Pirelli Victorian Road Racing Championships – Round Four
Tyson Jones Superbike Champion – Ryan Taylor Supersport Champ
Words by Mark Bracks – Images by Colin Rosewarne Photography
Rain has affected a multitude of road racing meetings this year, from club racing to world championship events and the final round of the Victorian Road Racing Championships at the Broadford State Motorcycle Complex on November 12-13 was no different with extreme conditions an unwanted addition in the of new champions being crowned.
Both days were clouded with precipitation, Sunday the worst, with torrential rain squalls hitting the track during the day.
With 20 classes spread over the nine races in each round there were an eclectic range of motorcycles being punted around the technical layout over the weekend and it ensured there was entertaining duel throughout the fields.
The event also featured the final round of the Victorian Supermoto Championships, although entries were down on previous rounds. Conditions were that bad on Sunday afternoon there were some doubts that the third and final race would even be contested due to the amount of water that was cascading over both tracks as a few had no wet weather tyres to suit the conditions.
While the elements attempted to saturate the resolve of the competitors, the action and level of completion was right up there reflected in the three Superbike races dominated by the Jones Brothers, Tyson and Nathan. Tyson finally claimed the title in the final nail-biting race after the crown was denied to him last year because of a broken chain in the one event championship.
In claiming the title, Tyson took one back on his elder brother, Nathan who has two State Superbike titles to his name, but he had to fight for every inch of it as his brother, and good mate, was not giving up the chance of another crown without a battle and the pair did not disappoint…
Saturday dawned fine but it wasn’t too long before a gentle mist of precipitation descended on the venue, making conditions for qualifying very sketchy and challenging as some sessions were wet and others on a drying track, the wind was ensuring that the track dried pretty quickly whenever the showers eased momentarily during the morning.
Superbikes
A example of Saturday’s changeable conditions was the Superbikes as in Q1 the lads had a drying track while the midday second session was saturated, proving how prudent it was to take full advantage of what the better weather offered at the time.
Nathan Jones claimed pole on the last of his 11 laps in the first session with a time that was just 0.217 sec outside Jed Metcher’s outright lap record of 56.561 secs, an outstanding time with such limited dry track time, as he outpaced his brother by nearly a second and Dean Archbold (Morwell Kawasaki ZX-10R) in third, by the uncharacteristic gap of almost two seconds.
The first race on Saturday afternoon was the final race on bitumen before the Supermoto bikes took to the track and both classes were lucky enough to have a dry track.
From lights out, Tyson Jones (3J Racing ZX-10R) got the jump from his similarly-mounted brother while Ben Gotch (Total Welding and Fabrication CBR1000RR) from the second row of the grid jumped right into the mix to give the two brothers a bit of hurry up.
It wasn’t too long into the 10 lap race that the brothers Jones’ distanced themselves from the rest, the pair superglued to each other as Tyson attempted to keep his brother at bay.
Nathan tried everything, even going to the extreme of attempting an exceptionally brave overtake attempt through the down hill esses, and i doing so came within 0.308 sec of claiming Jed Metcher’s Superbike record. “I was just trying to let him know I was there,” Nathan explained the audacity afterwards.
With two laps to go Nathan was offered his chance when Tyson’s spun up the rear of the Kwaka on the exit of Turn 2 and allowed Nathan to outdrag him down the back straight to take the lead going into the infamous Crash Corner.
Nathan held off Tyson for the rest of the lap and won the drag to the line by just 0.036 sec or less than a wheel diameter, with Ben Gotch third, nearly six seconds adrift.
The second race just before the lunch break on Sunday was held in atrocious conditions. It has to be atrocious when long term superbike rider, multiple state and national privateer Superbike champion, Steve Tozer crashed on the warmup lap, along with three other hapless riders. One has to go back a long way to find out when Tozer last crashed.
The action of leg two was a carbon copy of the opening leg as the action between the pair was just as intense but this time once Tyson gained the lead off the start and Nathan could find no where to get past, although he had a few good dips at crash corner.
