Reports from the Tri-State Series at Eastern Creek, sent to us by Trevor Hedge of MCN Australia:

Race 1

The Stauffer brothers got flyers from the start to lead the field through the first turns. Craig McMartin fell heavily at turn two but looked okay. Kevin Curtain was in 3rd from Mat Mladin. Craig Coxhell and Josh Brookes tussling over fifth. Curtain got through on Jamie Stauffer for 2nd on lap 2 and then took the lead from Daniel crossing the line to start lap 3.

Mladin pounced at turn 2 by taking Jamie Stauffer, and also showed a wheel to Daniel. Daniel was not intimidated though and pulled a few bikelengths back on Mat almost immediately.

Jamie also got through on Mat a lap later as young Josh Brookes caught on to the back of Mladin and started showing the three-time American champion a wheel at every turn, he then got under Mat in to turn 2 with a couple of laps remaining.

Up front Kevin Curtain was under the lap record and was just managing to hold off the Bio-Magnetic Stauffer duo. Quite a distance back to Josh Brookes and Mat Mladin battling for 4th.

As they got the last lap board Josh Brookes was holding down a clear fourth from Mladin, Mat was also being chased down by another teenage sensation, Craig Coxhell.

Daniel Stauffer got Kevin Curtain for the lead around the back of the circuit on the final lap, then Kevin slid out of contention leaving the Bio-Magnetic boys to take a brilliant 1-2, Daniel the victor. Curtain managed to climb back aboard and salvage 10th spot.

1.. D Stauffer
2.. J Stauffer
3.. Brookes
4.. Mladin
5.. Coxhell
6.. Baird
7.. Rees
8.. Maxwell
9.. Bugden
10.. Curtain
11.. Kruck
12.. Cutting
13.. Atlee
14.. McIntyre
15.. Barton
16.. Taylor
17.. Henderson
18.. Clark
19.. Pobjoy
20.. McClue
21.. Landells
22.. Wicks
23.. Davis
24.. Spence





Race 2
Daniel Stauffer took the first race win for the day and went straight in to the transporter for some massage work on his injured shoulder, his niggling injury causing some problems on the change of direction. Kevin Curtain had the pace in race 1 but the last lap fall put an end to his chance of victory, the series leader will be out to make amends for that in race 2.

Jamie Stauffer got a great start again, followed by Kevin Curtain and Daniel Stauffer. Daniel had to stand it up in turn 2 though after clipping the back of another rider. Jamie Stauffer and Kevin Curtain immediately then set about building a buffer on the fight for 3rd which was being waged between Brookes and Coxhell. Brookes got the better of Coxhell on lap 2 and tagged on to the back of Kevin Curtain.

But Curtain responded to the Brookes challenge by slipping past Jamie Stauffer for the lead on the run in to turn 1 on lap 3. The leading five, Curtain, Jamie, Brookes, Coxhell, Baird had a significant gap over Dan Stauffer, Mat Mladin and Tony Rees. Jamie Stauffer fell on lap 3 which left Curtain to fight it out with Josh Brookes for the win. Robbie Baird in a clear 3rd spot, Daniel Stauffer and Mat Mladin running 4th and 5th with a couple of laps remaining, Coxhell 6th.

Josh Brookes was really pushing the Honda-Dunlop combination hard to try and make a move on Curtain. Daniel Stauffer was pressuring Baird for 3rd, Mladin not far behind in 5th, Coxhell close also in 6th but the fight for the win was clearly a battle between two riders, Kevin Curtain and 19-year-old Joshua Brookes.

Brookesy did a great move under Curtain on the brakes to take the lead and immediately pulled a couple of lengths over Kev, maybe the series leader is not game to tussle with young Brookes when the title is on the line? Taking nothing away from Brookes though as he has been putting the lap times in and pushing extremely hard.

But it was Curtain who got the draft on to the straight and powered past Brookes to take the win on the line. A disappointment for Brookes but he did come away with a second place and a new lap record.

1.. Curtain
2.. Brookes
3.. Baird
4.. D Stauffer
5.. Mladin
6.. Coxhell
7.. Rees
8.. Bugden
9.. Maxwell
10.. Barton
11.. Taylor
12.. Kruck
13.. McIntyre
14.. Clark
15.. Henderson
16.. Pobjoy
17.. Davis
18.. Spence
19.. Landells
20.. Wicks
21.. Vece
22.. Boengkih
23.. Hill
24.. Ferguson
25.. Smith



Race 3
Daniel Stauffer took the first race win, Kevin Curtain just managed to get Josh Brookes on the line for the second race win. The battle was well and truly set for an exciting race three. Mat Mladin got a good start this time and led them through turn 1, the Stauffer boys close behind with Curtain, Baird and Brookes. Curtain quickly moved through on Jamie Stauffer for 3rd.

