Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Trevor Hedge, www.mcnews.com.au

Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship
Round 2 – May 18, 2003

The second round of the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship was played out under varying skies at Phillip Island last weekend.

The Nikon Yamaha pairing of Kevin Curtain and Daniel Stauffer drew first blood after taking a 1-2 finish in the opening superbike race. But their domination came to an abrupt halt during race two when both riders came down hard when chasing Suzuki’s Shawn Giles and Craig Coxhell.

Both Curtain and Stauffer sustained significant injuries. Curtain has broken his collarbone in four places, while Stauffer has cracked an ankle and broken the radius bone in his left hand. Stauffer also suffered some soft tissue injuries to his neck and spine.

The accident stemmed from Stauffer and Giles coming together mid-corner in Phillip Island’s incredibly fast turn one while fighting for second place behind Craig Coxhell. The four leading riders, Coxhell, Giles, Stauffer and Curtain were racing together so close that eventually it was inevitable that something had to give, unfortunately the Nikon Yamaha duo came off the worse for wear.

Stauffer recalls the incident, “In the slipstream Gilesy just got his nose in front, I still had my throttle wide open and he just swept across in front of me defending his line and closed me down. I don’t think he realised I was so close as he wouldn’t have done it on purpose as he is not that type of rider, but he knew that once we got past him we were gone as the Suzuki’s couldn’t stay with our Nikon Yamaha’s around the back of the track.

“I had to stand it up or else I was going to crash and I hit the swing-arm of Gilesy’s bike which turned me left and next thing –bang! – I’ve hit Kev really hard and we headed off the track.

“It had been raining earlier and with wet grass and slick tyres it turned into a fast rodeo as the bike seemed to go faster. I tried to hang onto it but when we hit the ditch it just cartwheeled me, I then hit the bike which was probably what caused the most of my injuries. It’s certainly the fastest and scariest crash I have ever had!”

Curtain explained his view of the incident, “I saw Dan try for the inside line on Giles and saw him hit Giles’ swing-arm as he came across to defend his line. I thought he was gone but he managed to stand the bike up, which forced him wide and made me do the same. When we hit the grass the bike started going quicker. I saw the ditch coming up and just jumped of the back.” That wise move was what probably saved Curtain from sustaining more serious injuries.

This left the Suzuki pairing of Giles and Coxhell to take 1-2 finishes in the remaining two races. Giles won race two and chased Coxhell to the line in the final race. Giles took the round win, and with it the overall championship lead on 107 points. Coxhell is close behind with 105 points and the injured Curtain has been relegated to third with 101 points.

Giles – “In the first race I tangled up a little bit with Craig over the Hayshed where it was partially wet. Craig went in and found a bit of wet track, I had to pick the bike up and went off in to the dirt which lost me a bit of ground. I couldn’t make the ground back up to Kev and Daniel as they had gone before I got back up to full speed.

“In the second race Craig got a good start again and I was behind him, we all fought hard over the first lap and then the next time around I diced with Dan (Stauffer) down the straight, tipped in to turn one and felt a bang in the back wheel, obviously that was Dan, then I guess Dan hit Kev as a result of hitting me, but I don’t know what really happened after that. I managed to pass Craig and got into the lead to win that second race.

“The last race was good, very close between us two team-mates. The bikes are even, so it is hard to pass anywhere but Craig got back past me at Lukey and I was going to draft him on to the straight, but a guy had crashed on turn 12 so the yellow flag was out and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

Craig Coxhell – “Race day didn’t start out too good as I had a DNF in the first race after running off the track.

“In the second race it was all good, I got a good start and was leading for a while, unfortunately the Yamaha boys crashed but I ended up second behind Shawn with good points.

“In the third race I led for most of the way, and Shawn was on the back of me for quite a while, I was a bit worried about him slipstreaming me on the last lap but he passed me before that, luckily I got back around him at Lukey Heights and then there was a yellow flag at turn 12 so there was nowhere he could get me after that.

“Hopefully we will have the new 2003 machine for Winton and I am looking forward to maybe riding that in a couple of weeks if Phil and the boys can get them together in time.”

Nikon Yamaha Team Manager Steve Trinder on the demise of his lead chargers, – “At the moment, I am in a bit of shock, more to the point of being gobsmacked over it. Not so much just that they went down, but for both of them to get broken up is just not a thing you don’t come across too often. For two guys to clip, in the same team, and both break bones, especially the two major strike riders, both leading the championships (Curtain was leading Superbike, while Stauffer leads the FX Series), is unbelievable.