As the pair again distanced themselves from Gotch and Archibald, Nathan tried everything to get by but where he made it up under brakes Tyson managed to create a gap on corner exit particularly from the final corner to the line.
This proved to be the clincher in the miserable conditions as he launched the Kwaka down the hill to win by a few bike lengths, with Gotch again third in front of Archbold.
Going into the final race, Nathan had a slender and solitary point lead for the title, so it was a winner take all scenario. Thankfully, it was a rapidly drying track ensuring another repeat performance as the pair quickly separated from the rest to become embroiled in another sibling stoush.
Nathan tried a few moves under brakes but Tyson was not to be denied as he withstood the pressure and maintained the lead from start to finish to take the title from his brother by four points.
The closeness of the final duel was reflected in the lap times. Over the 10 laps, the combined total gap between them was 1.55 sec! The closest gap was 0.083 of a second while the largest gap was at the chequered flag as Tyson crossed the line 0.217 sec in front of his brother, both posting their fastest laps of the race in the final lap of the year.
Tyson Jones
“It’s been a great weekend and feels so good to finally take the trophy. Nathan and I had three great races out there, but this time I wanted to make up for last year. It has been a great season and there is nothing much between us out on track but it’s a lot of fun.”
Ben Gotch was third in all races and Archbold sat out the final race of the season which allowed the hard charger Brendan Schmidt (Peter Stephens ZX-10R) his first podium finish of the series, although Archbold still managed third overall.
Supersport
Ryan Taylor (RTR/Pirelli Yamaha R6) had one hand on yet another Supersport state title coming into the final round and it was only weather that could stop him taking yet another crown as he only needed a handful of points from the opening race to secure an unassailable lead.
Qualifying was very sketchy and Shane Maggs (Stilcon GSX-R600) made the most of it to grab pole position from Taylor with the always improving Mark Chiodo (Repsol Triumph 675) on the outside of the front row with another seven competitors making up the field.
The first race was dry and the closest the field got to Taylor was on the start line as he took the win by nearly 10 seconds from Chiodo with Maggs, who had traveled from the USA to race, in third spot.
With the title wrapped up for another year, it was the last we saw of Taylor in the Supersport category as with the title safely in hand and the less than inspiring miserable conditions on Sunday he decided to sit out the final two races of the year, saving himself to head out in the Supermoto event and a steer on a Kawasaki GPZ900 in a Period 6 race.
The next two races had Chiodo leading from the lights to flag. The 18-year-old again demonstrated that he has come a long way since he rode a road bike for the first time just over two years ago.
In race two Chiodo won the race by over eight seconds from a rapid Tim Sandy on his old Race Centre Yamaha R6, but what was impressive was Chiodo’s consistent lap times in the soaked conditions with all his flying laps within four-tenths of a second of each other as he increased his lead.
Behind Sandy was John Kendall on his Honda who finished just a few tenths in front of another rapidly improving rider, Jack Gallagher ( JLT Insurance). Gallagher has returned from injuries that would put many out of the sport and after his first outings on a 600cc machine this year, is showing enough to let folk know that he may be a regular frontrunner in 2017.
It was another wet track for leg three of the Supersports and again it was Chiodo who disappeared in a spray of mist off the line to take the win from Maggs (who missed the second race with mechanical problems), with Kendall third. Unfortunately, Sandy could not take part in the final leg after suffering a shoulder injury when he crashed out of the lead in another category.
On the day Chiodo took the silverware from the consistent Brendan Wilson (RTR Yamaha R6) who took 4-5-4 on the day for second for the round and the title, with Kendall third on the day from Gallagher, with just two points separating the trio. Chiodo’s win on the day gave him enough points to finish third overall in the title after Sandy’s DNS in leg three.
250/300cc Production
The twin-cylinder Kawasaki Ninjas and the folk that ride them put on some of the best racing of the weekend. The first qualifying session was dry and it was champion-elect, Drew Sells (Race Centre Peter Stevens Ninja 300) with a 71-point lead, who took pole position from an ever-improving Luke Sanders (Ninja 300) with Scott Nicholson (Williams MC Engineering/Traction Control Ninja 300) rounding out the front row.
