From a press release issued by Radar’s Team Yamaha:

2002 Yamaha Xtreme Tri-State
Event 5, Oran Park Raceway, NSW, Australia

FX Qualifying & Supersport Race report

CURTAIN TAKES XTREME POLE AT ORAN PARK

Kevin Curtain bettered his own existing Formula Xtreme lap record to secure pole position for tomorrow’s four 8-lap Formula Xtreme races to be held at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway.

Curtain blasted his Radar’s Team Yamaha YZF-R1 around the 2.62km Narellan circuit to an incredible time of 1:10.554, almost three tenths of a second under his existing lap record of 1:10.82.

Joining Curtain on the front row of the grid tomorrow will be the Bio Magnetics Sport Yamaha YZF-R1s of Jamie and Daniel Stauffer. Jamie edged out his brother with a 1:10.604, ahead of Daniel’s 1:10.665.

Defending Formula Xtreme champion, Brisbane’s Robbie Baird, made it an all-Yamaha front row when he set the fourth-fastest time of 1:11.211 aboard his Radar’s Team Yamaha YZF-R1.

Multiple New Zealand Champion Tony Rees (Bikebiz Yamaha YZF-R1) was fifth with a 1:11.640, just ahead of Victorian teenager Craig Coxhell on the third of the Radar’s Team Yamaha YZF-R1s with a 1:11.768.

“I’m real happy about being under the lap record in Formula Xtreme,” said Curtain. “The R1 is running very, very well at the moment. We have changed very little on the bike since we tested here two weeks ago. At the test I was doing 11.7s and now we’re doing 10.5s which is good. There could be a bit more in it tomorrow if the weather holds off. I think that we should be able to get our times down to the low 10s.”

“I tried a couple of different gearing settings today and found that I had no corner speed,” said Baird afterwards. “I can’t get on the gas coming out of the turns and I think the back of the bike is too high and too steep and pushing the front end too much. We’ve been going higher and higher in the rear to make it turn better, but I think we’ve gone too far. I can do low 11s and sit in them, but I’m struggling to get into the 10s. We just have to find some time.”

“I was happy with my time after the first session this morning, but we had too soft a tire in the rear and by the time we got on top of that it cost us the session,” said Coxhell. “I didn’t realize that it was too soft, I thought it was just me. On top of that I didn’t get any clear laps. We put a hard spring in the rear and that was the wrong direction and the bike just didn’t handle. We’ll go back to the original spring and make some changes to that. All I know at this stage is that I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me for tomorrow.”

In addition to his Formula Xtreme duties, Curtain was busy in the FX Supersport qualifying and opening two races.

Curtain then went out and scored pole for the FX Supersport race, before taking the opening race win, with a new class lap record of 1:12.152. A crash on lap three of race two saw Curtain having to come from behind to record a twelfth place finish in the six lap race.

“I was pretty chuffed about it, I didn’t think I’d get the times down that far,” said Curtain on his pole position winning time. “We just kept trying different set-ups and along with the things that I’ve learnt from overseas it’s definitely made it better.

“As far as the race goes, Jamie (Stauffer) gave me a really hard time. At the first corner he outbroke me going in there, but I got him back and then he had another good go. During the race I thought he was all over me, but then I looked around and he dropped off a long way.”

With regard to the crash in race two “I just put it down to the chatter that we have had on the front ended and haven’t had time to sort it out as we are already into a race mode,” said Curtain. “After that I had another front ender going down through the dip after that. There was a bit of oil out there, but I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it.”