Into season 3 of the MRRDA and we’ve had possibly our last visit to Oran Park.  As usual the Juniors put on a good show, but it was also great to see so many of the previous years Juniors on 125GP, 250GP mono and Superstock 600 bikes.  But then again, together with the Formula 400 State of Origin, isn’t that why we’re doing this?

First off I apologise for not completing this report earlier.  When I got home from Oran Park on Sunday night I unpacked had a shower, lay down and started to shiver.  This was quickly followed by the sweats and vomiting.  So my body basically said enough and I’ve been laid up unable to sit up or walk for any period since.  This is my first day that I’ve been able to sit at my computer and tap away on this keyboard.  I’m just glad that it all held out until after the weekend!

With fantastic weather predicted all weekend things were looking pretty good as we arrived at Oran Park.  Unfortunately due to the economy we were down quite a few riders.  I personally spoke to 15 riders who said that they simply couldn’t afford it, but hoped to do the rest of the season.  With our fight for the sponsorship dollar this year mirroring that, I think it’s a story we’ll continue to hear this year.  Still those that did come to race seemed to have a good weekend and things ran smoothly.  With the best officials in the country running the meeting (I don’t include myself in the list of officials!) you’d hope so too.

The 4 stroke Juniors are all still on Honda CBR150’s.  The Yamaha R15 is due out here in August so we may not see it fire up in anger this year, but we’ll see.  A 15 strong field was down on last year’s 20+ but under the current climate a big enough field for some good racing.  All eyes were on Brody Nowlan in his Global Racings Oils colours but he was upstaged in qualifying by Queenslander Kyle Buckley by a mere 2 thousandth’s of a second.   In fact just over half a second covered the top 6 riders with Daniel Falzon, Ben Leonard, Luke Martin and Billy Hermans all in the fray.  In each of the races Daniel Falzon, Kyle Buckley and Brody Nowlan all took turns at leading with Luke Martin, Ben Leonard and Billy Hermans constantly biting at their heels.  As you went into the last lap you knew that it was going to be tight and you knew that anyone of them could come out the victor, but each time it was Brody Nowlan who took the flag.  So last year it was Michael Jones doing the clean sweep on his Barnacle Busters CBR, this year it was Brody on his Global Racing Oils CBR.  Can Brody maintain the lead?  We’ll have to see.  Back in the pack we now have a new tiny terror in Stephen Craig.  Just thirteen and as small as Brody Nowlan was last year, Stephen had his first race and unfortunately went bush coming out of turn 1 in the first race.  He still pulled himself together to get out there for races 2 and 3 to score some good points.  A mention has also got to go to Sarah Fairbrother who is back after a nasty accident in QLD that saw her leave with a broken pelvis.  Still a bit tentative but as the weekend went on you could see her confidence coming back, her lap times decrease and that smile light up her face again.  Great to see.

The 2 stroke Juniors are a bit of a mystery.  We had a number of entries who either pulled out at the last minute or simply didn’t turn up on the weekend.  It’s a real shame predominantly for the kids that did turn up.  All 3 on Moriwaki 80’s with Mitch Levy leading the way from the dueling mates of Alex Pickett and Brodie Thackeray.  Mitch left the duo in his wake in both qualifying and the races and although Brodie, who has improved out of sight and showed great style, seemed to be able to put up a chase, either the bike let him down or he crashed out.  This left the every smiling Alex Pickett to put up a brave chase.

The 125GP / 250GP mono's were a bit of a surprise package.  With a number of MRRDA Juniors now in the senior ranks and in this field there was a sense of this is how it should be.  In the 125’s Jordan Zamora has made the transition from the CBR150 to the 125GP bike with remarkable results.   He took pole position from his fellow ex CBR riders Giuseppe Scarcella and James Mutton, leaving veteran Phil Paton wandering where these young upstarts had all come from!  Jordan went on to score 2 race wins and a 3rd with Giuseppe taking the remaining win in the last race.  With James Mutton taking two 2nd’s and a 3rd we had a Jordan James and Giuseppe end of day result.  On the 250GP mono front there was a similar reigniting of a previous duel going on with Adrian Di Giadomenico on his new Over Yamaha duking it out with Michael Jones on the Moriwaki Honda.  I for one would have thought that the additional track time of the Honda would have seen it rule the roost.  Adrian and his team including one Mr Don Stafford of course had other ideas.  Adrian took Pole position and then went on a lap by lap race with Michael.  Each took turns in leading, but Adrian seemed to have the edge going into turn one and ironically through Yamaha corner.  Although Michael managed to walk away with the lap record at the end of the weekend, it was Adrian who managed a clean sweep of the 250GP mono races. With Michael 2nd and Lincoln Gilding putting up a spirited fight for 3rd.

