Wild weather halts Mallala Test
By, KW
South-east Australia’s wild weather on Wednesday, April 2 kept Australia’s top Superbike and Supersport riders sheltering in their pit garages at South Australia’s Mallala race circuit during the first day of a scheduled two-day test session.
Dust storms, rain squalls and wind gusts up to 100km/h lashed the circuit throughout the day, forcing riders to seek refuge in team transporters and their locked pit garages to escape the elements.
An attempt to take to the circuit early in the day when there was a momentary easing of the wind was quickly abandoned when one of numerous dust storms throughout the day engulfed the circuit.
“It was quite scary,” said Team Joe Rocket Suzuki rider Shawn Giles. “I went out to do a plotting lap for our telemetry system, and it was hard to know where I was on the circuit.”
The Mallala test session holds additional significance for Australia’s top riders, as it may be the first time that a Supersport bike records a higher top speed than a Superbike. Mallala’s challenging back-straight kink can be taken full-throttle on a Supersport bike, while Superbikes have to roll off the throttle.
Mallala has the lowest top speed of any circuit on the Australian Superbike Championship calendar, yet the most challenging top speed to achieve.
“It’s possible to take the kink flat – I’ve done it a couple of times,” said reigning Australian Superbike champion Jamie Stauffer. “But the conditions have to be right.”
With top speed recorded just after the kink, the speed differential between Superbike and Supersport was just 5km/h when the AMCN Stalker radar gun was last used at the circuit in 2005.
Since then the performance of Supersport bikes have increased, reflected by Jamie Stauffer’s qualifying time on his Yamaha Racing Team YZF-R6 at Eastern Creek’s opening round of the 2008 series.
“I reckon Shawn (Giles) and Craig (Coxhell) should be worried,” grinned Team Joe Rocket Suzuki rider Josh Waters. “I’m pretty keen to see what I can do through the speed trap on the 600.”
The distributor-backed teams from Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha are attending the two-day Mallala test session, along with supported privateers.
