NB:Â This is a copy of our live transcript as we ran it on our live update page through Friday at Philip Island. Start at the bottom and scroll up to follow the timeline that includes various notes from throughout the day along with links to audio interviews and pictorials.- 1725 – Results from final session
- 1717 – That’s it for the day’s action from Phillip Island, and we got through without a shower!
- 1710 – Only a couple of minutes remaining in this session, and one of the Maxwell/Brookes combination just left pitlane although they will probably only get one flying lap in
- 1701 – Anyway back to the Bel Ray 6 Hour… The top three remain the same, Maxwell/Brookes on top from Allerton/Stauffer for a Honda 1-2. For those that are coming down tomorrow for a gander at proceedings a one hour qualifying session for the big boys kicks off proceedings first before races for the support categories then another qualifying session for the 6 Hour straight after lunch, another three support races then a Superpole session and autograph session before rounding out the day with four more races for the support categories. The main event kicks off at 1030 on Sunday morning
- 1658 – The junior road race politics are stepping up a gear. The people running the new machine that are awaiting homologation have now protested against the riders running the new generation Metrakit that is of a larger capacity than the originally homologated Metrakit machine. Obviously some fight for business to make money out of junior racing is about to unfold, lots of talk of trademarks and rights etc. in regards to Metrakit and junior road racing etc. Wonderful feel good stuff… Really makes you want to get involved doesn’t it? The Junior road racing turf war, seems to have gone on longer than Afghanistan
- 1649 – With 25 minutes to run in this session Maxwell/Allerton are the first to dip into the 34s with a 34.89. Allerton/Stauffer 35.25, Giles/Waters 35.70, Gibson/Johnson 38.25
- 1643 – More images from Bel Ray 6 hour at Phillip Island – Gallery C
- 1638 – Allerton and Stauffer go top of the charts with a 35.25, quickest by half a second
- 1630 – Sorry about the break in transmission, just been with Keith Muir getting some action shots from today to process for you which I am doing right now. Giles and Waters leading this qualifying session from Maxwell/Brookes and Allerton/Stauffer with 41 minutes remaining in the session
- 1610 – Soutar has won the sidecar race from Jacobs, Beare, Alton, Rayner, West and Grubb. Qualifying for the big boys of the 6 hour up next…
- 1604 – More images from Bel Ray 6 Hour at Phillip Island – Gallery B
- 1601 – Soutar is winning the Sidecar race from Jacobs
- 1550 – Phil Lovett has won the liquorice allsorts race from Richard Liminton, Darren Lewis and John Iles.
- 1546 – Brookesy binned it in that practice session earlier, he is fine and bike is not too bad.
- 1545 – Four laps down in the BEARS race and Phil Lovett 1.7 seconds ahead of Rick Liminton who in turn has another 5 seconds on Darren Lewis
- 1525 – Reid crosses the line first but will be relegated to second due to jumping the start, so second across the line Tim Inkster will be declared the winner, Reid second and Jordan Zamora third. BEARS up next for their six lap race
- 1521 – Back to the 125/250/400 race on right now. Reid still leading but will be subject to a penalty for jumping the start so that makes the real race leader Tim Inkster, but even with a ten second penalty, if that is what he gets, Reid will still take second place as the current third placed rider is more than ten seconds behind
- 1518 – Some serious politics going on in regards to the junior category surrounding the eligibility of a new machine on the grid, a RMUGP8 ridden by race winner Matt Barton. Some unhappy campers about the machine being allowed to race despite it still to be homologated in the rules, although we believe an application for homologation has been made with a decision pending. Some parents of other competitors threatening to pull up stumps and head home. Ahhh… Race politics, something I haven’t missed in my time away from pit lane…
- 1517 – With Reid subject to a penalty that makes the Inkster the leader from Zamora, Rankin and Snowsill
- 1515 – Okay we are away take two for this race. Race leader Ben Reid has been deemed to have jumped the start
- 1508 – Sheldon Venter was the other rider involved and he seems to be fine. Young Nicky was in plenty of pain for a while but eventually got up and walked away. So we are heading for a total re-start.