For 2009 the Formula 400’s are split into pro and stock sub classes.  With the Pro class as long as it’s a 400cc you can pretty much go for it.  With Stock, you have to keep it stock.  So if your bike isn’t stock, then it’s Pro.  There are some specification rules in both cases, but put simply that’s about it.  With one lot of qualifying and everyone mixed in together, the key ingredient of getting out there and just having fun was still there and apart from Steven Byrnes complaining that he needed someone to race with, everyone seemed to have a ball.  From my perspective I managed a weekend of fun with Luke Briguglio and Richard Marochinni.  Mark Williams made a cameo appearance and chopped me up on one occasion which was a bit sphincter activating, but otherwise great fun.  In the Pro Class Steve Brynes managed a clean sweep of pole and 3 race wins.  2nd was Glenn “Teapot” Kettle who would have managed a clean sweep of 2nd’s if it wasn’t for the comeback king Kym Jessop who hasn’t lost anything in his time off also racking up two 2nds, but a fall in race 2 as the only blot in the copybook.  That left 3rd to go to Harley “Spanner” Borkowski who seems to be loving his new CBR steed.

In the Formula 400 stock class Victorian Tim Podt managed a clean sweep with Richard Marochinni and Luke Briguglio taking 2nd and 3rd one would suspect only due to Michael Halliday’s switch from Pro to Stock bikes at the last minute which resulted in a no finish in race 1 and three 2nd places in the remaining 3 races.

After all the dust had settled the all important State of Origin points sees NSW with 1925 points and VIC with 895 points.  As no QLD riders turned up, they are yet to score in 2009.  That’s a bigger lead to the start of the season than in 2008, so the VIC’s will have to come out in force in round 2 to stop NSW scoring back to back Origin victories.

Finally we have the new 600 Superstock class.  Here again I’m a little mystified.  In the lead up to the race it looked like we would have 10+ starters, yet on the weekend we had only 5 front up.  Unfortunately the 5 quickly became 3 as Nathan Houterman managed a big high-side heading on to the bridge and Terry Burns had bike problems.  The good news is that although Nathan was stretched off and taken by ambulance to Hospital, there was nothing broken.  Terry’s problem was a blown regulator/rectifier which left his bike stranded.  With Nick Wenban being new to the scene on his ZX6 lining up against the similarly ZX6 mounted duo of Zach Thackeray and Matt Walters it was really  down to bragging rights between Zach and Matt.  Although Nick managed to knock 17 seconds off his lap times throughout the weekend, he was unfortunately never in it, with Zach taking a clean sweep and Matt taking solace in the fact that his bike is now all good after a Phillip Island technical gremlin.

So all said and done.  The meeting ran smoothly thanks to the best team of officials in the country.  Brendan Ferrari, Sheralyn McGlinchey, Chris Baker, Craig Johnston, Zara Griffin , Lorraine Bunt and Ian Tomlinson being the series officials in question.  A big thanks to these guys who make it all possible and of course to all the other officials who volunteered to come and help us throughout the weekend.

A big thanks also to Al from the California Superbike School who was there to work with the series participants.  I know that he spent a fair bit of time helping young Nick Wenban as well as Terry Burns and a number of the Juniors.  We are delighted to be working with the California Superbike school whose commitment to the series and developing racers is second to none.

Finally a big thanks to all our partners in particular Red Bull and Draggin Jeans.  Red Bull for their fantastic product and constant support and presence.  Draggin Jeans for the same and for providing prizes for Pole position for the Formula 400’s and the 2 Junior classes.

Right, on to round 2 and Broadford.  I hope to have some big news to announce before the next round, but with the current financial crisis, I can’t guarantee anything.  Great if it comes off though.  Keep your eye on the website.

Cheers

Woody