AUSTRALIAN SUPERMOTO CHAMPIIONSHIIPS 2007.

Oran Prk, NSW RD 1 August 25th

-(press release)

Toby Summers report:
Wanting to compete in all 6 rounds of this year’s championship I got organised and bought a bike. Event organiser Mark Avard sorted me out with a YZF450 ’05. It was a standard motocrosser but the engine was being tuned and it was going to have Supermoto suspension. The day before I left for Oz, Avard called to tell me the bike wouldn’t be ready in time but that he’d sorted me out another bike, a standard YZF450’06. The only catch – it had been crashed the week before and would need some work doing on it!

Fri 24th: Arrived at the track early. My bike was sitting under Avard’s tent in bits. The sub-frame was badly bent and it only had a 4¼ back rim, I had to fit my Brembo brake that I’d brought from NZ too. I found an 8ft scaffold pole and got to work. 3 hours later I just made first practice. The track was awesome. Fast, undulating corners, a tunnel and a bridge. The dirt as always in Australia was only about 10% - 2 small tabletops and a berm. After a sunny morning it started spitting about lunchtime, turning the track into an oil slick. The bike handled well but felt very slow. By 4pm it was pouring down, the general talk in the pits was that nobody wanted it to rain. I however was hoping that it would!

Sat 25th: Woke up to another beautiful sunny day! S2 was going to be having 2 x 10 minute qualifying sessions. First session was good, brand new Michelin slicks, I was still familiarising myself with the track. I qualified 10th, 4 secs off the pace! Second session I improved my time by a second but so did everyone else leaving me to start on the 4th row of the grid!

Moto 1: Made a good start jumping to 10th place by the first corner. There were loads of casualties within the first 5 laps including the guy in front of me who went down in the dirt taking me down with him. The bike kept running and I jumped straight up but a couple got by. The quick guys were nowhere to be seen. Reekie took the win over Taplin and Brain, I finished 11th.

Moto 2: Moved up to the 3rd row of the grid but a bad start saw me go backwards, losing a few places. Then I got held up behind someone and just couldn’t pass. A very frustrating finish in 14th place. An exciting last corner saw Angus Reekie take out Rodney Taplin. Taplin got up first to take the win. Reekie 2nd, Bennet 3rd. Really hoping my bike will be ready for Cameron Park Raceway, Newcastle in 5 weeks time. Another round without a significant increase in horsepower would almost not be worth doing. At least I’ve raced at this track before and am now pumped more than ever to do well. Thanks to gofastfilms.co.nz for full support with the bike and logistics, Russell Burling at Ssangyong for the use of the super comfortable, super stylish "Actyon Xdi S", Peter Payne for my Brembo brake and MNZ for their support. Video footage of the last corner crash in the second S2 moto can be viewed at www.youtube.com se arch for gofastfilms (all one word). Photos from the event are also available at GofastFilms.