left to take charge of the early proceedings. 

Altham took pole position ahead of Cru Halliday (Yamaha YZ250F). Simon Galloway (KTM250) also scored a spot on the front row and converted that to his benefit by leading most of the opening lap before losing the front.

Halliday inherited the race lead while Adam Altham struggled with no grip from his cold tyres and managed to salvage seventh place, “Just as we were removing the tyre warmers we noticed that someone had knocked the power socket off the front warmer and it was nowhere near the heat that it should have been,” said Altham.

Halliday won ahead of Joe Harvey (Yamaha YZ250F), Joel Whitaker (Husqvarna TC250) and Galloway.

With a clever ride in the second race Halliday fended off a charge from Altham and used his well performing machine to take the win over Altham, Galloway and Harvey.

Relief was written all over the face of Altham as he finally broke through to take a win in the final race over Halliday with Linden Magee (Honda CRF250) holding off Galloway and Whitaker. Grabham still has a substantial lead over Galloway, but the chase for second is very close as Whitaker and Blake Jacobs are still within striking distance.

The championship takes a break of nearly two months before the final round at MSI Kart racing centre on the Gold Coast, Qld which will be the final round of the Championship. With riders having to drop the results of one round of the championship the chase becomes all that much closer.

Team Axis Motorsports

Team Axis Motorsports’ Rodney Taplin and Danny Ham took on the nations finest Supermoto riders in the S2 class at the Ssangyong Australian Supermoto Championship and came away with some classy results with both riders finishing in the top five.

The penultimate round held at the Raleigh raceway near Coffs Harbour, NSW on 23rd April 2006, saw Rodney Taplin (Honda CRF 450) finish with two second placings in the S2 races to give Taplin second overall for the round, a strong result in the company of the more fancied factory riders and only one point off the round win .

With a break in Danny Ham’s Supercross Racing Calendar allowing the talented Newcastle rider to join team mate Rodney Taplin at Round 5 of the Ssangyong Australian Supermoto Championship. Ham (Honda CRF 450) only competing in a showcase of events this season again proved that should he consider being a regular on the Championship circuit that he would be a top contender after Ham finished fifth and fourth in the two S2 races giving Danny fifth overall for the round.

Race 1 of the S2 class
After the qualifying session Rodney Taplin improved on his position on the grid via the Superpole shoot out of the top four S2 qualifiers, from third position up to second behind KTM’s Stu Bennett.

Bennett lead out the pack from the start with Herfoss and Taplin in hot pursuit. After the initial laps of Bennett’s lead, Herfoss came alongside Bennett and block passed allowing the deceptive Taplin to slip through and take the lead. Behind the front pack Danny Ham was in a battle of his own with the experienced Mark Avard, both riders dueling most of the race with Ham getting the better of Avard in the final laps to finish 5th.The smooth riding style of Taplin was not enough to hold off Husqvarna young gun Troy Herfoss. As the flag dropped Taplin followed Herfoss across the line with Bennett, Cini and Danny Ham next.

Race 2 of the S2 class
Herfoss lead out the second race followed by Bennett and Taplin, after Herfoss tucked the front under causing the bike to crash, Taplin and Bennett took the opportunity to take off and chase each other all the way to the finish line with Bennett getting the better of the chase. Taplin threw down the fastest lap time in the race but could only manage second. Ham again dueling with Avard, but this time Avard got the better coming home third with Ham fourth.

Axis Motorsports good results come down to the hard work owner Andrew Hopson has put in to the bikes (Honda CRF 450) to customise them for Supermoto racing using the best products available. Hopson’s race knowledge along side committed riders is a recipe for success.
Darlington Park, Queensland will be the venue for the final round of the 2006 Australian Supermoto Championship in a little over two months.

SXV Aprilia Racing

After the hurdles of obtaining bikes, spares, racing parts and the ability to perform diagnostics on the bike’s sophisticated electronic fuel injection system in time for the first four rounds of the Ssanyong Australian Supermotard Championship, the SXV550 and SXV450 Aprilia's finally made their debut at the fifth round held at the magnificent Raleigh Raceway, just south of Coffs Harbour in NSW.

