Chas Hern Racing

Chas Hern Racing/ Kirk McCarthy Award/ Underground Design Racing Race Report

 

Date: 28-30^th August

 

Track: Mallala

 

Qualified 8^th outright and finished 4^th in Privateer and best lap time of 1.09.1 in the first race.

 

Qualifying was wet for both sessions and Chas was right up to pace leading the time sheets for most of the session. As the track slowly dried the times dropped and on his last flying lap was blocked by another rider.

With a last minute phone call from the Spectro oil Bike Lab team Chas was off to Malaysia to contest the last round of the Malaysian Super Series and the 2009 Malaysian Motogp. Chas Qualified 1st in Super-Sport and 2ND over all in a 58 bike grid.

 

Chas Had a great qualifying at the latest round of the A.S.B.K and started the 3 races from 5Th on the grid. Racing was close and fierce, although the result wasn't as good as the team had hoped it will be a hard fight at the last round of the Championship in November.

 

With some improvements thought to be made after the race test last month where Chas won the Super-Sport class and recorded some very fast lap times, the team and rider were all set for a strong result at the 4^th round of the Australian Super-bike Championships held at Sydney's Eastern Creek. It was a new era in Australian Super-bikes with the Aussie cars joining the fun as well as Sidecars making an appearance.

The three of us from the Brandon Racing Team, along with Chas Hern from Chas Hern Racing made the long trip from Wagga to Mt Gambier for the third round of the MRRDA at Mac Park over the weekend.

Over the weekend Chas headed over to Mac Park [South Australia] for the 3Rd round of the formula 400 National Championship, Chas took pole position in the stock class and went on to win four races from as many starts. A full report will be up soon.

Two weeks after the last round of the A.S.B.K in Queensland, The Chas Hern Racing/ Kirk McCarthy award team headed off for Sydney for the second round of the Australian Formula Xtreme Championships.

 

After the devastating 2^nd round at Tasmania, the Chas Hern/Kirk McCarthy Award team were off to Queensland raceway in Ipswich for Round 3a and 3b of the ASBK. It is the furthest circuit of the season and the team decided it was to much of an expense to test at the circuit so they would have to work hard and fast in order to get the Suzuki GSXR 600 up to speed.

With limited free time between Tasmania and Queensland, Chas decided to take part in the 1st round of the Victorian Inter Club Championship at the Island. This was Gena's first race for the year as well so he had double duties with making sure her 400 was in good order.

After a very challenging first round at Phillip Island we were looking forward to a better result in Tasmania. As Symmonds Plains is one of Chas's favourite tracks for the series he was really looking forward to a stronger result. With limited track time on the new 600 before Phillip Island, we spent time at both Winton and Tasmania before the event and the testing proved successful as on the Wednesday test Chas lapped less then 1 second off the pole time of 2008.

After what can only be described as the worst round of the year for the Chas Hern/RC motorsport team, a major boost came at the awards dinner.

Chas had finished 2nd in the 2008 formula Xtreme Championship and collected his trophy, but to his surprise it wasn’t going to be his only trip to the stage. Chas suffered a damaged ankle in the 2nd race for the weekend but insisted on showing up to the dinner to thank sponsors and his team.

 After the intermission, Chas’s name was called out to accept the Kirk McCarthy award and he hopped his way down to the stage to gladly collect the trophy.  “This means a lot to me. I had the privilege of racing against Kirk in dirt track. I have also had the honor of meeting his parents Margaret and Allan, as they live only 20 minutes from the Motorcycle/Lawn mower shop where I used to work. They used to come in and buy parts from me.” commented Chas proudly accepting the award. This is a major boost to the team as they will be stepping up to a premier class in 2009. Chas will again be riding Suzuki’s and details of the team will be revealed soon. 

Big thanks to everyone behind the Kirk McCarthy fund and especially Allan and Margaret McCarthy for their ongoing support for up and coming Australian riders after the loss of Kirk, one of Australia’s greatest motorcycle personality’s and competitors.