MRRDA Round 4 Report

What a difference a few weeks and a couple of thousand Kilometres make!  Whereas Mac Park was cold, wet and the track conditions changeable, Morgan Park was warm, dry and near on perfect track conditions.  The sun, that’s why I came to Australia, so it was good to see.

Motorcycle Sportsmen club put on a Friday practice / ride day which was a fairly busy affair, but for me gave a chance to re-acquaint myself with the track and not have to worry about any running of the day, a very pleasant experience which I’m keen to repeat.  We also got to have a look at the Derbi 80cc two stroke bike that is eligible for Juniors to play on.  It’s a good looking bike but having been sitting idle for a while it needed some TLC to get it up to its true potential.  I actually had a ride on it myself which was the first time I’d taken a 2 stroke on the track for about 25 years (the last time was a Suzuki RG500 road bike and a real bundle of fun).  There certainly weren’t any handling issues with it despite the old tyres on it.  I can see this thing giving the Metrakit’s and Moriwaki’s a real run for the money in 2010 and at a brand new ready to go price of around $8500 it’s a great deal too.  If you’re interested in one of these, let us know and we’ll put you in touch with Simon, the importer.

Before I knew it I was turning up to the track on a cold Saturday morning to start the weekend for real.  The days started off cold, but soon warmed up.  The track certainly seemed to have plenty of grip, well at the speeds I was circulating anyway, and with no long straight to take a rest you certainly seem to be pretty busy out there.  The last 5 corners all flow into each other and you flip from one side to the next just to keep you on your toes.  As the day wore on, times tumbled and unfortunately so did Adrian Nestrovic.  Sitting second in the 125GP series, the last thing he needed was a big crash. One broken collar bone later and he was off in an ambulance breathing heavily on the supplied happy gas.  Also taking a tumble was Brodie Bloomfield on her Honda CBR150.  She took a bit of a nock to the neck and come Sunday morning decided to sit the racing out.

The Reece Bancell Memorial Association 125GP racing saw Jack Miller clean sweep the field using his local knowledge to good use with 3 straight wins.  Behind him Jordan Zamora, Dan Harrison and Stephanie Redman were taking it in turns to try and put up a fight with some close dicing at times to stir them up a bit.  Series leader Dan Harrison will however be heading into Phillip Island a bit nervous with Jack Miller closing in on him and his ambitions to take the series out.

For once the Reece Bancell Memorial Association 250GP Mono’s had the edge on the 125GP bikes with Mick Jones and Lincoln Gilding putting on an awesome display of close racing with plenty of lead changes and heart stopping moments.  Neither of them seemed to be willing to give an inch, but in the end it was Mike Jones who managed to take the flag on all 3 occasions.  Behind this battling duo, Alex Pickett was using up his energy trying to get his Yamaha MX based bike around in with the 125GP’s.  Alex or “Wal” to his family was under powered and running out of energy as he was also trying to compete in the Junior 2 stroke class as well.  At least he got plenty of track time!

The Draggin Jeans Nippers class was a class of one with Zac Zanesco being the only one to turn up.  The remaining nippers, all responding to the call from Metrakit to compete in VIC.  Zac however put on a great show giving it to the 80cc Junior 2 strokes and in most cases coming out on top.  He also managed to impress some VIP onlookers who I believe have given him a once in a lifetime invite, which was well deserved.

The Draggin Jeans Junior 80cc 2 stroke races were dominated by Hayden Demamiel.  The first race he won by a country mile, although the remaining races the chasers managed to at least get close enough to see him cross the finish line.  Behind him Josh McGrath who had just moved up from the 70cc Nippers class was fighting with Philip Redman for second spot.  He would have had a better result for the weekend if only he’d managed to keep his bike on the tarmac.  He did disappear off into the grass at turn 2 at least once!  Behind that little lot, series leader Mitch Levy was having mixed fortunes.  Race 1 he was chasing the Metrakit's on his Moriwaki, while in race 2 he completely missed the start with his bike bogging down.  He watched the field disappear over the hill before he finally got his bike going to put up a chase.  Then there was the eternal dual between Alex Pickett and Brodie Thackeray.  Great mates who love a good race, Alex took out the honours in race 1 with a last lap move, only to run out of steam giving Brodie races 2 and 3.  They may not be winning races, but as long as they get to battle each other, that’s all that seems to matter and good on them.

