After the bad results in Queensland, the team had the help of Ross Finlayson from Peter Stevens Ringwood and together they made major changes to bike set up and by the end of the weekend Chas was able to record some very impressive lap times.
We arrived at Michael Demmery's Wagga Wagga house at 1am Friday before sleeping for 4 hours and again jumping in the Van and heading to Sydney for practice. We arrived just after lunch and had 3 sessions left once we set up.
In the third session Chas managed to post a 1.34 lap time, faster than he had ever been at Eastern Creek, so the team were excited to see what would unfold over the next two days.
The idea of this meeting was to experiment with suspension and work on set up for the up coming round of the A.S.B.K. We spent all of qualifying working with the rear shock and found good grip with old tryes so decided to stay out and see how far we could push them. In qualifying number two we replaced the rear tyre and Chas was able to post a 1.34.5 in 3 laps, taking pole position in Super-Sport and 2nd over all for Formula OZ [Super-Bike]
"The bike was starting to feel real good with new tyres. A few little improvements and 33's shouldn't be a problem," commented Chas
In race one Chas got a good start but missed a gear into turn 1 and went back to 5th. As he tipped into turn two one of the Super-Bikes tucked the front and went down two feet in front of Chas causing him to shut off and avoid the sliding bike and rider. Chas finished 4th out right and 3rd in Super-Sport.
In race two Chas got a great start and slipped past Shannon on the Big KTM to take the overall lead into turn 3. They crossed the line side by side at the end of lap one, but Shannon soon blasted away and pulled out a big lead, while Chas had his head down and began setting consistent mid then low 1.34's. He pulled out a 4 second lead over Cole Odendaal, but with two laps to go Chas caught up to some back markers and had major troubles passing. He dropped 3 seconds in one lap allowing Cole to catch up and get past on the last lap. Cole held on to the lead to take the win buy a bike length. Chas finished 3rd out right and 2nd in Super-Sport
In Race 3 Chas again got a good start, but Cole jumpstarted and lead through turn 2. Coming onto the main straight for the first lap Chas slip streamed Cole and pulled away to a comfortable 3 second lead in the Super-Sport, in front of Jackson Lee Smith. As the track was cooling off at a rapid rate it became slick and the lap times were back into the 1.35's.
As they began the warm up lap in race four, the heaven's opened up and it began to rain. Out of the 20+ grid only 6 or so bikes took to the track and Chas was the only Super-Sport rider and also the only front row rider, so he rode a very slow 1st lap before pulling in at turn 12 and called it quits.
"It was a real disappointment that it rained because we had a few more changes we were trying in that last race. I cant be to peed off since I set a new PB and did consistant 34's, so I think it's been a great test."
Big thanks to Michael, Shaz and Brando Demmery for housing us on Friday night, and also coming up to help both me and the TBR team of Cole and Jacko.
Also a big thanks to Rossco for the spanner work over the weekend, and also Dad for closing down the Work shop for the third straight weekend in a row and coming up to help with set up.
We would also like to put out a big thanks to Marty from Underground Designs in South Australia for all his efforts over the weekend and last year, Bandit Tyre Warmers, Bendix Brakes, Mobil Oils, EK Chains, Mick Hone Motorcycles, BluGreen Multimedia, Jake Royal from Racefit Australia, Afam Sprockets, Keith Muir for the great photos over the last 3 years and Phil Tainton and his team for there help.