Daniel Stauffer an wide in turn 1 on lap 2 but gathered it back up, Jamie Stauffer moved past Curtain for 3rd, Brookes did the same to take 4th. Mladin was still holding the advantage on lap 3, followed closely by the Stauffer brothers and Josh Brookes. Jamie had moved past Daniel for 2nd.

Jamie Stauffer got through on Mladin for the lead at half race distance, Daniel also got through a corner later relegating Mladin to 3rd. Brookes and Baird immediately started pressuring Mladin also. Coxhell and Curtain were running 6th and 7th respectively.

Daniel took the lead from Jamie the next lap around, Brookes right on the Bio-Magnetic pair, Mladin still close in 4th. Jamie takes the lead again on the next time down the main straight after Daniel touched some dirt. Josh Brookes then squeezed under Daniel at turn 3 in a forceful move to take 2nd. Brookes looking determined to take a win.

Josh Brookes took the lead around the back of the circuit, then Jamie Stauffer got him straight back. It was still Jamie from Josh and Daniel as they got the last lap board. Josh lighting up the Fireblade on the exit of the corners to try and challenge Jamie, then he went around the outside in the sweeper to take the lead, an awesome move and leads on to the straight, the bigger capacity Yamaha powered past on the straight to take the win by one-hundredth of a second. Fantastic race, and one in which Brookes was pipped on the line for the win once again.

Kevin Curtain’s seventh place finish was enough to clinch him the FX Tri-State Series. He had already wrapped up the 600 SuperSport title earlier in the weekend which means he has taken out both titles, a magnificent performance all year from Kevin Curtain. But not only that he put in some great showings up the front in World SuperSport. He has definitely been clocking up plenty of frequent flyer miles this year and gaining plenty of seat time. Well done Kevin Curtain.

1.. J Stauffer
2.. Brookes
3.. D Stauffer
4.. Mladin
5.. Coxhell
6.. Baird
7.. Curtain
8.. Rees
9.. Bugden
10.. Kruck
11.. Barton
12.. Taylor
13.. McIntyre
14.. Clark
15.. Pobjoy
16.. McClue
17.. Davis
18.. Spence



Race 4
Kevin Curtain took the lead straight away in the final Xtreme race for the year. If Josh Brookes gets a good result in this final race he may be able to take the round win.

As they commenced lap 2 the race order was; Curtain, Mladin, J Stauffer, Brookes, D Stauffer. Mladin took the lead from Curtain early on lap 2. Jamie Stauffer took 2nd from Curtain on lap 3.

Jamie Stauffer got Mladin for the lead on the main straight at half race distance. Josh Brookes took 3rd from Kevin Curtain a lap later.

Mladin offering a much stronger showing in the final race, Josh Brookes all over the back of him with a couple of laps remaining though.

Brookes tried to get under Mat in to turn 9, but Mat shut the door on him, which was fair, and Josh had to stand it up which lost him a little ground and allowed Daniel Stauffer and Kevin Curtain to close right on his tail.

Mat Mladin thought he better get away from the young Brookes so decided to go past Jamie Stauffer for the lead. Mladin pushing hard. Jamie got under Mladin at turn 9, Mat looked to have trouble at the tight turn 9 all weekend with the Suzuki wanting to run wide.

Robbie Baird then came from nowhere to get past Brookes for 3rd and attached himself to the back of Mladin’s Suzuki. Jamie Stauffer had a couple of bike lengths on Mladin as they got the last lap board. Daniel Stauffer got Josh Brookes for 4th early on the penultimate lap.

Baird took Mladin for 2nd, Daniel Stauffer also started to challenge Mladin. Jamie Stauffer took the win from Robbie Baird, Dan Stauffer 3rd, Mladin 4th, Curtain 5th and Josh Brookes 6th.

1.. J Stauffer
2.. Baird
3.. D Stauffer
4.. Mladin
5.. Curtain
6.. Brookes
7.. Coxhell
8.. Bugden
9.. Maxwell
10.. Rees
11.. Kruck
12.. Barton
13.. McIntyre
14.. Taylor
15.. Clark
16.. McClue
17.. Pobjoy
18.. Landells
19.. Wicks
20.. Spence
21.. Vece
22.. Boengkih
23.. Hill
24.. Ferguson


More, from a press release issued by Mat Mladin’s publicist, Steve Reeves:

MLADIN INSPIRES LOCAL RIDERS AT FORMULA XTREME FINALE

Round 6 Yamaha Xtreme Tri-State series
Eastern Creek Raceway, NSW

Race report

MLADIN INSPIRES LOCAL RIDERS AT FORMULA XTREME FINALE


Mat Mladin may not have celebrated his first Australia national race meeting with a win, or even a podium finish for that matter, but his presence at the sixth and final round of the 2002 Yamaha Xtreme Tri-State at Eastern Creek, did add spice to the meeting which produced some of the best Formula Xtreme race action ever seen in Australia.