On to the Draggin Jeans  Junior 4 strokes on Honda CBR150’s.  Series leader Brody Nowlan had to go into the weekend as favourite, but there was money on both Kyle Buckley and Corey Schaffer as outsiders.  It was Corey who drew first blood by taking out Pole Position by the smallest of margins from Brody.  Come race time out front we saw Corey, Brody, Kyle, Jake Allen and Ben Leonard quickly get out to the front.  Kyle in particular seemed really quick through the first couple of turns until he went in a bit too quick into turn two and lost it.  Sitting close behind him was Brody Nowlan who had nowhere to go except right over Kyle and his bike, bringing him down too.  This left Corey, Jake and Ben to run away with Daniel Falzon in hot pursuit.  Both Kyle and Brodie managed to get up and going again, but only after they’d been lapped, leaving them to just try and finish the race to score points.  Race 2 was a comparably no stress affair with all participants managing to bring their bikes home.  Up front it was Corey, Jake and Brody mixing it up with Brody and Corey taking it in turns to lead the race.  From the start Brody seemed to get the jump, but in the end both the Brisbane Motorcycles CBR150’s got in front for a Corey, Jake, Brody finish.  The last race was again full of excitement which for pint sized Stephen Craig was excitement he could have done without.  Brody again got a good jump with Corey, Jake, Ben and Kyle in hot pursuit.  However on lap 4 Stephen Craig went into turn 2 really hot and lost it in a big way.  Unfortunately he took a bit of a bang to the head which left him a little concussed, so the race was red flagged and young “Stevo” was the second to get an ambulance trip for the weekend.  The restart was a 6 lap affair that again saw the Corey, Jake and Brody get a jump with Ben, Kyle and Daniel trying to chase them down.  In the end it was Corey again from Brody and Jake.

This just leaves the RB Racing Formula 400’s.  For a bloke that had never seen the track before Steve Byrnes was very quick to adapt to the track and on more than one occasion was heard to say that he wished that Steve Tozer was there to give him something to chase.  Tozer wasn’t there, which meant that everyone was left to chase Steve who pretty much blitzed everyone without breaking into too much of a sweat.  Behind him Daniel Hallsworth and Jack Fox were putting up a good fight although in race 2 they both found the dirt with Daniel going down in Corner 2 and Jack on corner 3.  Both riders and bikes were OK, but out of the race.  Later in the race Deane Labrum took a tumble out of corner 4 just so the QLD team wasn’t left out.  Craig “Goldpole” Goldsmith was fresh back from a USA adventure and was having great fun mixing it with both the locals and the VIC enemy.  I tried my best o keep up with them, but ended up in 3 of the 4 races having a ride pretty much to myself in mid pack.  The first race I at least got to hold off Greg Breese from VIC which put a smile on my dial for the rest of the weekend.  In the end it was Steve Byrnes who took out the Pro class with Goldpole second and me third courtesy of the crashes in race 2.  Sweet, I’ll take that!  In the stock class it was Mick Halliday from QLD sensation Sean Purcell and VIC rider Richard “Marro” Marrochini.  Although the NSW team took an early lead in race 1, the VICS in the end manage dot overall the NSW team and come out on top leaving the NSW team with another 143 points deficit.  With the last round being at Phillip Island, the VIC’s seem to have one hand on the State of Origin trophy already.

That’s about it for this round report.  Next and final for the year is Phillip Island on October 3rd and 4th.  Hopefully we will see you there.

Cheers

 

Woody