Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

2003 Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship
Round 4, Queensland Raceway
August 10, 2003

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

Nikon Yamaha’s Kevin Curtain won the first of three Australian Superbike races under perfect skies at Queensland Raceway today. The race had to be restarted after a crash on the opening lap. Curtain took advantage of a good run off the line at the restart to ensure he was never headed. Suzuki’s Shawn Giles and Craig Coxhell finished second and third, respectively.

But the tables turned in the second race when Curtain had a fall at the fast turn one while dicing for the lead with Coxhell. The drama didn’t end there as Coxhell lost a lot of places in the incident with Curtain, which left Giles to take the advantage and a clear lead. In the closing laps Giles started to suffer from rear tire grip problems, which allowed his young teammate to close and pass the three-time Shell Advance Australian Superbike Champion. Coxhell took the win from Giles as Honda’s Kirk McCarthy battled with Daniel Stauffer for the final podium position, McCarthy getting the nod.

Giles was incredulous after the race, “At first I thought it was my clutch slipping as the bike was revving hard but I was getting no drive, but the next lap around I noticed the huge black marks I had left the lap before, which made me realise that it was in fact my rear tire that was spinning rather than any clutch slip!”

In Australian Superbike the riders are allowed only two sets of tires for the three races so the final encounter came down to who had the most grip and could preserve that grip the best. Due to Curtain’s early fall in race two this left the Newcastle rider with perhaps the freshest rubber for the final showdown for the day. Curtain did take the win in that final Superbike race for the weekend but it was Giles who took the overall victory from teammate Coxhell.

Coxhell retains his lead in the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship with 195 points, followd by Giles with 180 points and Curtain third overall with 176 points. This means the 2003 Championship is still wide open with a single round remaining in the series. The final round will be played out at Sydney’s Eastern Creek on the weekend of August 31.

Nikon Yamaha’s 19-year-old Brendan Clarke upstaged teammate (and points leader) Curtain to take a clean sweep of the 600cc Supersport races. Clarke repeatedly smashed his own lap record around the bumpy 3.0-kilometer Queensland track in a dominant display. Curtain had a fall in the final Supersport race which cost him plenty of points and allowed Clarke to narrow the gap to only 17 points from the Championship leader. This sets the scene for a thrilling finale at Eastern Creek late this month. Second overall for this round was Kawasaki’s Russell Holland who battled all day with Honda’s Josh Brookes which made for a young podium at this level of racing, with the top three finishers all 19 and 20 years old.

The supporting classes of racing ensured the large crowd entertained all day. Western Australia’s Peter Taplin left this round with an Australian Championship under his belt after dominating the 250cc Grand Prix class all year.

Mildura youngster Joshua Waters took the 125cc GP round win from fellow Mildura rider Mick Kelly. Sydney’s 15-year-old Jason O’Halloran also scored a podium finish at this round. The round win earned 16-year-old Josh Waters the Australian 125cc GP Championship crown with an insurmountable 91-point lead over O’Halloran.

Local rider Gareth Jones took out the 250cc Production class to close the points gap to Taree’s Caleb Stalder while the South Australian pairing of Neville Lush and Martin Scott extended their lead in the F1 Sidecar Championship. Western Australia’s Lindsay Fagan and Ash Voice put in a great performance to move up to second overall in the F1 Sidecar Championship.

Exciting battles were played out between Taree’s Alex Cudlin and Ballarat’s Leigh McKenzie in the Superstock class with Cudlin taking two wins to McKenzie’s one. McKenzie still has a healthy 30-point lead with three races remaining in the 2003 series.

The Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship finale takes place at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway on August 29-31.


More, from a press release issued by Nikon Yamaha:

Wins and Crashes for Nikon Yamaha Factory Racing Team in Queensland

It was a weekend of success and disappointment for the Gold-Coast based Nikon Yamaha Factory Racing Team during the fourth round of the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship held at Queensland Raceway Willowbank.

The team won five of the six races contested for the premier Superbike and 600cc Supersport classes to maintain its remarkable win rate but, the mixed fortunes came with lead rider Kevin Curtain having two crashes to put a dent in his championship aspirations while Brisbane teenager Brendan Clarke made a clean sweep of the middleweight Supersport class and broke his own lap record of his “home track” in the process.

The weekend started off in fine form for Curtain. From the green light in the first leg (that was re-started due to a crash) Curtain was never headed taking out the opening Superbike race by nearly three seconds from the Suzuki’s of Shawn Giles and Craig Coxhell, while the second Nikon Yamaha rider Daniel Stauffer was fourth.

