2003 Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship
Round 4
Queensland Raceway
Saturday Report
August 9, 2003

By Trevor Hedge (www.mcnews.com.au)

Constantly changing weather conditions dogged Friday’s opening practice sessions for this weekend’s penultimate round of the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship at Queensland Raceway. But today beautiful blue skies combined with a light breeze to provide near perfect conditions for qualifying and the opening races at the three-kilometre circuit.

It was three-time and reigning Shell Advance Australian Superbike Champion Shawn Giles (Team Suzuki) that took advantage of the environment to lay down a 1:10.84 lap to earn pole position for tomorrow’s three Superbike races. Incredibly, only 0.1-second covers the front row of the Superbike grid with Daniel Stauffer (Nikon Yamaha), Craig Coxhell (Team Suzuki) and Kevin Curtain (Nikon Yamaha) rounding out the front row. The scene is set for a titanic showdown on Sunday as every point counts in the race for the 2003 title.

In the tightly fought Supersport class Russell Holland gave the all new ZX-6RR Kawasaki its first pole position for the year after recording a blistering 1:13.2 lap around the flat but challenging Willowbank layout.

But Holland succumbed to the increasingly dominant Nikon Yamaha duo of Kevin Curtain and Brendan Clarke in the opening Supersport race of the weekend. A thrilling war for the win waged between Clarke and his vastly more experienced teammate Kevin Curtain, but it was the young Clarke who won the opening battle and took the chequered flag at his home circuit. Holland figured well in the early battle for the lead but had to settle for a well earned podium finish ahead of Team Honda’s Joshua Brookes.

Western Australia’s Peter Taplin continued his run of form in the 250cc Grand Prix class and extended his championship lead to 112 points. If Taplin continues his unbeaten form on Sunday he will have a clear enough margin to be crowned champion with a round still remaining.

Taree’s Caleb Stalder took out the 250cc Production opener to extend his Championship lead over Troy Elliott. The initial 125cc Grand Prix race for the weekend was a battle between two Mildura riders with 16-year-old Joshua Waters taking victory over the more experienced Mick Kelly. The sidecar pairing of Michael Alton and Wendy Grice won their first bout from South Australia’s Neville Lush and Martin Scott.

The remainder of the race program including the Shell Advance Superbikes wraps up on Sunday with three Superbike races and two races for each of the supporting classes.