Nicholson in second overall had a slim chance of taking the title but as Sells had won every race so far this year, it was a tall order. Sanders was in third overall.
The first race started off as an absolute bottler but it was red flagged on the fourth lap with the leading quartet of Nicholson, Sells Sanders and Zach Johnson (Bill Lambert MBW Ninja) separated by 0.411 when they crossed the line on the third lap shortly before the red flag was shown.
In the seven-lap restart, expectations of a continuation were dashed as Sells took off to take the win by over six seconds from Nicholson and Johnson in third. In doing so, he also took out the championship with two races to spare.
Race two was on a wet track with a little rain and while it might have slowed the lap times down the action was intense and the focus of the attention was on Luke Sanders. While Sells assumed his usual position at the front of the field, the others were locked into a good battle and were challenged to see through the spray and stay upright.
Sanders got a shocker of a start to drop to sixth with Nicholson trailing Sells from Johnson and Liam Willoughby. By the end of the opening lap he had moved up to second with some audacious passing manoeuvres to make up ground he had lost at the start. He went around the outside of Johnson through the final turn.
The next lap he tried the same move on Nicholson but in the closeness of the duel as they charged down pit straight the pair touched briefly, the momentum just enough to tip Nicholson off the bike to skittle of pit straight. He remounted but was a lap down. Sanders’ race nearly came unstuck on the next lap when he ran wide off the track and dropped back to sixth.
Sanders was far from done and in a dynamic display of wet weather riding continued with his spectacular overtaking moves to claw his way back up the leader board and on the final lap overtook Willoughby in the final moments of the race to re-inherit second place.
The third race was on another wet track with persistent drizzle but the action was just as hot as the first two stanzas. Sanders and Sells quickly distanced themselves from the rest to have a 1.3 second lead over Nicholson by the end of the first lap as Sanders led across the line.
The battle for the lead was a nail biter with positions changing a couple of times a lap. Sanders led across the line the first three circuits then Sells took his turn for three laps before the mental final four laps began as they swapped positions at every opportunity and for four laps there was less than 0.250 between the pair as they crossed the line.
It all came down to the final corner of the final lap or more likely the final drag to the line and even though Sells put in the fastest lap of the race on the final lap of the year, it was not enough with Sanders grabbing his first win in the series by just 0.16 sec and the first defeat to blot Sells’ perfect season score with Sanders getting the win.
Like similar battles in other classes, the pair put in the fastest laps of the race on the final lap. Nicholson was a distant third
Sidecars
Another class with limited numbers was the Sidecars and one wonders how long the class can keep competing at a state and national level, as there were five entries for the weekend, with only three appearing for the final race.
Both the F1 and F2 titles were decided after the first race. Duncan Rogers and Rod Bell took out the F1 class with two wins . In the F2 600cc class, Terry Goldie and Jamie Crass had won the title without even turning up.
It was left to newly crown Australian F2 champions, Mick Alton/Chrissie Clancy winning the second race with Chrissie’s husband, John Clancy and his swinger, Warren Grubb taking out final race, his first win in a modern sidecar race in years.
The Unlucky Award for the weekend goes to Justin and Melissa Foot. In the first leg they appeared to have a winning lead but a severe handling issue forced them to slow.
Then, in the final race when they had taken off into a commanding lead, the engine of their outfit exploded with a conrod blown out the bottom of the engine.
Fortunately, Justin was able to quickly steer it off the racing line and off the track as Clancy inherited the lead to take the win.
Hopefully, we can see better support from the three wheelers or it looks like the class may be heading to be a support event at club rounds. It is up to those involved to do something to save the category.
Thunderbikes, Period 6, Period 7, Pre-Modern
There may have been just seven entries in these combined classes but there was a wonderful variety in the choice of machinery and the racing was very entertaining through the field.
