Wakefield Park ASC FX Team Reports
Crazy Dogs Kawasaki / Mike Jones Report
Crazy Dogs Kawasaki rider Mike Jones has finished in the top five outright in races on both Saturday and Sunday at the latest round of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship at Wakefield Park, subsequently firming his position in the top ten in both the AFX-SBK Championship and Swann Series.
After qualifying eighth with a 59.429, Mike continued his strong run of form in the AFX-SBK Championship by taking sixth in race one before progressing to fifth in race two with another sixth place in race three. The day’s results placed Mike in fifth for the round as he sits in fourth for the series.
Lap times from Saturday’s races were yet again the determinant for the grid positions for all three of Sunday’s races with Jones starting from fifth. The Brisbane rider managed eighth place in race one, with race two being red flagged after three laps. Sitting in tenth, the restart saw Mike move his way to eighth, with the final race of the weekend handing Mike his equal best result of the weekend with fifth. The day’s results took Mike to eighth for the Swann Series for the round and tenth on the Championship standings with one round remaining at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Mike Jones; “I’m ecstatic with the weekend on-board my Crazy Dogs Kawasaki ZX10. We’ve been moving forward all year and it’s nice to see the great amount of progress that has been made to the bike by XXX Rated Race Suspension and my riding skills due to spending so much time in the seat. I’m very happy with my feeling on the Ninja ZX10 and it’s good to be flying the flag for Kawasaki as their leading bike.”
“Qualifying didn’t go to plan with an unfortunate fall which left me to ride the spare bike. Considering that, my results on Saturday were very pleasing as I set a new personal best lap time and finished fifth overall for the round to consolidate my fourth position in the AFX-SBK series. I raced steadily in the first two races of Sunday’s Swann Series, but came out firing in the last race to take a hard fought fifth position against my more experienced competitors.”
“There are many positives from the weekend and I can’t wait to get back to some local circuits to continue developing the bike and my riding skills. I wish to thank my many sponsors and supporters for their valued contributions this year and hope to continue the positive form for the remainder of the season. I thoroughly look forward to my next race event at Phillip Island alongside the MotoGP.”
Mike’s next event will be Round 2 of the Phillip Island Championship as part of the Australian Superbike support category for the 2014 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Phillip Island, VIC from 17-19 October.
Team Honda Report
Team Honda Racing’s #47 Wayne Maxwell increased his championship lead yet again today at Round 5 of the Australasian Superbike Championship and the Honda team maintains the top 3 positions on the leaderboard after a fantastic weekend of racing. The Honda CBR1000RR SP shone brightest in the final Superbike race today with a Honda 1-2-3-4 finish.
Not everything went the way of the Honda today with #17 Troy Herfoss lucky to escape injury during a spectacular crash in Race 1 which cost him not only the race lead, but valuable points in the championship. Herfoss still managed to record the fastest lap of Race 1; 58.188 sec and regrouped well to take the next 2 race wins and set a new Superbike lap record in Race 3, a 58.025 sec on lap 7.
Herfoss finished 5th overall for the weekend and retains 3rd place in the ASC championship heading into the Finale. “It was a mixed weekend for me. It’s really difficult to accept crashing out of the lead in Race 1, but on the other hand it is hard not to be stoked with two wins and a lap record. The whole team worked so hard to put me on the track for Race 2. It’s a real credit to them for me to be out there on a race-winning motorcycle after such an enormous crash. The championship title is out of reach for me now so I will just focus on being up the front at the final event at Sydney Motorsport Park.”
The Race 1 winner, Wayne Maxwell was unchallenged once assuming the lead and crossed the finish line ahead of team mate #27 Jamie Stauffer with #16 Josh Hook taking 4th place.
Race 2 was not without drama for some; the race being red flagged and raced in 2 parts. The outcome for Team Honda Racing was Troy Herfoss taking the win and once again recording the fastest lap time of the race; 58.166 sec, just .026 sec ahead of Wayne Maxwell in combined times. Jamie Stauffer finished 3rd in Race 2 with Josh Hook taking 6th place.
The final race of the day for Superbikes was without a doubt the most thrilling. It was a true Battle Royale the entire race length with all 4 Honda CBR1000RR SPs vying for position. The red rivalry began with Stauffer taking the lead, followed by Maxwell, Herfoss and Hook. It was pass or be passed as the awesome foursome exchanged positions throughout. The only constant was the dominance of the Honda in Race 3 and at the finish line it was Troy Herfoss 1st with a new lap record for Superbikes, Wayne Maxwell 2nd, Jamie Stauffer 3rd and Josh Hook 4th to round out the Red Race.
