Road Racing

DECLAN CARBERRY REPORTS ON ROUND 1 OF THE 2021 SA ROAD RACE CHAMPS & THE LEGENDARY 3 HOUR RACE!

March 19, 2021 Filed Under: News, Road Racing, State Championship

Here’s a wrap up of 2018 MSA Rising Star, Declan Carberry’s weekend at Mallala for round 1 of the 2021 South Australian Road Race Championships, as well as the iconic 3 Hour Race – read on ….

Saturday was qualifying and round 1 of the 2021 South Australian Road Race Championships.

In the first qualifying I was sitting in 3rd. Second qualifying I punched harder and got 2nd with a 1.10.4

I was sitting next to Ty Lynch on the grid.

Race 1, I got a terrible start it wheeled twice but I didn’t drop 2nd I sat in 2nd the whole race.

It was an awesome race had lots of fun and learnt lots.

Race 2 had a great start and was right on ty the whole race but wasn’t quite close enough to make a move finished the SA races with 2nd.

At the end of the day I raced in the Steve Martin / Tim Inkster 12 lap race with 1000’s. There was only 2 600s in it and finished in 4th. I was the top 600.

Sunday was the 3 Hour and I was in a team with John Hunt.

We had qualifying first up in the morning, we where running 1st and 2nd.

A little later we had the second qualifying and we qualified 3rd and 4th so we started in 3rd.

John started, he got a great start. He drop to 3rd and we had a couple of faster boys in front of us.

John did 40 laps for his first stint then he came in to the pits for our first changeover.

I went out and pushed for as many laps as my bike could do with the amount of fuel I had in the tank.

I was on my 38th lap and my fuel light came on.

On our changeover we were in 3rd and the gap was quite big to first and to second it was 40 seconds. John came in and I went out with 40 minutes to go. In my last stint I closed the gap up to 26 seconds to second place I kept seeing the minutes left to go and then the last lap board came out so I pushed as hard as I could for the last lap.

John and I finished the 3hour in 3rd and did 147 laps.

I had an awesome weekend of racing.

DALLAS SKEER REPORTS ON THE WINTON ROUND OF THE 2021 ASBK!

March 18, 2021 Filed Under: News, Road Racing

Racing is back for 2021 with the opening round at Winton in Victoria for the first time back at the Australian Superbike Championship in 13 months, due to obvious Covid reasons. We had been at Mac Park practising last year on the Suzuki GSXR600 where I was riding the quickest I had been so far. Feeling really good on the bike we had confidence to be at the pointy end of the field at Winton.

It started off with a warm Friday practise which saw the track at the warmest it would be all weekend with 30 degree air temperature for all three practise sessions. The Pirelli SC0 lasted well with plenty of grip even with a little bit of tearing I felt comfortable to push. I was under my previous PB all day with a best of 1min.23.868 and finishing the day 8^th overall. With only minimal changes to the bike setup from what we had after a two day test we attended two weeks prior to the round. I was happy with my lap times as compared to last time I raced there I was already over a second quicker, knew there was work to be done in qualifying to get a good grid position.

Saturday saw two 20min qualifying sessions where the pace and lap times from the top 10 really showed how strong the field was. With rain threating Saturday afternoon I made sure to get a good lap put down in the morning session in case the second qualifying was wet. With a few slower riders upsetting my rhythm I was still able to post a 1min.23.492 getting me provisional 5^th. Only 0.07sec behind the next rider and 0.005sec infront of the next, this shows just how close and fast the pace was as I was only 0.1sec slower than the previous lap record.

With the rain holding off I was using the same used tyres for the second qualifying so I knew it would be hard to go any faster. We chose to keep the same tyres in as we are only allowed a certain amount of tyres over the weekend and this way I could run new front and rears in both of Sunday’s races. We made a gearing change to just see if that would give us a little more pull where it was needed to help with one sector of the track where I was losing a lot of time. It wasn’t the right way to go as I ended up having to make more gear changes and was just too busy coming into corners having to change down an extra gear. There was a red flag in the middle of the session so the team worked hard to change back to old gearing but it wasn’t enough to get a faster lap, and unfortunately dropped two positions on the last minute of the session as two other riders went quicker. So we would be starting from 7^th with the time from the first qualifying and also the first non-Yamaha.

A 5 minute warm up on Sunday not much we could work with so I just went out and had a ride around not pushing too hard as the track was cold at 9am.