- 1459 – Red flag all points…Â Incident under the bridge with two bikes coming together and flipping, Two bikes in the middle of the main straight. I believe Nicky Diles is one of the riders down, he is obviously hurt and being attended to but fully conscious.
- 1453 – Next up is a six lap race for the Formula 400, 125 and 250 categories, quite a large combined class with quite surprisingly a lot of names from old that you wouldn’t expect in such a class… Names like; Tozer, Inkster, Marrocchini etc….
- 1449 – The kids doing 2m04s and swapping paintwork across the back section, great entertainment it has to be said. Matt Barton gets the win according to the timing, from Michael Lockhart and Luke Mitchell, only a tenth of a second covering all three so wouldn’t be surprised if the result has to go to a video replay. The fourth placed rider half a minute behind is Corey Turner with an 8 second buffer over Remy Gardner who is listed as riding a Honda 70…? Whatever that is… I have been told it is a Moriwaki 70, the smaller capacity due to the fact that Remy is only 12.
- 1447 – The weather radar is showing widespread rain across Victoria, everywhere it seems but Phillip Island! Last lap board for the juniors now with Luke Mitchell back in front from Barton and Michael Lockhart, only half a second in it though…
- 1445 – Still Mitchell and Lockhart going hammer and tong up front, Barton looking on from a couple of bike lengths back. This trio rapidly leaving the rest of the field way behind.
- 1442 – The first race of the day underway now, the juniors. Luke Mitchell and Michael Lockhart virtually touching bodywork as they came under the bridge to start lap two. Matt Barton a couple of lengths behind then a few seconds back to Corey Turner and Remy Gardner.
- 1439 – Interview with Dunlop tyre technician Aaron Jones – DOWNLOAD 6MB
- 1435 – Just completed an interview with Dunlop tyre technician Aaron Jones. Interesting to talk about the amount of tyres they are using and the Moto2 specification rubber being used here this weekend. 17psi cold in the rear is still something I struggle to get my head around, 20psi warm. Uploading now
- 1420 – Nothing much to report here at the moment, the weather is holding for now. Riders are going round and round and round… Maxwell and Brookes quickest thus far with a 35.45 followed by Allerton/Stauffer on 35.48 for Honda 1-2. Third is Donald and Charlton on 35.82 ahead of the Giles/Waters combination. After this practice session there is a five lap race for the juniors followed by a six lap race for the 400-125-250s, then another six lapper for the BEARS followed by the same for the Sidecars before finishing out the day with an hour long qualifying session for the Bel Ray 6 Hour.
- 1358 – The timers have no way of identifying who is on the bike in a team at any one time so there is no clear 100% way of identifying who in the team is putting down the times at any particular time. Currently the pairing of Allerton/Stauffer leads the way with a 35.48 ahead of Donald/Charlton (35.82), Maxwell/Brookes (35.99). But I am not sure how much we can read into the pace of the respective outfits as the Le Mans style start practically renders the grid useless and as Phil Tainton mentioned in the interview we posted below, it will be won and lost in the pits. The teams are using these long sessions to perfect set-ups across their riders and better judge tyre and fuel usage etc. for the main event on Sunday
- 1331 – I have just been informed that there is no lunch break due to the sidecar delay and the lunch break effectively became the time that clean up was happening, so the big boys are heading out on circuit now. Good job I got that mushroom pie at the traditional Grantville Bakery strop on the way to the Island this morning!
- 1328 – While we head to the lunch break prior to the start of the second hour long practice session for the Bel Ray 6 Hour be enlightened in regards to machine and team preparation, tyre and fuel use and race strategy via this Interview with Phil Tainton, DOWNLOAD 6MB
- 1322 – The 6 Hour race will finish when the leading competitor crosses the line after the expiry of six hours, the last lap board will be displayed to that competitor and then all other competitors. One lap later, the chequered flag will be displayed to the leading rider and will remain displayed for five minutes. To be classed as a finisher the team must complete 75% or more of the distance achieved by the class winner and receive the chequered flag by crossing the line within five minutes of the winner. This effectively means the race will last for 6 hours, 1 minute and 40 seconds, and could last as long as 6 hours, 3 minutes and 10 seconds depending on the lap times of the leader and his position on the circuit at the end of six hours.
