Racing News

 

 

Round 2 of the ASC was held at Mallala Raceway in South Australia, this is Team Coast Yamaha’s home track and the boys were very excited to pull some fast times and grab some big points. SA turned on some great weather, which made a perfect setting for some great racing.

Coast Yamaha racers Adam C and Ashley Manuel hit the track in near perfect condition on Friday to start qualifying. Getting a fast lap in was difficult with 32 riders hitting the track at the same time. Adam had a good run early and put himself on pole with a time of 1.11.34, but with 5 mins of the session to go Tim Durie from Qld laid down a time of 1.11.32 shuffling Adam back to second. Unhappy with starting second at his home race Adam put his helmet on with 2 mins to go and put down a new qualifying lap record of 1.11.15. Ash didn’t have such a good run in qualifying, unable to get a clean lap caught in traffic. He did manage to get a time of 1.13.20, which in the tight field put him, 14^th on the grid. Coast Yamaha’s third superstock rider Paul S smashed his previous best time by a second and put himself an impressive 13th on the start line.

Fz6 qualifying saw Coast Yamaha’s Adam Dawes smash the field and put him on pole, out qualifying the A and B grade riders. Adams time of  1.13.8 was just shy of the FZ6 qualifying lap record. Huge result considering it is his first year in the ASC championship.

 

SUPERSTOCK RACE 1: Adam C got a great start from pole position and led the pack into turn 1. Ash also had a flying start and made up 4 positions taking him to 10^th place. Adam led the pack until lap 5 when Patrik Medcalf passed him and maintained the lead to take the win. Ash was fighting with a big group of riders throughout the race and unfortunately got shuffled back to 15^th place by the chequered flag. Both riders were disappointed with their results but Sunday was a new day and both lads were determined to better their places in front of the big home crowd.

FZ6 RACE 1: Adam Dawes holeshot his first race and led the tight FZ6 field around lap one. Adam stayed focused and kept his head down to pull a gap on the field. With a combination of good lines and strong focus Adam rode his FZ to his first ASC victory. Adam and his team were over the moon and full of confidence heading into Sundays races. 

 

SUPERSTOCK RACE 2: Determined to shine on day two the boys made some set up changes to their R6’s with a few words of advice from Pete Kerr at Race Bike Services. The changes were all in the right direction and Race 1 again saw Adam take the lead and with the set-up he had the confidence to keep pushing and pull away, winning the race by 3.1 seconds. Ash M found himself battling with the same bunch of riders but this time he was able to push through and take 12^th position. FZ6 RACE 2: Adam Dawes led the pack into turn one and held the lead for 3 laps. His brakes had started to fade out and Rick Olsen passed him followed by Beau McKenzie one lap later. He still managed a 3 place and took a bag load of points.

SUPERSTOCK RACE 3: With positive results in race 2, Adam C and Ash M were very keen to have another cracker for the final race. Again Adam had an awesome start leading the pack and Ash jumped from 14^th place down to 8^th by the end of the 1^st lap. Adam kept his head down and destroyed the field again winning by 3.2 seconds. Ash stayed strong through the race and finished in 9^th place getting him some valuable points and a position in the top 10 in front of the hometown crowd.

Adam C won the Mallala round and is now the championship leader by 3 points. Ash scored enough points to claim 16^th place overall. FZ6 RACE 3: With a quick brake bleed up Adam was set to tackle race 3, Rick Olsen jumped Adam off the line and continued on to win the race. Adam rode a smart race and once he realised he couldn’t catch Olsen he settled for 2nd place and claimed enough points to take overall second for the round. Adam sits 4^th overall in the FZ6 Cup and 3^rd in the FZ6 C and D grade class.

 

Team Coast Yamaha would like to thank all their sponsors for their help so far this year.

Yamaha Australia, GYT-R, Yamalube, Race Bike Services, Topcoat Motorcycle Paint, DC Signs, Endura Sports Nutrition, Pit Mechanics and all the friends and family that came out to support the team.

 

 

Round 1 of the ASC was held at Eastern Creek in Sydney on the 14th-16th of March. Coast Yamaha's road race team ( Adam.C, Ashley M and Adam D ) were excited to hit the track in anger for the 1st time this year. The new 2008 Coast Yamaha machines have had a updated colour scheme this year and look the business in silver and fluro red.

