From a press release issued by series organizers:

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

Race report

STAUFFER STARS WITH DOMINATING PERFORMANCE IN FORMULA XTREME AND SUPERSPORT AT ORAN PARK

Jamie Stauffer was the star of today’s racing at round five of the Yamaha Xtreme Tri-State series being run at Oran Park Raceway.

The 23-year-old from Kurri Kurri (NSW) rider was in brilliant form taking out the overall round win in both the Yamaha Formula Xtreme and Supersport classes. To further add to his performances he was credited with a new lap record in each class for the 2.62km Narellan circuit, south west of Sydney.

Near perfect weather set the scene for a weekend of fast and close racing and that’s what the competitors produced. Lap records were broken in every class during the two days of racing in front of one of the largest crowds to turn out for a motorcycle road race meeting in NSW for many years.

The weekend also saw three titles decided, with Craig McMartin (Ducati Sydney/Pirelli Ducati 996R) taking his second consecutive Pro-Twins title, Craig Trinder wrapped up his first Buell NakedBike title aboard his Bio Magnetics Yamaha FZ1 and Rob Hermans collected the Streetfighter NK Lites crown aboard his Buell Dealer Network Buell X1.

The scene is now set for the season finale at Eastern Creek on September 28-29. With in excess of $200,000 in motorcycles and prizes up for grabs the sixth and final round of the series will be an event not to be missed.


YAMAHA FORMULA XTREME

Kevin Curtain may have secured pole position for the four 8-lap Yamaha Formula Xtreme races, but the three times champion left Oran Park with only one win to his name, but continues to hold the points lead in the title chase over his Radar’s Team Yamaha teammate Robbie Baird.

The opening race saw a frantic battle between the Bio Magnetics Sport Yamahas of Daniel and Jamie Stauffer, who were able to break away from the trio of Radar’s Team Yamahas led by Curtain, Craig Coxhell and Baird.

Curtain turned the tables in race two by taking the win from Daniel Stauffer and Baird after Jamie’s bike began to run on two cylinders after his battery ran flat and put him out of contention.

He came out with all gun blazing so to speak and took full control of the final two races to record the round win, the first for the new Queensland based Bio Magnetics Sport team.

“When we got here on Friday the bike was good,” said Stauffer. “We found a few things with the set up of the chassis at the last round and now all that we have to do is make some finer adjustments when we got here and the bike was right. The firs race was a good battle between Daniel and myself, but in the second race the battery went flat and overheated the bike and then it actually caught fire when we brought it into pit lane. That was annoying and after that I didn’t think that I’d win the day. In the last two races I had to run a harder compound tyre because we ran out of the softer ones I was running and then I was getting a lot more wheelspin. Overall though, it was a great day. Except for the fire in race two I guess. I’m more than happy to leave here with two overall wins and two new lap records. I’ve always enjoyed riding at Oran Park. It’s a bit more technical than most and that sorts a few people out. It’s not necessarily a horsepower track. I like it and I enjoy it here.”



YUASA BATTERIES FORMULA XTREME LAP RECORD CHARGE

Jamie Stauffer scored his second Yuasa Batteries Formula Xtreme Lap Record Charge award of the year when he set a new mark of 1:10.310 around the Oran Park circuit, eclipsing the previous mark of 1:10.82 set by Kevin Curtain.

Stauffer was the first rider to take advantage of the $1000 cheque made available by Yuasa Batteries, when he set a new FX lap record at Victoria’s Winton Raceway at Round two of the series.



YAMAHA FX SUPERSPORT

Current series points leader Kevin Curtain may have fired the first salvo by taking pole position and the opening race win aboard his Radar’s Team Yamaha YZF-R6, but it was Jamie Stauffer who was the star aboard his Bio Magnetics Yamaha YZF-R6 as he took the win in the remaining three races.

As he had done earlier in the day in the Formula Xtreme class, Stauffer was able to lower the class lap record, setting a new standard of 1:11.982 set in race three.

Stauffer took the overall honours for the day, but still finds himself in second place on the points table behind Curtain, who finished third overall today, but who has a 77-point lead in the title chase.

Second overall today was Russell Holland (Pirelli Tyres/Biketek Suzuki GSX-R600) who put in his best rides of the season. He battled with the more experienced pair of Stauffer and Curtain and could well prove to be a serious race threat at the final round at Eastern Creek.



BUELL NAKEDBIKES / STREETFIGHTER NK LITES

Bio Magnetic Sport Yamaha pilot Craig Trinder has taken the Nakedbike title in an awesome display of skill winning all four races at Oran Park to remove all doubt about who is the number 1 in the class this year. The new king of Nakedbikes commented on his win “It’s a good series and is well done by Formula Xtreme. The young guys coming through are getting better and the younger guys will go faster and get up there. You have to remember I was racing GP bikes before some of the younger boys were ideas in their father’s pants, so I’ve got a lot of experience I can pass on to them in the Nakedbikes that I’ve learnt from all those years of racing and I am sure if I run 36s at the Creek next round the top four will follow too.”

The Buell Dealership Network have thrown a lot into the Streetfighter class and it has paid off for them with Rob Hermans decimating the field aboard his Buell X1 for his title as 2002 Streetfighter NK Lites Champion. “I’ve been really happy with the bike – it’s done two seasons and was Mark Wacker’s bike from Queensland before I started racing it and it’s only crashed once. I find that for the series I made lots of points early and that’s helped me in this last half of the competition.” Despite this win Hermans will compete in the last round and race to place as well as he can against
the more powerful Nakedbikes.



EXEL APRILIA CHALLENGE

Queensland riders again dominated the 2002 Aprilia Challenge, with Brendan Clarke and John Allen sharing the spoils at Oran Park.

2001 Aprilia Challenge winner Clarke captured the first three races, with veteran Allen annexing the final leg following the demise of his chief rivals. Allen now leads the series going into the final round at Eastern Creek, from Central Coast teenagers, Dustin Goldsmith and Josh Forster.

The young pair both crashed over the weekend, swinging the points’ advantage back to Allen, who claims his experience may well be the decisive factor come Eastern Creek. The trio all go into the final round with a chance of claiming the 2002 Challenge.



FX PRO-TWINS

Craig McMartin (Ducati Sydney/Pirelli Racing) continued his dominance in the Pro Twins class, winning all four races this weekend and now has an unassailable lead in the class, making it two consecutive titles for the Wagga rider.

The Ducati rider was hounded throughout the weekend by the Aprilias of Mike Soderland (JSG Gowanlock Racing), Shaun Geronimi and Zac Davies (Australian Security Concepts) who were scrapping for the minor places behind McMartin.

Soderland’s consistency won him second place overall, ahead of Geronimi who provided repeated heart-stoppers as his bike repeatedly stepped out.



FORMULA OZ

Alistair Maxwell (Kawasaki ZX-7RR) made a clean sweep of the Oran Park round of Formula OZ, and setting up a final round battle with defending class champion John Allen (Aluma Lite Racing Honda NSR500V) at Eastern Creek.

The two have swapped race wins all year, with Maxwell being the more dominant of the two in recent rounds and that form continued today.

The closeness of the two experienced rivals is evident in the split at the end of three of the four 6-lap races. Just 0.102 of a second in race one, 0.082 in race three and 0.025 in race four indicate how close these two were at it all weekend.