There was two 14 lap races and race one saw me get a good launch off the line moving to 5^th, but unfortunately missing my braking maker and running wide at turn one on the first lap meant I dropped back to 11^th. I knew straight away I had blown my chances of running at the front in this race so I moved through the field to 8^th by lap 3 then 7^th on lap 6 where there was a big gap to the next rider so I just put my head down to see what I could do. I was lapping quicker than I did in qualifying with low 1.23 lap times and consistently matching the pace of the front runners. Coming away with 7^th for race one wasn’t ideal as I had the speed to be on the podium if I didn’t stuff up turn one.

For race 2 I made sure to get my braking marker correct and not try to make up any positions until after turn one. Getting another good launch off the line saw me in 5^th again and soon moving to 4^th at turn three and right on the back of the front three. In the position I wanted to be I started to close in on 3^rd place but just didn’t quite have the straight line speed compared to the Yamahas and even with slightly quicker corner speed I couldn’t maintain the gap. Sitting in 4^th for the rest of the race with focus being on the two riders behind me and keeping a gap to them for the rest of the race. I was able to maintain a 2sec gap until the second last lap where I saw it was down to 1.5sec. So I put my head down and put in a new PB lap and beating the old race lap record of 1min.22.801 with two laps to go and able to come home in 4^th. This is my best result yet in the Supersport championship and a nice lap time to go with it so we were happy with that.

With race 1 being the biggest disappointment of the weekend I ended up finishing 6^th overall, not exactly where I wanted to be but we will take that and work from there. A massive thanks to Glen Richards for coming on board this weekend to set my Suzuki up to be able to compete with the Yamaha dominated field and give me confidence to push and go quicker every session. Our three man crew of Dad, Glen and mechanic Jase is definitely a good team as I beat my previous PB at Winton from 2019 by 2.1 seconds on the same bike. Riding the best I ever had I look forward to hitting the podium at Wakefield Park next month on the 16-18^th April.

Huge shout out to my sponsors that make it all possible:

Penrite Oils

Barry Francis Motorcycles

Trident Tyre Centre

Nolan Helmets Australia

Suzuki Motorcycles Australia

Nitron Suspension Systems

Suspensions R Us

Plus Racing Gear

Baker Group

West Sliders

Fly’s Moving Colour

Neville Lush Racing

TMA Racing

Pirelli

SpeedAngle

Motorcycling SA

SA Plasterboard

Superbike Accessories

Mick Harrison Signs

Stef’s Transport

MB Automotive

Gino’s Pizza and Pasta bar

Australian Technical Rubber

The Ken Blake Festival of Motorcycling

Dekker Motor Body Builder

K&S Fuels

The Grinning Dingo

South East Welding Services

Sew Unique

Bannister & Son

Southern Air Ag

South East Property Sales and Management

Unitech

Alexandria Council

SELLICKS 2021 IS FAST APPROACHING!

February 26, 2021 Filed Under: News, Road Racing, SA Women in Motorcycling

It’s almost time for the bi-annual trek down to the iconic sands of Sellicks, for the bi-annual 2 days of fantastic racing on SA’s most unique historic ‘road racing’ circuit!

Two Days of Racing

More than 150 Solos and Sidecars, all built before 1963, battling it out over two days of highly competitive racing on South Australia’s iconic Sellicks Beach.

Over the two days 62 races will run and you can expect to see bikes carry the logos of Adler, AJS, Arial, BSA, Bultaco, DKW, Douglas, Dyson VAG, ESO, Excelsior, Greeves, Harley Davidson, Honda, Indian, JAP, Jawa, Matchless, New Imperial, Norton, OEC, Rickman, Triariel, Triton, Triumph, Tribsa, Velocette, Vincent, and, Yamaha.

There will be plenty of opportunities to get up close to the bikes and talk with the riders during meet and greet sessions on the beach on Saturday and Sunday morning, as well as through a new pit viewing area.

There will also be a range of catering vans on site, including the Original Pancake Kitchen, the local Lifesaving Club is running the bar and there is brand new merchandise that will be available on the day or you can order online and pick it up at the event.

Check out the merch, download a Program of Events and Map of the course and buy your tickets at the Levis MCC website: www.levismcc.asn.au/racing.

It’s going to be two fantastic days of racing…Bring the Family and have a ball… DON’T MISS IT.

1930 OEC JAP TWIN is Racing

OEC (The Osborn Engineering Company) built motorcycles from 1922 until 1954. They built many innovative models over the years and the marque held the Land Speed Record several times through the 1920s-30s.