Adam and the team were very keen to make a good start to the season with such a good result at Philip Island still fresh in everyone's mind. Qualifying saw Adam Christie put his R6 3rd on the grid with a blistering time of 1.39.1. Ashleys qualifying session did'nt start so well, Ash got caught up in some slower traffic and had to push hard to get a clean lap in. Ash laid the R6 down in turn 9 pushing through the traffic ending his session and leaving Ash in 23rd position and a time of 1.42.9.

Adam Dawes on his FZ6 had a excellent session putting his new machine in 7th place which was second row of the grid. There was .762 of a second covering the first 7 positions Adam qualified with a time of 142.8.

With qualifying done the races looked to be very interesting, there was just 3.8 seconds covering the top 25 superstock riders and 3 seconds covering the top 10 FZ6 riders.

SUPERSTOCK RACE 1 : Adam C had a ripper start and led the pack into turn 1 and for the first lap. Patrick Medcalf passed Adam on lap 2 and Jamie Aitken made a move on lap three pushing Adam back to third. With the Championship in Adams mind he was happy to settle for 3rd and take the points. Ashley Manuel struggled with set up and bike confidence after his crash but still managed a credible 24th from 33 riders. FZ6 CUP RACE 1 : Adam Dawes had a poor start from 7th place and was shuffled back to 9th place. Adam kept his head down and made back the two positions he had lost over the 6 lap race. Adams final position was 7th place overall and 4th place in C/D grade. This was a great result for Adam in only his second year competing in the FZ6 cup.

SUPERSTOCK RACE 2 : Adam made a repeat start in race two leading the 33 strong pack for lap one. Over the race Adam found himself relegated back to 3rd place but as they crossed the line there was only .4 of a second between 1st and 3rd. Ash again had his work cut out for him in race 2, he made a better start and moved up to battle with 4 other riders for 19th position. By race end Ash crossed the line in 21st-moving three places up in the field but just missing out on valuable points that are given to 20th place. FZ6 CUP RACE 2 : Adam Dawes had a better start this race and once everyone setttled down he found himself in 8th position. Adam lapped in 8th place overall and finished the race just one second behind 7th place Gavin Hainsworth who is an A/B grader. Again Adam scored 4th place in C/D grade.

SUPERSTOCK RACE 3 :  This race Adam C was determined to better his two 3rd places and made a few changes to his YZFR6, unfortunately these changes did'nt quite work out. Again Adam shot off the line and led into turn 1 but slowly lap-by-lap his competitors passed him and put him down in 6th place. Deciding not to push too hard on a bad set up 6th was the best he could do. The Championship cant be won in one race. This result still gave Adam C huge chunk of overall points leaving him with 51 point's and 4th place after round 1. Ash had a great start in race 3 putting him back in the battle for 19th place with the same riders as last race, a last lap mistake from him saw two riders shoot past and relegate Ash back to 21st, again just missing out in the points chase. FZ6 CUP RACE 3 :  A bad start and was swamped by the pack into turn one, Adam kept a cool head and focused on the task at hand to get himself back to 8th place overall and yet again claimed a 4th in C/D grade. This left Adam Dawes with 51 points and a 3rd overall in the championship.

Overall the Coast Yamaha team had a successful weekend and cant wait until round two. Round two is held a Mallala 18-20th April which is our home track so look out all you boys from the East Coast.

Huge thanks to the sponsors: Coast Yamaha, GYT-R, Yamalube, Endura, Race Bike Services, DC Signs, Top Coat Paints.

Second on debut is a mighty start for Lorenzo.

DATE: 10-Mar-2008

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo sealed a weekend to remember in Qatar at the first ever MotoGP night race by finishing second on an impressive premier-class debut. The reigning double 250cc World Champion started from pole for the fifth consecutive year at this track, following three 250cc and one 125cc pole, and proved he will be a force to reckon with in 2008 with a mature ride to the runner-up spot behind Casey Stoner.