Besides the usual smattering of Italian V-twins in the Thunderbike class, Fergus Gibson had an outing on his KTM 1290 Superduke while there was an inspiring blast from he past with the appearance of a pair of Harley Davidson 1200 Sportsters.
Brought out of mothballs by one who used to race the Hogs in the old Sportster Championships, Sebastian Downie, brought another for his son, James, to run. A very special one it was too, as it was once owned by Ken Wootton and still sported the #16!
Adding to this selection was the various models of old and not so old Japanese four cylinders machines, the best presented was arguably the Redline Pro-Bolt Racing Yamaha YZF750SP of Tristan Culvenor.
The first race was in the dry and was a great battle between the Pre Modern machines of Tim Sandy on his R6 and Shane Robinson on his Sky Data Wireless Gixxer 1000.
Sandy won every lap but Robinson stalked him for the entire 10 laps and missed out on the win by 0.230 with Gibson third to take the Thunderbike major points.
While it was another two bike battle at the front, in mid-pack Culvenor, Jayson Porter (Ducati 999) and Richard Draper on another 999 were all over each other, with the machines very equal in performance. Culvenor prevailed to lead the them home by less than 0.3 sec at the end.
Leg two was in the middle of a rain storm with Sandy disappearing to have a seven second lead over Robinson after three laps, while the rest of the field were in survival mode of, “Just bringing it home.”
By the start of the ninth lap Sandy had a lead of over 12 seconds and had lapped up to fifth place. Only he can tell you why he was pushing so hard in the conditions, even though he looked pretty smooth in his riding.
Exiting T2 onto the back straight he high-sided out of the race and out of the meeting, breaking his collarbone. It was a disappointing end to what could have been a confidence inspiring conclusion to the season.
Robinson inherited the lead with Gibson second and Draper a very distant third
After wrapping up the P7 title in the previous race, a more relaxed Culvenor bolted off the line in the shortened final leg to lead the race and Robinson for five laps although there were some spirited passing moves.
In yet another race that came down to the last corner, Robinson got the nod by 0.8 sec with Gibson taking another third place.
Moto3, 125GP, TwinSprints
There were only six entries in this class made up of the Aussie Crane Truck Honda NSFR 250 machine of Dylan Whiteside, the Honda RS 125s of Dallas Skeer (Ron Angel/Nolan/Penrite/Peter Stevens RS125) and Scott Nicholson.
Whiteside won all three races in a canter from Skeer and Nicholson third but while he did it with ease, Whitened was another who used the solo racing to improve his riding skills as he continually pushed himself to lead the race with ultra consistent lap times. In all three races his fastest laps were in the last two laps of each race.
OzBears
Entries in the OzBears were a carbon copy of the Thunderbike divided into five classes with four races over the weekend and, unlike every other class, worked on a progressive grid, the results of one race deciding the grid for the next.
It didn’t matter about grid placement as Mark Chiodo took four wins, all in dominant fashion to take out the overall round win and the Formula 2 category.
While Chiodi worried about putting in consistent laps there was plenty of other action, particularly the battle for second and third between Fergus Gibon on the great sounding KTM Superduke and the BMW S 1000 R of Anshumali Sharma, as the pair battled hammer and tongs in the second leg on Saturday afternoon on a dry track.
In the two wet Sunday races Sharma had two comfortable second places to Gibson’s brace of thirds and that secured the round win in the F1 class.
Simone Winks on her Triumph finished second on the day in F2 but that was enough for her to claim the OzBears F2 Championship, a fine result and an educational example in consistency over the year as Winks scored points in every round after having her first road race less than a year before.
Juniors
For a meeting so late in the year it was encouraging to see eight juniors front the grid spread over three classes; the four-stroke 150cc machines and the two-stroke 85cc and 70cc classes.
Two of the bikes were the Suzuki 150cc Gixxer. Four of them have been brought into the country for evaluation purposes and this was the second time they have been raced after making their local debut at the final round of the juniors road racing championship at Winton in October.
