Some good info here for those that think there bike does nearly 300 down the main straight...
Eastern Creek Ripples…
YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship
Final Round, August 17-19, 2007
Suzukis Top Trap
Fastest Superbike past the AMCN Stalker radar gun in Friday’s opening practice session was Shawn Giles’ Team Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 at 282km/h. With a slight headwind blowing up the front straight, this was around 3km/h down on the top speeds achieved at round one earlier in the year.
Shawn Giles Suzuki GSX-R1000 282kmh
Robbie Bugden Suzuki GSX-R1000 278kmh
Craig Coxhell Suzuki GSX-R1000 277kmh
Jamie Stauffer Yamaha YZF-R1 277kmh
Russell Holland Honda CBR1000RR 277kmh
Dan Stauffer Yamaha YZF-R1 276kmh
Scott Charlton Yamaha YZF-R1 274kmh
Wayne Maxwell Kawasaki ZX-10R 273kmh
Glenn Allerton Honda CBR1000RR 272kmh
Chris Seaton Yamaha YZF-R1 271kmh
Trent Gibson Suzuki GSX-R1000 269kmh
Ash Roe Honda CBR1000RR 269kmh
Sean McKay Suzuki GSX-R1000 268kmh
Blue Flash
Quickest of the Supersport bikes in Friday practice was Yamaha Racing Team rider Jeremy Crowe at 251kmh. Like the Superbikes, the Supersport top speeds were affected by a slight headwind.
Jeremy Crowe Yamaha YZF-R6 251kmh
Jason O’Halloran Yamaha YZF-R6 250kmh
Josh Waters Suzuki GSX-R600 249kmh
Jamie Stauffer Yamaha YZF-R6 248kmh
Russell Holland Honda CBR600RR 247kmh
Chris Casella Yamaha YZF-R6 247kmh
Tom Hatton Yamaha YZF-R6 247kmh
Shannon Johnson Kawasaki ZX-6R 246kmh
Wayne Maxwell Kawasaki ZX-6R 246kmh
Nick Henderson Yamaha YZF-R6 246kmh
Bryan Staring Honda CBR600RR 245kmh
Gareth Jones Yamaha YZF-R6 245kmh
Cameron Keevers Yamaha YZF-R6 245kmh
Unhitched
Lotus Bar duo Mark Higgins (Superbike) and sponsor Johny Arkisian (Xtreme) were the targets of Sydney’s notorious trailer thieves on Thursday night. The distinctive Lotus Bar trailer, along with the two racebikes, Arkisian’s road-registered YZF-R1 SP, riding gear, tools and spares was unhitched from Arkisian’s Range Ranger and stolen from North Ryde.
No Shoot
One casualty of Sunday’s atrocious weather conditions was the season-ending photoshoot of the 2007 champions, complete with their newly #1-plated bikes. With Eastern Creek’s front straight and pit lane awash, and darkness descending rapidly, there was no option but to abandon the shoot. It was a blessing in disguise for FZ6 Cup champ Josh Houwen and Superstock victor Ben Henry, who had by then had run out of undamaged motorcycles.
New Lap Records
Three new lap records were set at the final round, with two of them in the one race. Scott Charlton’s 1:34.517 on lap six in the opening NakedBike/Pro-Twin race on Saturday was nearly a full second under Jon Cartwright’s 2006 record of 1:35.470, with Cartwright lopping 0.80sec off his old record on the same lap. Craig McMartin’s 1:34.550, also on the same lap, was a new record for the Pro-Twin class. The other lap record went to flying Scotsman Tim Cowie, who set a new Superstock record of 1:38.519 in Saturday’s race, bettering the 1:39.575 set by Anton Kokshoorn in 2006 by over a second.
Old Lap Records
The class with the dubious honour of the longest-standing lap record at Eastern Creek is the 125GP category, with Josh Brookes’ 1:37.930 set in August 2000 still standing.
Brookes also holds the 125GP lap record at Queensland Raceway at 1:16.983 (June 2000), with Jay Taylor’s 125GP lap record at Winton (1:27.811) also getting long in the tooth. Discounting the recent addition of Symmons Plains to the 2006 and 2007 ASC calendar, Brett Simmonds’ Mallala record of 1:12.265 (June 2005) is the most recent for the 125GP class on the 2007 ASC circuits.
Which Gabor?
Regular 125GP punter - and AMCN Victorian advertising manager - Russell Malley regularly scores a nickname in the event program based on the previous world 125GP race winner. At Eastern Creek he appeared in the program as Russell ‘Gabor’ Malley, prompting some wags to ask if it was Zsa Zsa Gabor he had something in common with! The enthusiastic Malley is the only competitor in the ASC who actually weighs more than the motorcycle he races.
Crash Happy
Josh Houwen, who was undefeated in FZ6 Cup races heading into Eastern Creek’s final round, had a meeting best forgotten. The Quenslander crashed three times across the weekend – each time on a different bike. Houwen crashed his 2007 FZ6 in the opening dry NakedBike race on Saturday, then binned his spare bike in the dry FZ6 Cup race which followed soon after, taking out teammate Jon Cartwright in the process. Houwen then borrowed the pink FZ6 usually ridden by perennial tail-ender Ken Wootton in an attempt to score enough points to secure third outright in the NakedBike championship, but crashed that in Sunday’s wet warm-up. Fortunately there was minimal damage, so Houwen was eventually able to utilise a patched-up ‘pinky’ to secure the #3 plate with sixth place in Sunday’s sodden sole NakedBike race.
Tortoise Beats Hare
Proving that a cunning tortoise will always beat a pack of rampant hares, Ken Wootton took his 35-year-old T-Rex Honda CB750 to overall victory in the inaugural Crosby Cup, beating the later-model Period 5 (1973-1980) Forgotten Era bikes. The methanol-burning Period 4 (1963-1972) Honda finished every race in the series, while Karl Corpe’s four DNFs on his Green Meanie 1978 Kawasaki Z1R cost him a potential 100pts – and overall honours. Wootton had to take to the slippery track in Sunday’s atrocious conditions without the benefit of wet-weather race rubber to be sure of wrapping up the series.