Lorenzo made a tentative start and dropped several places from his starting position, crossing the line after the first lap in fourth. The first eight laps were something of a dog-fight with the front six riders trading places back and forth several times, but the Yamaha rookie kept his head through the melee and gradually worked his way forward, eventually passing Rossi to take second behind Stoner on lap 9. He hung on to the World Champion for a while but gradually the stress of the first part of the race took its toll and the 20-year-old began to tire and suffer pain in his arms. He eventually crossed the line 5.323 seconds behind Stoner but the same distance clear of third-placed Dani Pedrosa.
 
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 2nd Time: +5.323
"For sure I couldn't have expected a better debut than this and I am very, very excited to be on the podium. Second place is an amazing result for me and I had great fun. The start and first few laps were a bit crazy and really a bit of a scary time for me, but anyway I managed to make it through and get past some riders to get to second. I started to go with Stoner but after a while I became very tired and I started to have a lot of pressure and pain in my arms, so I really couldn't push any more! Anyway he was faster than us and I want to say congratulations to him because he deserved to win tonight. I think if I could have got a better start, maybe I wouldn't have got so tired later on and I would have been able to keep a better rhythm, but anyway I don't think I can ask for more than this tonight. I want to thank Yamaha and Michelin for all the hard work they have put in over the winter to get me to this point, and of course my team for all of their work. I don't want to start talking about the championship yet because this is only my first race, and now we will go to Jerez and do our very best again there and see what happens!"

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager
"What a weekend! After a long winter it was great to finally arrive at the race and all of us in the team really enjoyed watching Jorge make such a fantastic debut. We couldn't have asked for more and to do what he's done here is really fantastic. From now on it will be easier for him because he will know what to expect from a MotoGP race, and of course we've also collected some important information about his race performance to help us to improve his package. Thank you to the team, to Yamaha and to Michelin for doing a great job throughout the winter and tonight and well done once again to Jorge."

Masahiko Nakajima - Team Director
"The biggest problem here has been the track temperature but Michelin did a very good job here to counteract a difficult situation and their tyres have worked very well. We managed to find a good set-up for Jorge and we are very pleased with his first race. It's impressive that such a young rookie can do so well in such a tough race so a big congratulations to him for a brilliant second place."

Valentino Rossi finished a disappointing fifth tonight, after struggling for pace on the cold track throughout the 22 lap race.

Racing on Bridgestone tyres for the first time, Rossi made up two places on the opening lap and for the first few laps looked like he might be a contender for the top spots as he picked his way through the field. On lap five he took the lead and held onto it for three laps, but he was unable to ride his M1 as he wanted to and surrendered first place to Casey Stoner just three laps later. It was downhill for the Italian from then on as his pace dropped off and he began to slip back, unable to keep up with the leaders. Dani Pedrosa passed him for third and Rossi eventually became embroiled in a close battle for fourth with Andrea Dovizioso, with the rookie eventually running out the winner by just a fraction of a second.
 
Valentino Rossi - Position: 5th Time: +13.305
"We expected a difficult race here, but actually not as difficult as this! We haven't been fast here in Qatar since last week's night test but, despite this, I thought we might be able to fight for the podium. Tonight however it was really difficult and now we have to understand the reason for this result. After five or six laps I started doing 56.4 and 56.5 and from then on I couldn't improve on that pace until the end. I was very fast in braking, but not so fast in the corners. We know that we can make our Bridgestone tyres work better than this, because they are winning tyres and tonight they showed it once again. Throughout the winter, at all tracks, we were very fast and this is the only one where we were not. Now our task is to understand why this happened. We had a couple of ideas to try but in the end we decided to stick to what we know because we need some more time to understand how to improve and how to be faster. We know we can do better than this and so we just need to gather all the information and use it in the best way for the next race. Finally I want to say congratulations to Lorenzo for a great debut tonight; honestly I'm not surprised because I knew he was fast and talented, but he did very well tonight in a hard race so well done to him."

COAST YAMAHA ON TOP

Coast Yamaha's Superstock rider Adam Christie made the treck over to Phillip Island to compete in the superstock 600cc class at round 2 of the World Superbikes. Adams main goal for the weekend was to find a good race set up on the new Dunlop control tyre for the first round of the Australian Superbikes at Eastern Creek on the 16th of March. Things turned out better than expected.