Brenton Matters brought his 1930 OEC to Sellicks Beach in 2017, but lack of bike prep time saw the bike fail to reach its potential.

Over the past four years he has given it a lot of love and attention and it is almost ready to take to the beach. Brenton kicked it over recently and it sounds awesome.

Still a bit to do, but Brenton is confident the bike will be ready on the day. He was asked him how fast he will go? “I don’t know,” he said, “in 1930 an OEC with a supercharged 1000cc Prestwich engine was the first to pass 150 mph…I might get 80-85 or so.”

The unique thing about the OEC is its’ Duplex Steering system, developed by Frederick Wood in the late 20s.

Motoring writer Greg Williams says about the OEC, “theoretically, the system offered outstanding high-speed stability and adjust-ability. In practice, it was better suited for use on a speed-record machine going in a straight line than on a road motorcycle”.

It’s going to be fun to see this wicked machine strut its’ stuff on Sellicks Beach!

The 1930 OEC JAP (above left) and the 1950 Vincent Rapide (above right) that will attack the sands of Sellicks in a few short weeks time!

Vincent Rapide To Race at Sellicks

The Series C Vincent Rapide is one of the most famous motorcycles ever built and if you were a motorcycle fan or speed freak in the late ’40s and early ’50s, the Vincent motorcycles were some of the most desirable vehicles on the planet.

Vincent produced motorcycles from 1932–55, when it went bankrupt, the company made around 11,000 motorcycles, of which 6852 were the famous 1000cc twin-cylinder models.

By the standards of 1950, the Vincent was an exceptional machine. Costing £128 ($256) new, the 998cc, 50-degree V-twin put out between 45 and 55 horsepower, depending on the state of tune (Rapide or Black Shadow). It was easily capable of exceeding the then-magical 100mph mark.

David Whitehead managed to get his hands on his Vincent in 2017.

“I had lusted after this 1950 Vincent Series C Rapide for many years. My friend bought it in 1985 in Brisbane. He had a accident on it in around 2000 and after it was repaired it was ridden again but had engine troubles and it had been off the road ever since.”

David rebuilt the engine, replacing whatever was required, and undertook other mechanical and electrical repairs, but he kept its original patina as much as possible. The Vincent is now running like a dream and David is looking forward to letting it loose on Sellicks Beach.

“I believe bikes of this calibre deserve to be seen in action rather than put on a mantle piece. I’m excited and feel honoured and privileged to bring this bike down from Qld and be part of this historic event.”

LEVI DAY – 2ND OVERALL IN THE DUCATI TRI OPTIONS CUP IN THE UK!

October 20, 2020 Filed Under: News, Road Racing

The 5th and final round of the Ducati Tri Options Cup was held at the Brands Hatch GP Circuit over the weekend. I love the GP circuit at Brands, it’s super fast and has some insanely scary blind corners.

I was going into the final round 26 points off the championship lead. Every race up until the final round I had finished 1st or 2nd, bar one race where I finished 12th, after running off the track and rejoining. I didn’t go into the final round thinking about the championship, as it was going to be a stretch, but my goal was to win both races and that would be all I could do, and then just see what happens from there!

Friday was a little damp for the first practice session but we collected some good information on how to move forward with the bike. We had qualifying on Friday afternoon and the improvements we made to the bike felt better and I managed to put it 2nd on the grid.

I was really looking forward to Saturdays 10 lap race. We had made a few more changes to the bike and was feeling confident. I didn’t get a great launch off the line, and was 5th into turn 1. I managed to get passed a couple of riders, and it took me until half way through lap two, to get passed Dijon Compton, who was sitting in 2nd place. By the end of lap 2 Josh Day had a 0.8 second lead on me, but for the next 3 laps I managed to close the gap to 0.25 of a second, setting the fastest lap of the race along the way. On lap 6, Josh’s quick shifter stopped working and he put his hand up, which allowed me passed. He managed to continue the race, and ride with out the quick shifter. When I lead a race I always ride my own pace, a famous quote I live by, from Australian Race Car Driver Jack Brabham, who used to say he would try and win at the slowest possible speed. If and when I get out in front in races, I only ever ride as fast as I need too, then if a rider feels like they can go quicker and they can pass me, I’m more than happy to get in a scrap and battle for the victory. If I’m not in front then I’ll put it all on the line to try and get there. We managed to hold off Josh to take victory in Race 1 and close the gap down a little, to 21 points. With only 1 race left, if meant Josh would have to get 11th or lower, and I would have to win the race. Josh hadn’t finished lower than 2nd all year, so I knew this would be a near impossible task, but I had to put it all on the line and obviously try my best to win.

