Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Trevor Hedge, www.mcnews.com.au

The opening stages of the second round of the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship were played out under cloudy skies at Victoria’s magnificent Phillip Island circuit today.

Shawn Giles (Suzuki) signaled his intentions in first qualifying by going 1.5 seconds under the previous Australian Production Superbike qualifying record and over half a second under the race lap record. Nobody could beat that mark in final qualifying which put Giles on pole position for tomorrow’s three races.

Yamaha’s Kevin Curtain dominated the opening encounter of the five round championships at South Australia’s Mallala Motorsport Park last month with a perfect record of race wins in both the Superbike and Supersport classes. At that meeting Giles was still suffering the effects of a case of severe food poisoning which hindered his performance.

But Giles proved he is back, and fit, after conquering those ills to take pole on his GSX-R1000 Suzuki. Curtain piloted his Yamaha YZF-R1 to a 1:35.244 in the final qualifying session which was good enough for fourth on the grid.

Curtain’s team-mate and fellow Novocastrian, Daniel Stauffer, was the second fastest man in final qualifying and will take his place next to Giles at the front of the grid. Daniel is the brother of Jamie Stauffer who recently filled the Suzuki AMA Supersport seat vacated by Aaron Yates.

Also on the front row is 20-year-old Shepparton rider Craig Coxhell. He is the youngest rider on the front row of the grid and is partner to reigning Australian Superbike Champion Shawn Giles in Team Suzuki Australia.

But Kevin Curtain did manage to top the tables in the 600cc Supersport category, the 26-year-old needed only one of the two qualifying sessions to secure pole. Second on the Supersport grid is young Brendan Clarke, who, like Curtain, also rides a Yamaha YZF-R6 for the Nikon Yamaha Team. Both riders are back riding in Australia after stints riding on the world championship stage. Curtain rode World Supersport on a Honda while Clarke was the youngest ever 500 Grand Prix competitor when he rode for the Shell Advance Grand Prix squad two years ago.

The tyre rules for Australian Supersport mean that riders have only two sets of tyres to last them through the qualifying sessions, and the three eight lap races scheduled over the weekend. With this in mind both the Nikon Yamaha riders only did the absolute minimum laps needed to ensure their places at the front of the grid.

The first of the weekend’s three Supersport races was run today with Kevin Curtain storming away to an easy victory. The battle for second was hard and fast with Brendan Clarke, Shannon Johnson, Josh Brookes and Glenn Allerton all taking turns at leading the fight. Honda team-mates Josh Brookes and Shannon Johnson rubbed fairings, and elbows, down the main straight in the final run to the line but it was Brookes who held on to take second, but the call was close enough for the video evidence to be called upon to back up the timing system. Both the Honda riders had a talking to about their antics down the main straight which nearly resulted in Brookes rubbing the wall at around 240kph.

Alex Cudlin took the Superstock win by the narrowest of margins over Alex Tomassetti after the duo had a great battle. Leigh McKenzie was the star performer at the previous Mallala round but at the ultra fast Phillip Island circuit the Victorian could only take third behind the two New South Wales riders.

Mildura’s Josh Waters got a shocker of a start in the 125 Grand Prix race but quickly worked his way up to the front. The 16-year-old had a ding-dong battle for the win with multiple time Australian Champion Peter Galvin. Waters took the win by two-tenths of a second after both himself and Galvin continually lowered the lap record. While Waters eventually recorded the win, it was Galvin who set the new record with a 1:41.632. Waters also did times in the 1-minute-41 bracket but the best of the rest could only managed 1-minute-44s.

Western Australia’s Peter Taplin took the win in 250 Grand Prix to continue his perfect record so far this year. Mark Stanley challenged him at times but Taplin eventually took the win by two seconds, while Stanley just managed to hold off Chris Wilkie to take second place.

Caleb Stalder continued to be the class of the field in the dwindling 250 Production ranks. This class sees basically standard Aprilia RS250 machines go head to head with each other and the class has produced champions such as Troy Corser, Mat Mladin, Robbie Baird, Kevin Curtain, Broc Parkes, Anthony West and Aaron Gobert.

But at this stage of the game the 250 Production class is definitely only a shadow of its former self, with grids quite often numbering less than 15. Some rule changes were introduced this year which puts riders on a Michelin Pilot Sport control tyre. The riders have petitioned this move and want to get the rule changed so they can ride on the more track focused ‘Pilot Race’ tyres.

The main factor in tomorrow’s three Superbike races could well turn out to be the notorious Phillip Island weather. ‘A few showers’ are forecast but there is also a chance that the weather could turn nasty. This could really throw a spanner in the works as it has been a long time since a Shell Advance Australian Superbike experienced inclement weather so many of the top riders have not ridden in the rain for a couple of years.

If it is dry, the top four Superbike riders are all on Dunlop rubber but compound choices could be where it is won or lost in regards to the overall round win. Australian Superbikes get two sets of tyres each for them to complete three races on, so one set has to be used in two races. If it is wet Michelin have previously proven to be superior which could allow Honda riders such as Shannon Johnson and Josh Brookes figure more in to the equation. But Dunlop are rumoured to have some great new wets available in Australia this year. If it does turn wet I guess we will find out…

But come rain, hail, or shine the action will be fierce as Australia’s fastest motorcycle racers battle it out around the 4.45km circuit on Sunday to see who comes away the victor from this second round of the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship.