Recapping the 2024 Bridgestone / Motorworks 2 Hour Race from Baskerville

Bridgestone / Motorworks
Baskerville 2 Hour Race

With Frank Symmons

The first Sunday of summer brought with it the 10th annual running of the Bridgestone Motorworks 2 Hour Endurance Race, held at Hobart’s challenging Baskerville Raceway.

Tasmania’s traditional final road race race meeting of the year is a great chance to finish the year on a high regardless of your championship standings from the season. It is also a great opportunity to try and run alongside some of the nation’s best A-graders who regularly drop in to share in the fun, past riders such as Mike Jones, Shawn Giles, Glen Allerton, Kyle Buckley to name a few, teaming up with local riders in this classic test of man and machine.

This year was to be no exception with the visit of journeyman racer, South Australian David Johnson, having never before been to Australia’s southernmost road racing circuit. Davo was joined by others from NSW, Victoria and even one entrant from NZ; to take on some of Tassie’s best.

Last Year’s outright winner, ZX-10R mounted Oscar O’Donovan was the red-hot favourite to go back-to-back again this year after winning last year’s 2 Hour solo. Now 18, and with a strong season of results to his name, he was looking fit and fast and would be hard to beat.

David Johnson was teamed with local Joshua Rees riding a 2015 ZX-10R, and wasted no time getting down to speed with only limited track time available Friday.

A couple of dark horses for the win in the shape of 2021 winner Damian Faulds, teamed with Hamish Sellars riding a GSX-R1000, between them boasting many contested 2 Hours and knowing what is required of them to be where it matters at the end of the 120 minutes.

The YZF-R1 mounted NSW visitors of Daniel Ayash and Peter Graham were quickly picking up speed, both lapping in low 55sec laps during Saturday’s heat races and daring to throw their hats in the ring for outright contention, should a little luck fall their way.

Superpole

Saturday’s programme was held under the cloud of a colossal east coast rain event. Fortunately, it did not reach as far as Baskerville during the active part of the day. Hear Safe Superpole was held in near perfect conditions on a warm track with a gentle breeze floating in from the north.

The top four qualifiers were ready with their stickiest rim protectors, minimal fuel loads,all keenly focussed on one perfect lap to secure a small advantage for Sunday’s Le Mans style start.

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Hamish Sellars was first out, nailing a 55.85, not too shabby for someone having their first ride after 12 months away, soon to bettered however by R1 mounted 2023 victor Jeremy Huddlestone (teamed this year with Todd Tatnell) locking in a 55.57.

Davo Johnson was out next and looking fast, the growing crowd watching on keenly to see what the Isle of Man TT racer was capable of. The clock stopped at 54.8 and all those in attendance were thankful the clouds remained closed, allowing them the memory of seeing Davo on a clear track, giving it his all.

Final contender was to be Oscar O’Donovan, who nearly missed his opportunity due to a slow pit exit. Once on track the 18year-old local made it clear he wasn’t going to hand over pole easily, traction control audibly growling with the hard time it was being given accelerating out of Baskerville’s banked turns, but finishing just shy of Davo’s best with a 54.97.

Bridgestone Motorworks 2 Hour

Almost perfect weather greeted the starting riders as they lined up opposite their bikes, ready for the traditional Le Mans sprint start.

Green flag drops and the riders hustle, David Johnson first away, with the others jostling for position to be first in pursuit. Evergreen Scott Honeychurch, riding solo on a ZX-6R, was next through turn one and had the bit between his teeth. At the end of the opening lap it was Johnson leading, O’Donovan up to second after a very casual start, R1 mounted Jeremy Huddlestone on the hunt in third, fast starting Faulds well positioning himself in P4, with Honeychurch leading the 600’s in P5 after getting blasted down the straight by the larger 1000 cc machines.

By the fifth lap riders had found their rhythms and were settling in for the hard slog ahead. Johnson was off and looking to establish a strong early lead but young O’Donovan was not interested. He had his head down with the race plan of lapping as fast as possible, for as long as possible, and forget any thoughts about conserving fuel. Huddlestone was next, head down and hanging on whilst dealing with the fast-starting Honeychurch also looking to move up the order.

O’Donovan moved past Johnson for the lead on lap six, and by the 10-minute mark O’Donovan had a 3.5-second gap over Johnson, who appeared to be settling into a good rhythm for the long haul.

At the 15-minute mark O’Donovan had steamed off to a 10-second lead. With 23-minutes completed Huddlestone had made his way forward to second, looking to give his team-mate Todd Tatnell a
healthy position to work from.

Most 1000 cc teams were now looking toward the 40-minute mark when most would pit, changing riders, and refilling the fuel tanks for both machine and rider. The 600’s were looking more towards the one-hour mark for their only refuel.

35 minutes down brought the first refuelling pitstop for the CBR600RR mounted Davie-Bohdal/Kelly entry. O’Donovan’s lead was now out to 16-seconds and showing no signs of letting up.

The NSW team of Graham/Ayash arrived in the pits for their first stop right on 40 minutes. The Johnson/Rees entry arrived at minute 52, Rees jumping aboard after the refuel, appearing to be running a last-minute splash and dash race plan, along with a dishing of luck.

The Faulding/Sellers entry was positioned well before pitting at the 52-minute mark, still with plenty of fuel remaining. The team hoping that the diminutive Hamish Sellers would be able to use his size advantage to glean extra fuel economy, positioning them well for the final run to the flag, but “It will be close!” was playing a large part of their strategy.

Scott Honeychurch was defying his age and managed to stay on track the longest, arriving in the pits at the 67th minute, riding amazingly well, leading the 600 contingent and well in the mix for the outright podium.

At the 77-minute mark Sellers and O’Donovan exchanged identical 56.78 lap times, the fastest riders on track. Sellers almost two-laps down, but O’Donovan still with one more fuel stop to come, things were starting to get interesting. Honeychurch had a strong lead in the 600cc class at this juncture, first year racer Tobey Shuuring riding strongly in second with the Davie-Bohdal/Kelly entry running third.

Final pit-stops were getting underway after which we would have a clearer picture of the actual running order and how things were shaping up as the remaining minutes counted down. Graham/Ayash entered at the 83rd minute making their final top-up, Ayash climbing aboard and looking to finish their Tasmanian racing adventure with a strong finish.

Sellers pulled in to the pits at ¾ race distance while in second place, catching his team unawares. It appeared the quick-shifter was starting to be temperamental, Faulds quickly finished suiting up to finish the remainder however 100 metres later their race was over, Faulds machine faltered before even making pit exit and that was where it stopped.

The race to the finish was on, O’Donovan nearly three laps clear but with a pit stop still remaining. Honeychurch, still running regular 57 second laps was looking good in second. The fastest rider on track at the 100-minute mark was Daniel Ayash with a 56.4 and moving up the leader board.

Honeychurch down! The veteran of over 30 years of road racing went down at the bottom of the hill, losing concentration and along with it, the front end, out of second place!

Oscar O’Donovan pulled in to the pits with 15 minutes left to run. A quick splash and dash and he was back out on track, still nearly two full laps ahead of Ayash.

Solo competitor Wade Schrader returned to the track after an eight-minute delay getting life back into his brakes, 10 minutes to run. O’Donovan was now circulating in the mid 58’s after an earlier best lap of 54.4, almost a second faster than anyone else had managed, but no-one was catching him now.

Race complete! Oscar O’Donovan wins by over 2 laps, Peter Graham/Daniel Ayash a well-earned 2nd place.

Last years winner (with Mike Jones) Jeremy Huddlestone, teamed up with Todd Tatnell this time around to bring home a strong 3rd place finish.

Pre-race contenders David Johnson and Josh Rees finished 5th after struggling with front end chatter and a foot-peg that kept working itself loose.

Josh Rees – P5

“We had a massive weekend. We got pole but were plagued with bike troubles, the 600 developed a miss on Saturday and we had to park it for the rest of the weekend. So sadly didn’t get to compete in both classes. But for the big race we were on pole position with a great chance of winning or being on the podium.

“We battled the front tyre all through the race with chatter which effected our outright speed and confidence in the front. 30min in with my co rider the left foot-peg worked its way loose which meant he had to pit early and fix it. Went from second back to 8th but by the end Davo had us back into podium contention. Pit stop went smoothly and I went out for my stint with consistent pace I kept us in the running for a podium position.

“Sadly the foot-peg became loose again so I tried my hardest to do consistent lap times but not move my foot around too much to try and not loosen the foot peg more, we got to the stage where we had to try and conserve fuel then with eight laps to go we were still in a podium position but the foot-peg had completely come off and I had my foot wedged onto the remaining bolt and shift lever keeping it together. I had to keep the bike in third because I couldn’t move my foot from the bolt.

“Coming into the last remaining laps the fuel light came on with around 4-5 laps to go I persisted with doing laps until I could feel the bike starting to surge due to lack of fuel. I had a quick pit stop to put a dash of fuel in which sadly lost us our position on the podium, but if I didn’t stop we wouldn’t have finished. We ended up fourth in our class and fifth over all with 124 laps total.”

In the 600’s, 21-year-old YZF-R6 mounted Tobey Shuuring in just his first-year road racing took on the 2 Hour challenge solo and was triumphant. The significance might not be understood yet for Toby but he will be one to watch into the future. Representing Honda in second place was the team of Nathan Tole and Dave Bartels, with Jayden Davie-Bohdal and Alec Kelly sneaking home for 3rd, less than a second in front of the visiting Simon Barbacetto/James Kean ZX-6R.

Bridgestone / Motorworks – 2 Hour Race Results

Feature races

First race after lunch break were the sidecars, providing some very entertaining racing throughout the weekend, the Renton/Brooks combo on the GSX-R600 powered outfit proving too nimble over the Rockliffe/Skewes entry. The many varied outfits on display proved that sometimes excess horsepower isn’t the fastest way around this challenging circuit.

The second of Sunday’s feature races was a reverse grid F3 to be held over 10 laps. SV650 mounted Daniel Briggs made a solid start and pushed hard from the beginning, trying to establish a sizable lead before the NSF 250 mounted Aaron Wade could get fully wound up after a sluggish start. At one stage the gap was out to three seconds, however, Wade was up to the challenge, grinding away to get within striking distance with 1 lap remaining.

The final run down the main straight would be the decider with the lighter weight GP bike able to out brake Briggs’ SV as they both prepared to enter the chute for the run over the start/finish line. Briggs led the whole race apart from the crucial few hundred metres which mattered most. Kiwi Anthony Stephens brought home his Aprilia 457 in third.

Kawasaki mounted Mark Delanty was in strong form all weekend and once again showed his dominance in the Over 750’s 10 lap feature race. Don Fenton finished next after keeping the pressure on all race, leading home Leon Watts for third.

The temperature needle was nudging 26 degrees as a strong field gridded up for the 20 lap Lites GP/Production Lites feature. After a couple of untidy corners on the first journey it was to be ZX-4R mounted Lachie Curtis riding like his life depended on it, leading the field.

After experiencing mechanical gremlins on his own 300 cc racer Lachie fronted the grid riding his father’s unfamiliar 400 cc machine, and was soon using the extra grunt to good measure, repelling the pursuing NSF 250’s of Taran Ocean and earlier victor Aaron Wade.

It was a wonderful display of pushing relatively unsophisticated suspension to it’s maximum, but never quite overstepping the mark, to bring home the borrowed racer in first place over Taran Ocean, with a fading Aaron Wade crossing in third.

All in all, a great weekend of racing, weather, sportsmanship, and stamina. The Sport Riders Club of Tasmania, along with it’s many volunteers hosted a great event, along with expert commentary throughout the weekend to keep the paddock informed throughout.

Lites GP/Lites Production – 20 Lap Feature Race Under 500cc Results

Full class by class results can be found at http://racing.natsoft.com.au