Maxwell took the overall win for Round 5 onboard his Motul Honda and is very happy to maintain his championship lead. “If someone had said 3 weeks ago when I had my shoulder plated that I would get this result I would have had a difficult time believing them. I am super happy to take the round win and extend my championship lead. A huge thanks to the team and I am really looking forward to the Finale at Sydney Motorsport Park in November.”
A solid performance from Jamie Stauffer saw the Newcastle rider take a 2nd and two 3rd places today which not only placed him 2nd overall for the event, but also means he too maintains his championship position heading into the final event of the season. “The weekend went pretty well for me although obviously I wanted to come away with the win. Still, my lap times were really consistent and I am still sitting in 2nd place in the championship for the final round so we’ll see what happens. The racing was very close today and it’s great to see Team Honda Racing so strong. I’m sure we can take it to the final event and finish a great season on a high.”
Josh Hook is also looking to the Finale to finish his season with a maximum points haul. Behind the eight ball this year having missed the first event due to injury, Hook has accrued solid points throughout the year and is placed 6th overall heading into the final event. Hook took 4th overall for Round 5 and is focused on race wins at the last event. “It was a hard weekend for us, we struggled with bike set-up a bit, but by the end of the weekend we much stronger. A huge thanks to my crew, Shaun Clarke and Glenn Granger and to the team. I feel we have a good direction heading into the final round and hopefully I will be racing at the front to finish the season.”
The final round of the Australasian Superbike Championship will be held at Sydney Motorsport Park 21st – 23rd November when Team Honda Racing will make a final charge for the ASC title.
Angus Reekie / KTM Report
Angus Reekie’s amazing winning streak at the head of the Australian Superbike Championship’s Naked Bike division has come to an end as the Queenslander crashed out of the championship’s fifth round at NSW’s Wakefield Park Raceway at the weekend.
Reekie fell heavily in Friday practice for the event, dropping the bike at approximately 190km an hour in Turn 7, and could only watch helplessly as the bike flipped numerous times, damaging itself beyond the scope of the team’s repair capabilities at the track.
While Reekie was able to hobble away with no serious injury, his inability to take any points from the weekend not only saw his KTM 1290 Super Duke R’s 12-race winning streak come to an end, but also his 62-point championship lead become a 13-point deficit.
The situation now becomes very tight for the Queenslander, with only the final round of the Australasian Superbike Championship remaining at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway, and 75 points left up for grabs.
At least the ten-week gap in the calendar will provide plenty of time to repair his beloved Super Duke R.
Angus Reekie – “I lost the front in the fast left-right and it slid out into the potholes and rolled, and unfortunately the bike was damaged too significantly for us to fix. Leading up to that the bike was really, really good. We were doing consistent strong lap times on old tyres, and it was looking really positive for the weekend. But, you can’t pick these things, and I’m quite devastated to be honest, but that’s motor racing, and I will just have to live and learn and get back on it.
“I got out of it pretty lucky with a few bumps and bruises, but nothing too major which is good.
“Providing we can get all the parts, we’ll be there 100% for the last round. It’s going to be difficult to win the championship now, but hopefully we can just win every race at the last round and we’ll end up where we end up.”
Kawasaki Report
Kawasaki riders enjoyed a successful 5th round of the 2014 Swann Insurances Australasian Superbike Championship at Wakefield Park, NSW over the weekend. Sophie Lovett rounded out the podium in the Kawasaki Insurances FX300 Ninja Cup class while Brayden Carr won the Formula Oz class on his Ninja ZX-10R.
Although she leads the Women’s class comfortably in the Kawasaki Insurances FX300 Ninja Cup, the 5th round at Wakefield Park was momentous for Kawasaki’s Sophie Lovett as she was able to achieve an outright podium finish by taking 3rd place. The round was won by Kyle Buckley who leads the series by a narrow 2 point margin over Brandon Demmery who finished the round in 2nd place. Sophie Lovett sits in 3rd place outright in the series after 3-4-5 race finishes on board her Ninja 300 at Wakefield Park.
An excited Sophie Lovett say’s, “I’m so happy to finish on the podium amongst a field of mostly male riders. The Ninja 300 performed flawlessly once again and I’m looking for another strong result at Eastern Creek in November to finish the series off on a high note.”
Acclaimed motorcycle journalist Rennie Scaysbrook was the guest wildcard rider for the Kawasaki Motors Finance Ninja 300 at round 5 and he was on the pace from the get-go with a 3rd place race finish during Saturday’s non-championship races. A crash would put him out of the mix in Sunday’s first points scoring race however he bounced back to take 5th place and 4th place respectively over the remaining two races.