Adams first opportunity to do some laps was at morning practice, Adam felt very comfortable on the bike with Pete Kerr's suspension set up on the new tyres and managed to do a personal best of 1.42.8. Next session was qualifying and having so much confidence in the bike Adam managed to put himself on pole position with a time of 1.42.5

RACE 1: Adam got away to a great start from pole and straight into a battle with Ryan Taylor. Adam and Ryan were battling for position the whole race with Ryan taking the win from Adam by 0.3 of a second.

RACE 2: Race two was a differect story with Adam taking the win and also laying down another P.B of 1.41.5 which was just .4 of a second off of the Superstock lap record. Adam continued to impress winning the next 2 races and winning one by a massive 7 seconds. This sends Adam to the round 1 at Eastern Creek with a huge amount of confidence so look out boys.

Adam would like to thank Coast Yamaha, Yamaha Australia, GYT-R race products, Yamalube, race bike services, Endura, Topcoat paints and DC Signs for their help and support this year.

YAMAHA RIDERS ALL READY TO RACE AFTER FINAL TEST

Corser lapped a shade under the time of world number two Nori Haga at Qatar.

DATE: 14-Feb-2008

Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser (both Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) made their final pre-race preparations for the 2008 World Superbike season at the Losail International Circuit today; the same venue that serves as the championship kick off on Saturday 23 February.

The Losail track surface was not in as good condition as it was for the team’s previous winter test around the 5.380km circuit in Qatar, but the main objective of this showing was to ensure that all the latest equipment would be in prime condition when points become available for real next week.

The team brought four all-new machines and all of the latest specification, but as this was not an official test the riders had to use a more limited stock of tyres than usual.

Corser was second fastest rider of all on the final day, posting a 1’59.0, with Haga only marginally behind with a time of 1’59.3.

Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) was also out testing in preparation for the start of the year, running his latest spec of Yamaha YZF-R1 machine in his one-man team. He set a best of 2’00.7, on off-the-shelf Pirelli control tyres. Yamaha’s second French WSB team GMT94 did not attend this last pre-season test.

Troy Corser (2nd - 1’59.0 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
“We tried a few new things with the variable intake settings for example, but only a little bit at this test. That said, we still found a lot of positive stuff over the past two days. It was mostly a shakedown test, with a bit of back-to-back comparison of the different bikes and I feel really confident with our starting package for this coming season. The only downside was that I felt a bit feverish this afternoon, aching a bit, like am catching the ‘flu, so it wasn’t that much fun on the bike sometimes. The results were still good, so I’m confident in the bike and team. With what we found today, I would be happy to go and start the championship tomorrow.”
 
Noriyuki Haga (3rd - 1’59.3 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)
“It has been good to test so close to the start of the season and things went well with the bike. We only really had one type of tyre to test so we had to make changes in our suspension settings to be able to work with them. We found a setting that worked, which shows that we know how to adjust the bike in a good way. We will see how we get on during the race weekends but my long run this morning went well. I think when we get the real race tyres, we will be ready to go.”

ROSSI CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY WITH PROMISING FIRST DAY IN JEREZ

Happy Birthday Valentino. Rossi sports a celebratory lid as Jerez testing gets underway.

DATE: 17-Feb-2008

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi, who celebrated his 29th birthday, put in a strong showing on the first day of the Official MotoGP Test at Jerez de la Frontera in Southern Spain today. The seven-time World Champion spent the majority of the day atop the time sheets after lapping consistently fastest on race tyres throughout a long morning session, although he eventually finished the day further down the order in eighth position after several riders put in fast laps on qualifying tyres later on.

Rossi continued to make good progress with his set-up on Bridgestone race tyres, making the most of the day’s good weather to put in a total of 92 laps on his YZR-M1. The birthday boy’s best time of 1’40.641 was only a fraction off the existing lap record, which he set on his way to a memorable victory over Sete Gibernau in the 2005 race here. Fastest man on track today was Nicky Hayden with a lap of 1’29.200.