The juniors class was Nicholson’s third class he competed in over the weekend, riding his Honda 85 up against his long time main rival, Joel Kelso on his RMU 80.
he usual expected battle between the pair evaporated quickly in the first race as Kelso headed off into the lead, with Nicholson’s bike not its usual rapid self.
Nicholson reversed the result in leg two with a win but it was Kelso who took the win in the final leg. It was enough to win the day but not the title as Nicholson had enough points in reserve to win the state title over Kelso by just two points.
Luke Power rode the wheels off his Metrakit 70 to claim third and the class win for the year with Ben Bramich (Ron Angel Racing) in fourth taking out the 150cc class, although it was Ned Faulkhead on his CBR150 who won the class on the day.
Ned has improved remarkably and had some great dices with Power, the trip to the Red Bull Rookies and the Asia Talent Cup tryouts no doubt being a major reason why he lifted to another level on the weekend.
SuperMoto
The third round of the Supermoto Victorian titles were held at the end of each day, so as to minimise the effect of dirt being spread on the bitumen. By Sunday afternoon a bit of dirt was the least of the officials and riders worries as the heavens suffered a major leak that almost forced a cancellation of the last race. It was abysmal.
Numbers were also down in the class with only nine entries, two of which were Lahra Cloak (Morwell Kawasaki KXF450) and Simone Winks (Husky SMR449).
Cloak was in a great position to take out the “Open” class, having a 25-point buffer going into the final round from Jak Healey (Husaberg FE570) and Liam Coleby (Kwaka 450) in third.
There was also the Pro class but only one entry on Saturday with Cori Bourne (Shepparton Service Centre Husky FS4500), while Brad Matheson, who sat third in the class, turned up on Sunday for the final two races.
In the first race Ryan Taylor took off with Coleby, Bourne and Cloak having a great battle. On the fourth lap Cloak went over the ‘bars big time in the uphill dirt section, knocking herself out in the process and bringing out the red flag which put a dent in her championship aspirations.
In the restart, Taylor led for the four laps from Cori Bourne and Liam Coleby in third.
Race two started dry, but it wasn’t too long before the weather intervened making the track greasy and very slippery, especially for those that had no wet weather tyres.
It was a surprise to see Lahra Cloak front the starter after her “tap on the head” the day before, but she is a tough nut and went out to try and salvage the championship.
Matheson won the overall and the Pro section from Taylor in second overall with Cloak finishing third and doing enough to take out the Open Supermoto title holding off her main rival Healey by little over a second. An impressive result.
The third leg was run in almost flood conditions with streams of run-off flowing over the track, such was the severity of the storm.
Matheson won the final race in dominant fashion from Bourne and gained enough points with two wins, to take out the Pro title and in the Open class Healey pulled back some points on Cloak to maintain second overall and take out the round win.
Coleby wasn’t a happy camper after running out of fuel, remonstrating with his bike in disgust at the turn of events, but even allowing for the times lost returning to the pits for a top up, his third in the title was safe.
It was a race meeting of extremes and on the whole was very well run by the Preston MCC with great contests in most of the classes and support from Pirelli, Motul, Sign-Pro, Ashburton Service Centrre, Victorian Motorcycle Wreckers, Race Centre and Pablo’s Tyres.
There was many excellent riding displays and exciting dicing in many of the races in what was pretty atrocious conditions over the weekend.
A credit to all involved that the meeting was completed with not too many hitches. Hats off to the unsung heroes of the weekend, all the marshals that battled the conditions with nary a gripe, even though many were soaked to the core.
It was also inspiring to see the success of a couple of ladies with Lahra Cloak and Simone Winks taking out state titles in their respective categories.
They are very handy steerers that are not afraid to have a dip and leave the lads in their wakes. It is fantastic to see those of the opposite genetic persuasion starting to make an impact in road racing.
Road racing is a great leveller and a place where women can compete with the boys on a pretty even playing field. Everyone is the same, encased in coloured animal skin, boots, gloves and a helmet. Go, the girls. The more the merrier!
2017 can’t come quick enough.