Following the withdrawal of Team Magee Aprilia from the championship, a completely new team named SXV Aprilia Racing visited the scenic track in perfect weather and tested for the first time on Saturday.

After a few set up changes, SXV Aprilia Racing’s rider, Josh McFarlane enjoyed a hard-working hit out on both bikes, declaring them ready to race. “Bring it on,” said the experienced Queenslander. “The bikes are basically stock, but at last we have them out on the track and we’re ready to go for it. We’re having a few problems due to gearing – the 450 is on the limiter everywhere, but we don’t have any gearing alternatives as the sprockets are unique to Aprilia and we haven’t had the time to obtain any. Even so, the v-twin engine revs so hard that we can get around the gearing issues so I’m happy.”

Race day also proved to be a perfect mid-north coast day, with abundant sunshine and a fair-sized crowd visiting the venue for a superb day out watching some world-class motard racing. McFarlane settled in quickly with similar lap times during qualifying in both classes, and wound up qualifying sixth in S1 and 12th in the premier S2 class.

“It’s great to ride a lot of laps, I’m feeling more and more comfortable as I get time on the bikes, so the qualifying positions are not important – it’s time on the bikes,” said the current Australian S1 number 1 plate holder. “Also, we are all so positive in the team, even the team manager Jim Caruso was laughing – that’s such a great attitude and we will get better and better.”

“He (McFarlane) is quite right,” confirmed Caruso. “Yesterday we got this team onto a track for the very first time, and things are going well. Obviously, we have a long way to go to catch up with the top level competitors, however we’ve barely started to develop the bikes and the stock units we’ve got here are running superbly and our rider Josh McFarlane is performing magnificently – I’m very happy!”

Three S1 and two S2 races later, Caruso and McFarlane’s words bore fruit. A trio of fifths for a fifth overall on the 550 and eighth overall on the 450 culminated a superb weekend for the team.

“To achieve top-ten results on what are fundamentally stock bikes at this level of competition proves the bikes are ultra-competitive, straight out of the box. The only modification we’ve made is to put a race pipe and a race ECU on the 450, the 550 was box-stock,” said Caruso.

“Sadly, John Sample wasn’t here to see the bikes today as he’s overseas but many of the headquarters team came up to Coffs to catch the action. We’re all delighted to not only see and hear these revolutionary v-twin bikes out there – they sound like mini Superbikes – but also we hope to be able to continue the rapid progress we’re now making by testing at Darlington with a range of factory race parts for the bikes.”

“I thought it was sensational, what a great day – for production bikes to achieve these results, we couldn’t be happier!” summed up Aprilia’s National Sales Manager, Ezio Forcella.

SXV Aprilia Racing would like to thank its sponsors Bridgestone Tyres, Bringer Brakes, Joe Rocket Leathers and Gloves and Carrera Goggles. SXV Aprilia Racing will return to compete in the final round of the Australian Supermotard Championship on 24th June 2006 at Darlington Park in Queensland. See you there.

Motorex KTM

Round five of the Ssangyong Australian Supermoto Championship held at Coffs Harbour on the weekend saw Motorex KTM riders Stuart Bennett, Graham Cheney and Rob Twyerould take charge and win each of their classes at the penultimate round.

S1 class rider Graham Cheney led all three of his races from start to finish, taking home the top podium position and maximum championship points. Cheney’s performance has now put him in with a chance for the overall title. If Cheney wins all races at the final round he will take home the S1 Australian Championship by one point.

Commenting on his racing Graham Cheney said, “I got the hole shot in all my races and didn’t look back over the entire six laps.

“The course layout is one of my favourites, it required big braking and heaps of corner speed, which I was able to easily master with the new Dunlop Tyres we had on the bike.

“My lap times worked out to be half a second quicker than anyone else so I couldn’t be happier with my results.”

Cheney’s results have moved him into third overall for the S1 class. Adam Cini sits in first on 309 points, Angus Reekie is placed second on 264 points and Graham Cheney in third on 255 points.

In the S2 class Motorex KTM’s Stuart Bennett has increased his championship lead by 23 points with one of his best performances of the series.

Bennett won the overall round with a third and first place positioning to now sit on 212 points in the S2 class, with Adam Cini in second on 189 points and Troy Herfoss in third on 185 points.