Tomorrow sees the traditional televised forty-minute timed session taking place between 1405 and 1445 local time. With a high possibility of rain the event, which Rossi ‘won’ here last year, looks like being an eventful battle for pre-season honours.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 8th Time: 1'40.641 Laps: 92
“It’s good to be here on my birthday because I love to ride my bike and I had fun today. I had a special helmet with the design of a birthday cake on it, so this was my way to celebrate today! For the first day it’s not so bad at all, I feel good with the tyres and the balance and power of the engine is also okay. Of course we’re not at 100% and we need to improve in some areas, especially in the entry to the corner where we’re not yet at the maximum. We tried a new generation of Bridgestone qualifying tyre today, whilst tomorrow we will have the more standard tyre, which we were very fast with in Sepang, so I think we will be able to fight with the others in the ‘qualifying’ session. Overall we’ve made a very good start and I feel confident that we can continue to be even faster tomorrow.”

STONER NUMBER 1

Phillip island test -January 08 Ducati report

Stoner lapped faster than any other rider in history at Phillip island today, his stunning lap of 1:28.777 coming on tha last of three days of tests at his home circuit. The reigning world champion used a qualifying tyre on his 25th of 51 laps, although his pace during a race simulation was equally impressive. Only his flying lap registered outside the 1:30 mark as Stoner racked up 23 consecutive fast laps with relentless precision. Well done Stoner!  

2008 R6 TESTING

Team Coast Yamaha riders Adam Christie and Ash Manuel hit Mallala raceway on their new 2008 YZF-R6 super stock bikes for a private test session on thursday the 31st of Jan.

This was the first chance the boys have had to put the 08 R6 through its paces in full race trim, Ash has said a few words to describe the changes from his 2006/07 race bike to the 2008 model.

One of the biggest changes to the 08 R6 was the improvement in the mid range power due to the revised YCCI (yamaha controll chip intake) settings. Yamaha has also changed the seating position, putting alot of weight over the front of the bike and lowered the handle bars to emphasize this seating position. The changes to the chassis, front fork and seating position have made this bike feel very nimble and make it turn in with no effort at all. These changes took a few sessions to get comfortable with but once i did i was able to lap around 1.5 secs off my personal best with standard suspension. Once this bike is fully set up it has the potential to be a very competitive machine in the Super stock class for the ASC.

On behalf of the Coast team i would like to thank the following sponsors for their assistance Yamaha Australia, GYT-R, Yamalube, Endura, Topcoat Paints, Dc Signs and a big thanks to David Johnson for his expert help in bike and suspension set up.

Keep an eye on this page for results as we travell around to all the Australian Superbike rounds this year.

IPSWICH SUPERMOTO QLD

Queensland held the 4th and 5th rounds of the championship at the Willow Bank kart complex on the 10th and 11th of November. Rocket and Chris had high hopes heading to this round but it was no to be.

Race 1 saw Rocket smashed off his bike when he collided with a group of fallen riders on the start line, this resulted in a DNF for his race, no points and pulled muscles in his shoulder. Chris had an even more dissapointing round when his YZ blew up in morning practice. He managed to borrow a stock DRZ400SM to finish the day on thanks to some friends we had met in Qld. Chris finished this race 6th on the trusty DR.

Race 2 has a clean start which Rocket was happy to see for a change but with his injured shoulder he didnt have the strengh to be as competitive as he wanted, he placed 7th and Chris cruised ( all you could do on a DRZ400) to a 10th place on the DR just trying to get as many pionts a possible.

Race 3 again saw Chris racing as best he could on a stock road bike to claim 9th place and Joe Rocket finished 7th. Not the weekend we had hoped for but as they say, thats racing!

WHO WILL WIN THE REECE BANCELL CHAMPS

The Sonnex laser Reece Bancell Trophy series is limited to C and D grade competitors, making this the event of choice in South Australia for these introductory grades. This is an important Trophy series for the Cafe racer club, with the perpetual trophy first being awarded in 2004. The winner is considered to be South Australias Star of tomorrow, and the prize supports their entry to competition at the National level.

Following Reece's death in 2003, the Reece Bancell Trophy series was created and named as a mark of respect for the friendship between Reece's family and members of the Cafe racer club of SA.

REECE BANCELL TROPHY WINNERS

2004 Dean Martinello 2005 Chris Leisavnieks 2006 Simon Chapman and who will be the winner for 2007 ??

Michael Blunden and Adam Christie enteres round 3 of the series ties on points. going into the final round, to be contested at Mallala on December 16th, Michael leads by 10 pionts, with 50 on offer for the round. GOOD LUCK BOYS!!