Jones and Taylor again too strong for the Pirelli Road Race Series field
Words and photos by Russell Colvin
Tyson Jones kept his momentum from Saturday going in yesterday’s Pirelli Road Race Series TT format style with another faultless ride to victory at Broadford. The 26-year-old was again never headed.
In race one Jones stormed to a 20.815sec victory beating Peter Berry with Dean Archbold a further 26.188sec behind. However in race two, Archbold was the only man to get a somewhat sniff of Jones’s exhaust fumes when he finished 12.763sec behind in the fifteen lap journey.
With a few different setup adjustments in the morning from Darren Sciberras and his Race Center crew, Jones felt that his ZX10R was a lot easier to ride faster. “We played around with a few things in the morning,” said the plumber. “The only biggest drama for us was the dust from the motocross track. Unfortunately when we did put on our new tyres on, we were not able to use them to our full advantage to get the lap times that we were after. Quite a few race meetings have been influenced by MX Practise days. Race two was really just getting to the finish in one piece as the conditions had continued to get worse. Considering that I’m still pretty happy with the times I was able to post.”
As the series heads to Mac Park in South Australia, Jones has admitted that it could be his ‘bogey’ track as he has had a few good results there, but also a few average finishes there. “I’m definitely looking forward to getting back over there this year. Working with ‘Super Daz’ I believe we can find a fair bit of time.” It will also be the first time that Jones has used the Matris Suspension on the ‘goat track’ in SA.
Finishing second to Jones was Archbold with a 3-2 result, who said it was a hell of a better day than Saturday! “It’s amazing to see what a new set of tyres can do,” said Archbold. “Will just have to see what we can do now over the border at Mac Park in June and try and put a stop to Tyson’s winning streak.”
In third, but only on a count back was Berry. While Berry did enjoy the day, if it was not due to a case of major tyre wear towards the end of the final race the result could have been different.
Berry slotted himself nicely into second place in the final race of the day and looked quite comfy running at his pace, until those little black things came into play. Archbold and Steve Tozer had the missile lock set on Berry. With a handful of laps to run, Archbold made his attack and made it stick. “Hats off to Archy [Dean Archbold], he rode a great race in the last race. In that last race I just had a massive tyre wear and I was just sliding around everywhere! When Archy did come past me towards the end of the race I thought I could maybe have another dip at him and take it right down to the wire, but I just lost the rear in a few of corners. So I just settled just third to bring home the points.”
While Tozer couldn’t get by Berry, the now Honda mounted pilot did pile on the pressure which kept Berry honest. “I could hear Toz right behind me and he showed me a wheel or two. But I managed to hold him at bay,” explained Berry.
Tozer finished fourth, four points behind Berry with two fourth place finishes for the day with Andrew Ord (Ords Motorcycles) rounding out the top five.
The only DNF’s in the Superbike class was Scott McGregor in race one after losing the front end at turn ten and David Barker in the final race.
Once again no one had an answer to Ryan Taylor (RTR by Moto Obsession) in the Supersport class. The twenty-seven old was simply in a class of his own. In race one and two he beat Ben Gotch by twenty-one seconds.
“Another top weekend it’s fair to say,” said Taylor. “The RTR by Moto Obsession Yamaha R6 was on song all day. I can’t fault the Pirelli tyres which were amazing in the tricky conditions, especially in race two with the amount of dust from the motocross track.”
Taylor was hoping for a faster lap time, which saw his best lap time come in race one which was a 57.810sec. “Unfortunately I was not able to produce a faster lap time, but the main thing is I was able to maintain my gap and bring the bike home in first place in both races for the team which is the main thing.”
Second was Gotch, who was overall pretty happy seeing that it was going to be a tough day at the office with Taylor doing “some serious lap times at the front.”
“A good day all in all, but Ryan sure did have me covered in those two races,” said Gotch. In race two Gotch missed a gear at the end of the front straight with a few laps to run that saw him running off. He re-joined to finish in fourth place behind Brendan Wilson on his Stainless Steel Projects Yamaha R6, who finished third for the round, one point behind Gotch.
Two points behind Wilson was Lincoln Sutherland. “It feels good to be out of retirement and back on the bike again,” joked Sutherland.
Rounding out the top five was Shane Maggs.
Taking another two wins in the 300 Production class was Luke Sells. In the first race, Sells started to struggle towards the end of the race; however he did manage to break his own lap record that he set during Saturday’s Sprint series races. The new bench mark time now stands as a 1min05.607 that he produced on his fifth lap. In race two, the young gun decided to go like a rat up a drain pipe which saw him getting tired a lot quicker. “I started to make mistakes early on because going too hard to early,” explained Sells. “I still managed to maintain the gap I had made earlier in the race. Overall I had a great couple of days on the bike, got pole position, took four race wins from four starts, and got a lap record, so I can’t complain too much.”
Joining Sells on the podium was Mark Ferrari (Ferrari Dental Racing) and Douglas Bloomer (Ghost Riders Motorcycles/DB Racing).
Other class winners included Andrew Hannan (250 Production), Hayden Spinks (Clubsport Lite), Reid Battye (Junior 160cc),
Joel Kelso (Junior 70cc), Dylan Whiteside (Junior 85cc) Richard Cannatelli (Pre-Modern).
The next round for the 2015 Pirelli Road Race Series will be staged at Mac Park over the first weekend in June.
For a full run detailed run down onPirelli Road Race Series results, visit www.computime.com.au