The win closed Curtain to within just six points of the title lead but it was all brought undone soon after the start of leg two.

The Novocastrian grabbed another flyer off the start with his nemesis Coxhell close behind. Coxhell used the extra speed of the Suzuki to grab the lead on the straight but from there the championship took another wrong turn for Curtain.

Heading into Turn One, Coxhell had a big moment losing the front and unfortunately, due to the sudden decrease of Coxhell’s speed Curtain hit him. This in turn forced Coxhell upright and out of harm’s way as Curtain went down sliding into the sand trap and out of the race. Coxhell regained his composure to take the win and push his title lead out to 31 points with Stauffer again fourth.

“I couldn’t believe it but there was nothing I could do,” bemoaned Curtain. “In that situation if you back off you lose the front and go down. I’m pretty sure Craig lost the front and talking to him after the race he said that he was crashing but when I hit him, it stood his bike up and saved him while I went down. That’s the second time this year I have crashed with another rider in the first turn and neither one has been my fault! It’s pretty hard to take.”

Curtain was forced to his spare bike for the final leg after his preferred steed was not repaired in time but this – and his earlier accident – made him more resolute for victory. Stauffer and Coxhell led away for the opening laps as Curtain made a cautious start to proceedings becoming accustomed to the different bike but within a couple of laps had accounted for the Suzuki’s and set after his teammate but Stauffer was equally determined to add some joy to his weekend and the pair swapped the lead in some desperate but clean racing over the next few laps.

Curtain finally managed to make a slight break with some consistent near-lap record times that none of his adversaries were able to match enabling him to graft out nearly a three second win over Stauffer with Giles third, the result good enough to secure Curtain third overall on the day.

“That was a good way to finish the day after what had happened and I’m still in the hunt with a chance but that second leg was disappointing as if I had finished I could now be back leading the title.”

With the final round at Sydney’s Eastern Creek in three weeks time, Curtain trails the title leader by 19 points.

After dominating the Supersport class this year it was a different story at Willowbank as his teammate Clarke and a few of the other youngsters had no respect for the reputation of the wily veteran.

The Supersports are renown for producing some of the closest racing in the world and the three legs at Willowbank reinforced the reputation.

Clarke forecast before the meeting it would take lap record pace to win and he was right on the money.

Clarke and Curtain had a great duel in the opening leg before Clarke gained the lead at half distance and managed to hold off Curtain to the line. “The times were really fast as Kev and I were really pushing hard,” Clarke said. “I just put my head down and went for it. I had a couple of moments out there but there were just rear end slides. ”

The second leg was a carbon copy of the first with a few of the other youngster having a dig in the opening laps. The Nikon Yamaha lads showed their superiority to clear out from the rest as Curtain led his ever-improving teammate until the closing stages with Clarke muscling his way past to take out a double.

Such was their stoush, the pair continually broke the lap record with Clarke lowering his benchmark set in June to an amazingly record lap of 1:12.7!

Curtain had followed his younger rival home in the first two races but was keen to not let him have three, blasting off the line in the final leg to set up an impressive lead as the rest had a brawl over the minor places.

Curtain seemed to have the race wrapt up for all money but as the title leader explained later, “everything was going well and I had backed it off a bit as I knew I had a handy lead but then as I was tipping it into Turn Two with a couple of laps to go the front just went on me. It just started skating away and that was it. There must’ve been something on the track as there was no real warning.

“I came here with what I thought was a good game plan this weekend but somehow things went wrong. I’m glad there is one more round left.”

Clarke prevailed to take his third win to close with 17 points of Curtain heading into the final round. “That was a great weekend. It’s pretty satisfying to win the overall against a rider like Kev but the team has been working really hard and we’ve got the Yamaha R6 really dialled in,” said a delighted Clarke.

Superbike points score after four (of five rounds) 1 C Coxhell (Suzuki), 195pts; 2 S Giles, (Suzuki) 190; 3 K Curtain (Nikon Yamaha YZF-R1), 176; 4 D Stauffer (Nikon Yamaha YZF-R1) 147; 5 S Charlton (Suzuki) 97.

Supersport points after four (of five rounds): 1 K Curtain (Nikon Yamaha YZF-R6) 212pts; 2 B Clarke (Nikon Yamaha YZF-R6) 195; 3 S Johnson (Honda) 157; 4 J Brookes (Honda) 141; 5 G Allerton (Yamaha) 125.