“They are all busted up. I am a bit bewildered by it at the moment, I mean, I have got another kid riding around out there with a punctured lung (Clarke), like what’s going on? When you get a bad weekend you really get a bad weekend.”

The Brown Gouge Nova Honda Team gave the factory Honda boys some curry over the weekend – “Unfortunately we put a wet front on for the first race and that turned out to be the wrong decision. But it was good for both Brent (George) and myself to finish in front of the factory boys in the final race though.” Commented Scott Charlton as the boys loaded the bikes and gear in their trademark Brown Gouge bus.

Thanks to the valuable contribution to the Honda effort from the Brown Gouge boys, and other Honda privateers like a new improved Nick Henderson scoring good points, Honda lead the Manufacturer’s Championship in Superbike with 328 points to Suzuki’s 294, and Yamaha’s 214.

Shannon Johnson, “It’s been hard work on the Fireblade, the weather at Phillip Island played a little into our hands. Again we worked very hard on the suspension and a race tyre to make the bike work very well through the turns, to help make up for the lost time down the straight. I’m happy with the 3rd overall as this is my first ever Superbike podium. The team has been working really hard both at the track and workshop, so I’m glad to bring them this position.”

Steve Tozer put in great rides in all three races, finishing as high as fifth, but in the last race he unfortunately came to grief. “I just clipped Brent George when I was trying to go around the outside of him, no fault of his, I was on the right hand side but he got baulked a little behind Scotty Charlton through the Hayshed, so I thought I would be able to drive past them and I got nearly alongside Brent, but he swept back across towards the right for a good line, he didn’t know I was there so it is not his fault, he ran in to the side of me handlebar and that pulled the clutch in and that sent the bike in to a bit of a wobble which just got worse and I had nowhere to go, I ran off and then bailed off. Hopefully nothing is broken and it is just some serious bruising but I will go and get checked out tomorrow.” Tozer definitely looked to be in enough pain to have broken something but hopefully that proves not to be the case.

Curtain’s crash also diminished the Supersport ranks. Curtain won the first race on Saturday but had to settle for second place in this morning’s wet race to young Glenn Allerton. Wisely, Allerton had gone for an extremely soft set-up with the rear suspension in the wet conditions, changing back to the standard Yamaha shock with all the clickers set to soft. This was the magic ingredient as Curtain said after the race that he tried to match Allerton but the privateer’s set-up was working too well.

22 year old Allerton had won Australian 250 Production races before but this was his maiden Australian Supersport victory. “I just went for a the softest set-up possible and had to feel my way around for the first few laps but then I put my head down a bit and just reeled everyone in, as I went faster it just sort of seemed that the other guys went slower.” They Sydney-sider had no tyre advantage over Curtain as the two were on the same rubber so it was a victory fair and square for Allerton.

Curtain was unable to compete in the third race due to his accident on the Superbike, but his team-mate Brendan Clarke took up the reigns and finished strongly to take a win from Shannon Johnson and Glen Allerton in the final race. Josh Brookes also figured strongly in what was a great battle but unfortunately had a fall in the closing stages.

Clarke was riding through some significant pain after breaking a couple of ribs and puncturing a lung only two weeks previous. “It (the accident) definitely affected the way I rode the bike, particularly on the left handers as I just could not get in the right position but right handers were okay. We qualified well and I had plenty of confidence in the bike but in the early races I did have to use a little discretion as with the way things are I really couldn’t afford to have a big fall this weekend. I lost the front three times early in the second race so just settled for a seventh place finish there in the damp conditions but it was good to come through for a win in the final race.”

To add a spark of controversy to the exciting round, Allerton was found to have an illegal aftermarket air filter in his machine which resulted in him being relegated one position in the final race after Castrol Honda lodged a protest. Even with the penalty, Allerton still managed to earn the overall round win from Shannon Johnson.

Shannon was none to pleased with the stewards decision, “I’m not so happy with the provisional final positions, a rule is a rule. If you break it you don’t deserve the results. But one thing I am happy with is the fact that we have made steps forward with the development on the new RR. We still need to work hard on the engine to find some more speed, I hope before the next round. I’m much more comfortable on the bike now and will now be able to fight for the race wins and again the Championship.”

