Copyright 2003, www.mcnews.com.au, used with permission:

By Trevor Hedge
www.mcnews.com.au

2003 Australian Superbike Championship – Round 1 – Sunday Report

After taking pole position in both the Superbike and Supersport classes during qualifying on Saturday, Newcastle rider Kevin Curtain then continued his domination to take a perfect record of wins from the opening round of the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship in South Australia today.

The 36 year old Nikon Yamaha rider recorded three from three in the premier Superbike class and then backed that up with the same record in the three Supersport races. He also leaves the 2.6km Mallala circuit with lap records in both classes. He lowered reigning champion Shawn Giles’ Production Superbike lap record from 1-minute-08.08secs down to a new mark of 1-minute-07.88 seconds. Curtain already held the Supersport lap record but lowered it to the new record of 1m09.73 on the 600cc Nikon Yamaha R6.

Curtain is a four time Australian champion, the only rider to have held Australian Championship Titles in three different classes. Production Superbike (1998), Supersport (1996, 2000) and 250 Production (1995). Not bad for an exhaust fitter who never went road racing until the ripe old age of 27. Curtain is now, of course, a full time professional racer, and if this seasons early form is anything to go by, he could be the first man to win both a Superbike and Supersport Championship in the same year.

But Kevin is already eyeing bigger and better things. “At the moment I’m working on trying to get another ride somewhere overseas next year and to do that you’ve got to win.

“I don’t want to relax back in Australia, the competition while at a high level it’s not the same as at world level. So when you’re in this environment you can get lazy and that’s not what I want to do.

“So I’m just going to push myself to the max’ when ever I get on a bike in Australia.

“I’m working really hard at the moment and I’m not doing it easy but I’m just managing to keep in front of them and that’s all I’ve got to do.”

Young Victorian Craig Coxhell (Suzuki) took second place overall in the Superbike class after some titanic battles with his team-mate Shawn Giles and Daniel Stauffer (Yamaha).

This is the opening round of five for the national road racing series which this year also visits Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales.

The Championship next heads to Phillip Island for round two at Victoria’s magnificent Phillip Island circuit on May 16-18.