“My confidence just kept growing today,” said Bennett.

“I qualified in second and then I won the super pole which gave me the pole position at the starting grid. Troy Herfoss and Rodney Taplin were my toughest competitors in my first race and they crossed the line in front of me, I was in third. Then the second race I came off the line in third and Herfoss fell off and I worked my way past Taplin which gave me the win.

“The KTM ran awesome we had a new Akropovic Exhaust System on the bike and a few other new parts from KTM Factory in Europe, which all helped the bike run like a dream.”

The finale for Motorex KTM Racing came with VETS class entrant Rob Twyerould taking the overall win for the day to move into fourth for the Championship and that’s even with missing a round.

“I continue to ride for fun not so much competition but as always it’s an achievement to win. I missed the last round managing the Motorex KTM Motocross Team at the Australian Championship so to be in fourth in the Supermoto Championship even with missing a round is very rewarding,” said Twyerould.

VETS class points sit with Scott Cogan in first on 268 points, Robert MacDonald in second on 263 points, Mark Herfoss in third on 232 points. Rob Twyerould is in fourth on 225 points.

Meanwhile in the S3 class, Simon Galloway riding for Cessnock Motorcycles onboard the KTM250SXF finished third overall on the day and he is now third in the S3 Championship. Ben Grabham is in first on 300 points, Blake Jacobs in second on 245 and Simon Galloway in third on 227 points.

The Motorex KTM Supermoto Team will now break two months before the final round of the Ssangyong Australian Supermoto Championship on 24 June at Darlington Park in Queensland.

Husqvarna Report

The Husqvarna Racing team had yet another positive performance at the fifth round of the Ssangyong Australian Supermoto Championship obtaining three podium finishes including a third, second and first position across three classes.

The premier S2 class saw Troy Herfoss set out as he planned too, being the fastest man out on the track during the morning warm up and provisional qualifying.

Race one saw Herfoss make his way to the front after starting in fourth position, he diced with Stuart Bennett and fought his way past in the early stages of the race to take out the first leg comfortably from Bennett in second, Taplin in third, and Husqvarna Racing team mate Adam Cini rounding out the top four.

The second S2 race was shaping up to be a replay of the first race with Herfoss leading Bennett and the rest of the field in the opening laps. Herfoss unfortunately lost the front going into a tight left hander putting the bike down. He quickly restarted and managed to regain a couple of positions to finish the second race in seventh position behind team mate Cini in sixth.

“I felt really good today on the bike (Husqvarna SMR 450) and I really enjoy the racing. The first race went off the way I planned, however I just simply lost the front in race two. It should make the final round very interesting, as there is only a couple of points separating Bennett and myself after we drop one of our rounds,” explained Herfoss after the race.

Husqvarna’s Adam Cini also competing in the bigger S1 class continued his consistent form finishing in second position for the day behind Graham Cheney after the three races held yesterday. Cini continues to hold on to his lead in the S1 championship, which he has had all season, in front of Angus Reekie and Graham Cheney sitting in third.

“The Husqvarna mechanics made both my 450 (SMR) and 510 (SMR) feel fantastic and the Michelin tyres seemed to stick like glue on both the tar and dirt. It was great to obtain some valuable championship points to keep my lead in the championship going into the final round,” Cini said after yesterday’s races.

Husky Chix Rebecca Bateman had a trouble free weekend winning three races from three race starts convincingly taking maximum points and the round win from Kristy Tripp.

Bateman currently leads the Women’s series with only one round to go. “My Husqvarna was a dream to ride today, everything just seemed to click and I was able to be smooth and go faster in each race as the day progressed. I am stoked to take maximum points away from this round and have a good lead going into the final round of the series up on the Gold Coast,” explained an always jubilant Bateman yesterday.

Mark Herfoss, Husqvarna Racing’s Troy Herfoss’s father, competing in the Vets class on board the mighty Husqvarna SMR 630 machine finished the round in third position. Joel Whitaker racing in the S3 class finished in fourth position onboard his Husqvarna SMR 250 and currently sits in third position in the S3 championship.

The Husqvarna Racing team will be at the final round of the Ssangyong Supermoto Championship will be held at Darlington Park Raceway in Queensland on 24th June.