Kawasaki riders took two podium positions in the Formula Oz class thanks to Brayden Carr and Matthew Harding. Carr seized two race wins on board his Ninja ZX-10R at Wakefield Park on his way to the top step of the podium (2-1-1) while Matthew Harding finished in 3rd place overall with 5-4-2 results.
Kawasaki were well represented in the Superbike class thanks to Sean Condon and the defending champion and #1 plated Matt Walters however the high power output of the Ninja ZX-10R Superbike engines was never going to be suited to the tight Wakefield Park circuit and this showed in the riders results.
Sean Condon finished in 10th overall with 11-10-10 results while Matt Walters finished in 11th overall with 9-9-13 finishes. Mike Jones took 8th place with 8-8-5 results.
Kawasaki riders are looking forward to the 6th and final round of the 2014 Swann Insurances Australasian Superbike Championship which will take place at Sydney Motorsports Park at Eastern Creek on 21-23 November.
Glenn Scott Report
Glenn Scott has returned to the top ten in the Superbike class at the latest round of the Australasian Superbike Championship at Wakefield Park, subsequently displaying a healthy bounce back to form and with one round remaining, the Central Coast rider will be looking to build on experience at Sydney Motorsport Park in an effort to return to the podium at the final event of the year.
After qualifying tenth on Friday with a 59.545, Glenn made a steady progression into the top ten throughout Saturday’s three races finishing eleventh in the first event, before taking eighth and seventh respectively in race two and three.
The results handed Glenn eighth for the AFX Championship for the round of which he currently sits fifth for the series.
Starting Sunday’s three races for the Swann Series from eighth with times from Saturday’s events determining the grid, Glenn made a blistering start in race one finishing fifth. A red flag in race two meant the event would be run in two parts, with the stoppage coming after three laps, Glenn was sitting seventh. On the restart, the Team InsureMyRide
Racing rider went on to take seventh before finishing eighth in the final race of the day. The results placed Glenn in seventh for the round and firms his position in ninth for the series.
Glenn Scott;“The weekend provided some of the best racing I have been a part of in my career. It was super close with some great passing. I’m really happy to come away with seventh outright and first privateer and to be back mixing it with the factory riders. Breaking the SP gearbox on Friday was really disappointing but we got the job done with the spare bike, a standard 2013 FireBlade. A huge thanks to my crew and Darren from Race Center for getting the bike handling amazingly well in order to allow me to set the fourth quickest time of the day.”
“We were only 0.4 seconds off the fastest time set all weekend, I’m really excited to come back from a disappointing round four at Winton and show I’m able to run with the front guys even though we had some solid setbacks. It was an amazing effort put in by my team over the whole weekend, our bike only put out 154hp on the compulsory dyno checks at the circuit which is reasonably less than some of our key opposition so I’m really happy with our results.”
“All of this wouldn’t be possible without the amazing help leading up to this round and across the whole year. I can’t thank InsureMyRide, MSC Moto, Veolia Environmental Services, Ipone, Savage Clothing & Signs, Jason Kerr, Racers Edge, OzMotorcycle, AXO, Fitmoto, Gimoto Leathers, Shark Helmets and Direct Management Group.”
Brayden Elliott Report
Tumut’s Brayden Elliott has finished eighth outright in the Supersport category as part of the latest round of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park Raceway, with the result consolidating Elliott’s position in the top ten in the series standings in his first full season in road racing.
Friday’s qualifying session saw Brayden secure the tenth quickest time overall with a 1:03.180, the result also placed him as the second fastest D Grade rider in the field. The early stages of Saturday’s first race saw good progression for Elliott through the field, before a high speed crash at turn one on the penultimate lap. Brayden escaped without injury, with his team subsequently preparing his spare bike the day’s remaining races. The final two races of the day saw himride from the rear of the grid to finish tenth in race two, with eighth in race three. The day’s results handed Braydentwelfth for the round in the AFX-SBK Championship and he now sits eighth in the series.
Sunday’s opening race was run in two parts following a red flag on lap three, with Brayden finishing tenth before progressing to ninth in race two. The 19-year old’s best result of the weekend was delivered in race three by taking sixth outright, subsequently helping his round result in the Swann Series to eighth and firming his position in tenth for the series with one round remaining at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Brayden Elliott; “I am very happy with my efforts at round five of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship at Wakefield Park. The weekends racing got off to a rough start with an extremely fast crash at turn one while battling for positions with another rider. Thankfully I was unhurt with the help of my amazing Gimoto Leathers and the bike would be fixable for later use.”