Mladin completed the four 8-lap races with three fourths and a fifth aboard his Mat Mladin Motorcycles / Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. The overall win for the day went to the Bio Magnetics Sport Yamaha of Jamie Stauffer who tied on points for the day with teammate and elder brother Daniel, but with two race wins to his credit, took the top honours. Kevin Curtain (Radar’s Team Yamaha) scored sufficient points over the day, including a win in race two, to win his fourth Formula Xtreme title in five years.

The early conclusion to this year’s American Superbike Championship, where Mladin races for Team Yoshimura Suzuki, allowed the three-times American and former Australian Superbike champion to return home and take part in the weekend’s race.

As a key figure for the meeting, Mladin used the opportunity to promote his business interests in Australia, Mat Mladin Motorcycles in Narellan, south west of Sydney and Yoshimura Performance products, for which he is the Australian distributor. He and his small team of mechanics have prepared the Suzuki GSX-R1000 over the past month and have got the bike to a level of performance that has impressed Mladin.

“While everyone may have expected me to win today, for the package that we have put together with the bike this weekend, really shows that you do not have to be with one of the factory teams to put together a really good motorcycle,” said Mladin. “There are a lot of people spending more money on their bikes than we did for the weekend and were less competitive, so that really shows that you can get a very good package with a moderately small budget.

“I was surprised as to how competitive we actually were, given that we only had three test days with the bike before the meeting. We tried to keep it as much like a privateer team as possible, where we didn’t have any suspension technicians or people like that helping us. It was basically the mechanics from my dealership and myself. All in all I think it was an impressive result. You can purchase all of the parts that are on my bike from our dealership and there is nothing ‘special’ about it.”

Mladin was also full of praise for the level of ability that the current crop of riders have in Australia at present, but still stressed that there is a lot of work to be done in bringing the level of motorcycle racing up to a much higher and unified standard.

“I think that the Australian racing scene is very healthy at the moment. I think there are a few guys within the class that could fit into a number of international teams around the world. The only thing that we appear to be suffering from here in Australia is that we don’t have all of the distributors here racing in the same series and the ones that are missing out the most are the fans. The fans would like to see all of the top riders in the same series at the same time, not split between two series as they are at the moment.”


RESULTS – FORMULA XTREME

Race 1
8 laps

1. Daniel STAUFFER, Yamaha YZF-R1, 12:33.569

2. Jamie STAUFFER, Yamaha YZF-R1, 12:33.632

3. Josh BROOKES, Honda CBR954RR, 12:36.172

4. Mat MLADIN, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 12:38.819

5. Craig COXHELL, Yamaha YZF-R1, 12:38.847

6. Robbie BAIRD, Yamaha YZF-R1, 12:42.514

7. Tony REES, Yamaha YZF-R1, 12:43.910

8. Wayne MAXWELL, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 12:51.671

9. Robert BUGDEN, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 12:55.451

10. Kevin CURTAIN, Yamaha YZF-R1, 12:58.248

Fastest lap: Kevin Curtain (Yamaha YZF-R1) 1:33.166 on lap 3


Race 2
8 laps

1. CURTAIN, 12:35.123

2. BROOKES, 12:35.142

3. BAIRD, 12:37.803

4. Daniel STAUFFER, 12:37.927

5. MLADIN, 12:38.167

6. COXHELL, 12:38.824

7. REES, 12:44.451

8. BUGDEN, 12:47.908

9. MAXWELL, 12:48.387

10. Nicholas BARTON, Kawasaki ZX-9R, 13:00.708

Fastest lap: Josh Brookes (Honda CBR929RR) 1:33.018 on lap 2 (New lap record)


Race 3
8 laps

1. Jamie STAUFFER, 12:35.455

2. BROOKES, 12:35.469

3. Daniel STAUFFER, 12:35.534

4. MLADIN, 12:35.907

5. COXHELL, 12:36.178

6. BAIRD, 12:36.354

7. CURTAIN, 12:37.174

8. REES, 12:43.171

9. BUGDEN, 12:52.381

10. Roland KRUCK, Yamaha YZF-R1, 12:52.818

Fastest Lap: Kevin Curtain (Yamaha YZF-R1) 1:33.278 on lap 3


Race 4
8 laps

1. Jamie STAUFFER, 12:33.956

2. BAIRD, 12:34.334

3. Daniel STAUFFER, 12:34.850

4. MLADIN, 12:34.866

5. CURTAIN, 12:36.149

6. BROOKES, 12:36.198

7. COXHELL, 12:45.645

8. BUGDEN, 12:46.465

9. MAXWELL, 12:46.862

10. REES, 12:48.915

Fastest Lap: Robbie Baird (Yamaha YZF-R1) 1:33.198 on lap


Yamaha Formula Xtreme, points after 6 of 6 rounds (Provisional)

1. K Curtain 435
2. R Baird 402
3. J Stauffer 338
4. D Stauffer 324
5. C Coxhell 287
6. J Brookes 269
7. T Rees 199
8. R Bugden 153
9. W Maxwell 109
10. C McMartin 103