MRRDA at Broadford
Just three weeks after MRRDA round two competitors were back in Victoria to contest round three of the MRRDA series at Motorcycling Victoria’s Broadford complex. With Friday’s weather being pretty ordinary with cold and wet conditions, it was great to see blue skies for the start to the weekend.
MRRDA was hosted in this instance by St George Motorcycle club. A NSW club who have had to go outside NSW not only due to the lack of circuits in NSW, but also because Junior’s and Nippers are not allowed to ride there. Sad but true. It will be nice to see the state drag itself in line with the rest of the world at some point, but after trying to work with MNSW and Department of Sport and Recreation for the last few years, MRRDA are not holding their collective breath!
Saturday started with an 8 minute practice and another 8 minute qualifying session for all classes. The plan was to get through as many races as possible before the light faded. Then on the Sunday get through the rest of the 6 rounds of races after a morning practice with the intention of completing the day as soon as possible for the NSW and QLD riders to get on their way homes as soon as possible. With no commentator for the weekend, I volunteered, so spent most of the weekend in the tower. After the Red Bull Arch had been put up and qualifying was complete, we had Jacob Street on pole for the Nipper class, Troy Guenther on pole for the Junior 2 stroke class, Olly Simpson on pole for the Junior 4 stroke class and the 250 class. Callum Barker got pole for the 125 class and Ben Currie was on pole for the 600 Superstock class.
Notably Troy Guenther wasn’t happy with his RMU after practice having suffered issues at Phillip Island in the wet. Fortunately MR Tony Hatton was close by helping out Kane Burns and was able to offer some advice on jetting the RMU which seemed to do the trick. It was great to see Tony helping out everyone who asked as he has a great deal of experience and wisdom to share.
In the Nippers class Jacob Street was determined to put his pole position to good use and rode brilliantly all weekend. His only blemish to a clean sweep for the weekend was in the damp conditions that were there for Sunday’s first race of the day. Jordy Simpson took that race with an inspired ride of his own. Jordy’s only blemish was when he got pushed off the track by a hard charging Luke Sells in the last race of Saturday. Otherwise Jordy took a win, 4 second places and a 3rd. Jacob’s twin sister was not having such a good day. After doing a crank in her 70, leaving dad to replace the engine to keep her in the race, she struggled to get any feeling with her bike and had to settle for third for the weekend behind Jordy and Jacob. Jacob now has a 14 point lead of Jordy, with Tayla a further 22 points behind. All 3 of these young riders have come on in leaps and bounds and are riding well beyond their age.
In the Junior 2 stroke class race one would leave you wondering if anyone was going to be able to get near Troy Guenther. However Max Croker and Callum Barker soon showed us that they were not going to be left behind, while our rookie Jacob Whitehouse made himself feel welcome up the front. In race 2 Max pushed Troy hard eventually taking the race lead in the last lap to secure a well-earned win. All four of these riders took turns to lead races. In race 3 Max took the lead and Troy returned the favour from the previous race, sitting on Max’s tail until the last lap, where he seized his opportunity to take the win. Although Callum was not having the best of weekends, he pushed hard and showed true quality both on and off the track. In the end Troy managed 5 wins out of 6 with Max taking the other win. Troy won the weekend from Callum and new rider Jacob Whitehouse. Troy now has a commanding 58 point lead in the series from Max and Callum.
The Junior 4 stroke class was the Olly Simpson show. Wet or dry it didn’t seem to bother him, he simply romped away from the other 4 strokes and put in a fair effort to be within shouting distance of the faster 2 stroke Junior bikes. He’s managed to absolutely nail the starts and then as far as the other 4 strokes were concerned, just disappear into the distance. That left Luke Sells to push hard to try and keep up and on occasion a bit too hard, notably pushing Jordy Simpson off the track in race 3 with his brakes starting to fade due to some hard braking. Behind, Nic Limington, Jock Manser Drew Sells and Lachlan Weyrich were having battles of their own with Nic taking 5 out of 6 third places and Jock taking the other.
In the end Olly was the clear weekend winner with a clean sweep of wins. Luke similarly took a clean sweep of second places and Nic took an overall third for the weekend. With Olly missing round 2 while he chased ASBK wins, Nic Limington leads the series from Olly and Mitch Simpson. The Junior 4 stroke report wouldn’t be complete without mentioning a horror crash by Olly’s younger brother Mitch Simpson. With a good start in race 4, Mitch was on the inside of the pack in the run up to turn 1 when another bike drifted across the front of Mitch and tagged his front wheel. This resulted in Mitch shooting to the left across the track and into the dirt. Somehow he missed all the tyre walls, the tree and the fence posts with his bike going through the fence and clearing a way for Mitch to follow. Both bike and rider ended up some 5 metres the other side of the fence. Amazingly Mitch was shaken but not hurt and his bike only took minor damage. A horrible crash to witness, but a miracle result.
In the 125cc class 4 wins and 2 second places by Ryan Ritchie were certainly stand outs, but almost hide the facts that all races were closely fought between Ryan, Matt Barton, Callum Barker and Max Croker. Matt took the other 2 wins while both Callum and Max who were double stinting in the Junior 2 stroke and 125cc classes, had 2 DNF’s apiece. Max’s last DNF was a horror crash coming on to the main straight where he ran wide on to the grass and was given a good flip to end up landing on his front, not moving for a short while. This caused a red flag as we all worried about his condition. Fortunately Max got up bruised and sore but otherwise unhurt. Callum had a similar fall out of the last corner, but managed to get himself and his bike up. Although he couldn’t get the bike started, he insisted on pushing his bike over the line so he could finish the race. His second crash was in the well named crash corner and after fighting with his bike to get it back on its wheels, he finally managed it and again got his bike over the line. Callum certainly got the most spirited finish of the weekend award for his efforts. Unfortunately, because he didn’t complete enough laps, he was classified as a DNF in both races. Once the dust had settled, Wide Eyed Ryan took out the weekend from Matt and a very sore Max.
It seems that when you report on Olly Simpson it’s a case of how well he won. Like the Junior 4 stroke races, in the 250’s Olly got amazing starts and simply vanished into the distance. That left Luke Sells on his new Moto3 along with Kane Burns and Tayla Relph on the 250GP Monos’ to fight for the minor places. All three of them took turns in taking out second place with Tayla coming out the winner for that battle in an enthralling last race after battling with Kane Burns all weekend. Olly clearly took the weekend from Kane Burns and Luke Sells. Olly now leads the series by a single point from Kane, with Talya in third.
The 600 class was dominated by MRRDA 2007 series winner Daniel Falzon who ended up smashing the 600 lap record by 0.4 of a second to a new record of 57.9. As he was riding a Supersport bike he was not eligible for the MRRDA Superstock class, but certainly worth a mention. In the Superstock Class Ben Currie again fought up front with the faster bikes taking a clean sweep from Mark Bailey in second. Ben now leads the series from Mark Bailey and Kirby Dickinson.
Next stop is Morgan Park in Warwick QLD on the weekend of August 11 and 12. So we have 6 weeks to draw breath and prepare ourselves for another fun packed weekend of racing, where we see some amazing young riders show us what they can do.