- 1319 – Further to that, during the ride through the competitor must not stop at their pit area or be attended to by any member of their pit crew. The penalty board will be displayed for a maximum of three laps, if a competitor fails to stop after the third lap the penalty will be withdrawn and the competitor will be black flagged and will be excluded from the event. If more than one rider has a ride through penalty the procedure will only apply to one competitor at a time, and in the order that the original breach occurred. This means there could be a delay of several laps between the breach and the display of the penalty board
- 1317 – If at any time a ‘ride through’ penalty is imposed the rider will first be shown a ‘Ride Through’ board accompanied by their race number. The competitor must enter the pit lane after the next lap and then proceed directly through pit lane while observing the relevant speed limit, to the pit exit and be directed back on circuit
- 1312 – A note in regards to refuelling procedures. The motorcycle must be stationary and the engine must be stopped. Refuelling is deemed to commence at the moment the fuel filler cap is opened and thus any variation in regards to the above points whilst the filler cap is open will result in a penalty being imposed on that team
- 1307 – 5 minute call just made for opening of pitlane to resume the sidecar session
- 1302 – There is certainly a few faces getting around down here. I just bumped into long time international speedway rider Steve Johnston (WA) wandering around with Leigh Adams. They told me that plans were afoot for a testimonial to be held in Mildura for the retiring Adams that will feature some international riders heading Down Under to salute Adams, while Superbike stars Josh Waters and Jamie Stauffer will take to the speedway track for a showdown. The date is January 5th, and something tells me I might end up in Mildura that week!
- 1256 – Fire truck giving the entry to turn 8 a good hose down now to clear the track up. In other news… This perfect Phillip Island day is looking likely to become slightly less than perfect this afternoon. Crowds rolling in from the north and conditions turning quite sultry. Knew it couldn’t last for long….
- 1254 – Some other news I forgot to mention… Jamie Stauffer crashed the Fireblade at turn two late in that session. Ran off into the grass is how it was told to me and then laid it down, Jamie is perfectly fine, Fireblade being stripped and put back together.
- 1248 – A delay on track. Bosman flipped his sidecar on the entry to turn 8 which has strewn debris across the track and also caused quite a few fireworks. So waiting for a fire truck at the moment while I upload an enlightening interview about the 6 Hour with Team Suzuki head honcho Phil Tainton
- 1213 – Going to head down to pitlane and get some chats for you that I will bring back and upload hopefully canvassing some of the different challenges that this event brings in comparison to normal sprint racing. BEARS heading out of pitlane now, not Dropbears, or Bundy Bears but that noisy class of various machinery
- 1210 – With Endurance style events not all that common these days in Australia so some things for race day still getting sorted out. One bone of contention is the safety car procedure, some top riders argue it should pick up the leader, some argue it should be the first rider through. A meeting between 6 hour management and the top ten teams will take place this evening to decide the approach by consensus of opinion
- 1208 – Something to look forward to on Sunday that the teams can’t really practice all that much is the Le Mans start where riders have to run across the straight to their machine before getting underway. The main race kicks off at 1030 on Sunday morning.
- 1204 – Ben Reid now on top with a 43.23 then it is Inkster, Diles and Kettle
- 1158 – 125, 250 & Formula 400 machines on track now. Inkster dominating early
- 1150 – Image Gallery A
- 1144 – Just preparing the first gallery from the pits
- 1140 – First practice for the juniors is on now, Luke Mitchell the early leader. A strange sight in the pits was ’87 World Champion Wayne Gardner spannering for son Remy, funny how times change. I am not sure who is having more fun Gardner Jnr/ or Gardner Snr…
- 1133 – If you follow the cricket the second Ashes Test just started with Australia losing two wickets for no runs… I can hear the Barmy Army cheering from Phillip Island…
- 1128 – First practice session for the premier category here at the Bel Ray 6 Hour is just wrapping up with the Maxwell/Brookes pairing on top from fellow Honda Allerton/Stauffer combination. Then it is Donald/Charlton, Giles/Waters, B Waters/Herfoss. The fastest three all dropping into the 1m35s
- 1120 – Beautiful morning here at Phillip Island, blue sky and a calm blue ocean forming a picture perfect postcard
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