“I was lucky enough to have my spare bike quickly prepared for race two and was able to continue on in the final two races on Saturday. It was difficult jumping on a bike that I had not ridden in dry conditions for many months but I feel I made the change quite well with some good results. It’s not always easy coming straight back from a crash and going into another race although I felt like I handled the situation well and managed to set a personal best lap time in the next race.”
“I can’t thank my whole team enough for the massive effort put in to repair my main race bike for Sunday’s racing. It was fantastic to jump back on the bike and put in another great three races during Sunday’s program. Unfortunately due to some clutch issues in the first two races, I had a lot of trouble getting off the start. This made the racing a lot harder trying to fight my way through the pack of such a competitive Supersport field.”
“Thankfully we fixed the issue for the last race of the day which I felt was one of the best road races I have had. To fight my way to sixth position and gain a personal best lap time of 1:01.7 was a great way to finish the weekend.”
“I’m happy to finish eighth overall, taking away some extremely positive improvements throughout the weekend. I feel that I am definitely taking steps in the right direction, everyone’s hard work is starting to show with improvements in my results and riding. Once again, I can’t thank Shawn Giles, Michael Jeffery, Mum, Dad and all of my sponsors for theirsupport. It was also great to have so many people from Tumut make the trip to watch and cheer me on over the weekend.’
Bailie Perriton Report
New Zealand’s Bailie Perriton has completed yet another weekend of top three finishes at the latest round of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship at the penultimate round of the series at Wakefield Park, with a two month break approaching ahead of the final round at Sydney Motorsport Park.
With qualifying being another close affair at the front of the Kawasaki Insurance Ninja FX300 class, Bailie recorded the fourth quickest time with a 1:10.551, setting himself up to start on the front row for the first of Saturday’s three races. Two third place finishes and a fourth in race three on Saturday handed Bailie third for the day in the AFX Championship, firming his position in third for the series. In the under 21 class, Bailie finished third for the round and currently sits second for the series.
With Sunday’s grid positions being determined by lap times from Saturday’s races, Bailie would start all three of the final day’s events from third. After crossing the line in third in the opening race, the Ashburton rider was relegated to eighth following a 15 second penalty being applied for a false start.
Two third place finishes in the weekend’s final two races helped to improve his Swann Series position for the round to fourth, subsequently Perriton sits fourth in the series. In the under 21 Championship, Bailie finished third and continues to sit third for the Swann Series.
Bailie Perriton; “It was good to come away with another strong result from the weekend, including a string of podium finishes in the races. We had some good speed and the Wakefield Park track is one that is not easy to setup for, so I’m quite satisfied with our performance and result and where we sit in the series standings with one round remaining.”
“I can’t thank firstly McIntosh Group enough for their support of me in ensuring I could make it to Wakefield Park for this weekend. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to succeed aswell as we did. If it wasn’t for my entire fleet of sponsors, this season would not have been possible so far, I am really looking forward to the final round where I hope to reward them with some more race wins.”
“I’m really looking forward to the last round at Sydney Motorsport Park, it looks like an incredible track just from watching some onboard videos. I can’t wait to experience the fast flowing corners and high speed straights, it should be a great way to cap off what has been an amazing season so far.”
Josh McHenry Report
Josh McHenry has taken victory in the latest round of the Kawasaki Insurance Ninja FX250 Championship at Wakefield Park as part of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship, subsequently closing in to within six points of the series lead with one round remaining.
After qualifying fifth in the Ninja FX250 Class from Friday’s sole 18 minute session with a 1:15.423, Josh worked on developing improvements to move his way through the field in Saturday’s three eight lap races. Two second place finishes in race one and three were combined with a class victory in race two, handing him second for the round in the AFX Championship by just 1.5 points, with the result ensuring he holds second in the series.
The improvements made throughout Saturday’s races were also reflected in Sunday’s events, as the Melbourne rider took another victory in race two in addition to two third place results in race’s one and three respectively. Josh’s results saw him to take the win for the day in the Swann Series and close the Championship lead to just six points with one round remaining at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Josh McHenry; “The weekend all in all was a good one, we struggled a bit in the races getting up to speed as it is a hard track to learn and subsequently apply setup changes for but I am happy with our overall result in particular to close in further on the series lead.”
“We knew coming into this weekend that it was going to be difficult as it is a lot of my main opposition’s home track that they have done a lot of testing on, so we entered it just wanting to be consistent, therefore to come out with the win on Sunday was a fantastic achievement.”
“I have to thank my parents for all their continued support, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now without them. Also my sponsors, they have been a huge support throughout the whole year, I’m really looking forward to hitting the track at the last round at Sydney Motorsport Park and charging hard for more wins and perhaps a crack at winning the Championship.”