Allerton thought that perhaps the rules should be made clearer in the hand book as he was not aware that an aftermarket air filter was illegal. “If I knew it was not allowed I wouldn’t have run it, any performance enhancement would be negligible with the filter we had in, the only reason we did run that one was because it is about half the price of the original equipment item. It was disappointing to be docked a position but I am still happy to have taken the overall round win ahead of all the factory backed opposition.”

However, such was Kevin Curtain’s total domination of the first round (held at South Australia’s Mallala Motorsport Park last month) that he remains the overall championship leader on 122 points. Castrol Honda’s Shannon Johnson is in second place on 107 points.

Western Australia’s Peter Taplin continued his domination of the 250 Grand Prix class by taking pole position followed by a perfect record of race wins. Mark Stanley and Chris Wilkie challenged Taplin briefly at times but the championship leader always responded, in the end all his race wins came fairly easily. Taplin has a perfect record of race wins thus far in 2003 after finishing a close second to Russell Holland in the 250 GP Championship last year. If Taplin takes the title this year he will be the first Western Australian to win a national road race championship since Alan Watts won the same class in 1996. This year entry numbers are fairly low, only 17 machines took part in this round but there were some good race battles to keep the spectators entertained.

Another rider dominating his class is Caleb Stalder, his success coming in the 250 Production Championship. Only 16 machines took to the grid and Stalder was at times more than two seconds faster than his next closest competitor. This class seems to be going downhill, which is unfortunate, as in recent years it has groomed some fantastic riders to go on and enjoy major success on both the national and international scene. Corser, Gobert and Mladin are just some of the famous surnames which cut their teeth in the early days of Australian 250 Production racing.

Great battles were fought out in the 125 Grand Prix ranks between multiple Australian Champion Peter Galvin and 16-year-old Mildura rider Josh Waters. Waters took the round win to extend his overall championship lead over Galvin to 43 points. 20 riders took part in this class, better than we have seen in recent years. This class has been the subject of much criticism in recent years from various quarters. But this year the 125 Championship has got a serious shot in the arm from youngsters like Josh Waters (16), and Jason O’Halloran (15). O’Halloran hit the series with a bang in his debut senior road race at Mallala. Unfortunately he did not fare quite as well at this round but he did score some good results, he is sure to battle for wins again before this championship is over.

Matthew Kuhne is another welcome addition to the 125 ranks, he turned 15 only a few weeks ago and has taken to the tar after winning multiple Australian Junior Dirt Track Titles. He is already showing good promise

Adding even more strength to the 125 GP ranks is Bryan Staring, also 15. The young Western Australian took the final round win in the junior class of the Australian Motocross Championship two weeks ago, and showed good speed in his road race debut at Mallala a couple of weeks prior to that. He was introduced to just how hard tarmac can be after breaking his collarbone following a highside out of Phillip Island’s ‘Siberia Corner’ during Friday practice at Phillip Island which put a premature end to his second road race outing.

Mick Kelly has also rejoined the 125 ranks after winning the Australian 250 Production Championship in 2001. The 25 year old from Mildura last rode a 125 in 2000 when he battled Jay Taylor, Josh Brookes and Michael Teniswood in the tiddler ranks. This year he is riding a borrowed machine which is actually the RS125 Peter Galvin piloted to victory in the 1999 Australian 125 Grand Prix Championship.

Leigh McKenzie maintained his charge in the burgeoning Superstock ranks with another round win. Alex Cudlin holds down second place overall in the championship, 47 points behind McKenzie. Non-Qualifier races had to be introduced for this weekend due to the sheer weight of entries in to this class which sees ‘C’ and ‘D’ graded riders go head to head on standard 600cc machines racing on a control tyre. This class seems to be going from strength to strength with large entries and some good racing.

The next stop on the Shell Advance Australian Superbike calendar is Victoria’s Winton Motor Raceway. It is hoped that Curtain will be back in action for that third round of the championship which is scheduled for the weekend of June 20-22. Stauffer is also hoping to be able to ride.

Suzuki are expected to have the 2003 GSX-R1000s ready for the next round and overseas experience points to the fact that the ‘K3′ model offers superior handling and braking to the ‘K2′ model. If that is the case the opposition better start worrying. Up until now the Yamahas have displayed a clear handling advantage over the Suzukis, but the GSX-Rs had the ‘motor’ to overcome that deficit at some tracks. But with the promise of handling which may be equal, or maybe even better than the Yamaha, Coxhell and Giles could prove unbeatable in the latter stages of the championship.