Race 2 on Sunday was bright and early at 10:05am. I was starting from pole, due to setting the fastest lap of the race on Saturday. I got away well, but it was David Shoebridge who got the whole shot. I passed him off the back straight and led for the first few laps. Elliott Pinson then got passed me and he pulled half a second on me in a couple of laps. I got into a good rhythm and got my head back down, and managed to get back passed Elliot with 2 laps to go. I crossed the finish line with the win, 0.3 of a second ahead of Elliott, and set the fastest lap of the race in race 2 also. Josh played it smart as I knew he would, and rode around in 5th, which was all he had to do to secure the championship. It was a great way to end the year, winning both races at the final round!

I’m really proud of how our season went. If it wasn’t for the 12th place I had at the first round, then the final round could have had more to play for between Josh and myself. But it was a mistake of my own doing so only got myself to blame! I can hold my head high when I get beaten and there were times that I wasn’t the fastest rider on the day. But I’m proud of the races we had and to win 50% of the races, with the other 50% of the race wins going to the championship winner, is something I’m very proud of.

I can’t thank my wife Katie enough for all her support. For us as a family, away from the racing, it has been a very tough year. We have endured two miscarriages in the last 10 months and that has been a really difficult thing for us both. We also lost my Pop Max (who our son Max is named after), a few months ago, and were unable to say goodbye, as he was in Australia and due to Covid we were unable to get back. I would like to dedicate our seasons results, to my wife Katie, our angel babies and to my Pop Max, who was always a huge supporter of me following my dreams. I wore a special helmet this weekend to bring awareness to Baby Loss Awareness Month, and would like to give support to anyone else who has had to endure anything like this. Through all of this Katie has had my back 100% and has always been a hugely positive support to me, all the way through.

My team this year, Darren, Nigel and Paul. These guys worked tirelessly to give me a great bike all season and the results are a team effort from everyone involved. I did my job to the best of my ability and so did all my team, and I’m proud to have worked with them all. Our engine was never stripped all year, it never had the cams dialled in, or had the engine apart at all. Apart from oil changes the engine didn’t get looked at, at all. It’s a credit to Ducati for the build quality of the V2 and shows how good the engine is!

A big thank you to all the people who made this season possible. Mike and Maddie Green, from Boast Plumbing Supplies for supplying the Ducati V2 and all their help. My main sponsor, AJN Steelstock for the amazing support and Bathgate Group. With out these guys, our racing season wouldn’t have been possible, and I cant thank them all enough for allowing me to follow my dreams and continue this journey of racing. I am humbled but the support they give me, and not only are they great supporters of my racing, more importantly they are people Katie and I call dear friends!

And to our team partners:

Sublime Designs
Maxton Suspension
Motogear UK
X-Lite Helmets
Rock Oil
PDQ Precision Engineering
Motorcycle Fitness
R&G Protection
RST

Thank you all for the amazing support! Who knows what next year will bring yet, but I would like to step up, perhaps back in to SuperStock 1000 or something similar. I only had one season in stock 1000 and the depth of competition is absolutely world class in that championship, so I would love to have another crack at that if possible. But each year, if I get to go racing at all, it is a huge bonus, as I couldn’t do it without the support that my amazing sponsors give me. Thank you all for supporting me this year and roll on 2021!

Cheers,

Levi Day

ROAD RACE & TRIAL CROWN THEIR 2020 SA CHAMPIONS

October 9, 2020 Filed Under: News, Road Racing, SA Women in Motorcycling, State Championship, Trials

Last weekend saw Road Race and Trial crown their 2020 SA Champions, road race at the Master of Mac Park in mount Gambier after they were able to run 2 rounds in 2020 (of the 4 planned) and Trial at Barina, Eden Valley at their annual stand alone SA Championship event.

Huge congratulations to all who rode, and placed, and also a huge well done to the road race and trial disciplines, and their brilliant communities for being able to get it happening through COVID and the re-start of the sport and run SA Championship events through this time.

Enduro and Motocross were also able to run SA Championships through this time – and their 2020 Champions will be featured next week!

2020 SA CHAMPIONS – ROAD RACE!

Superbike; 1- William Strugnell; 2- Evan Byles; 3- Chris Tyler

Supersport; 1- Ty Lynch; 2- Declan Carberry ; 3- Dallas Skeer

Supersport 300; 1- Gordon Hensley; 2- Oliver Hensley ; 3- Alex Musolino

Pre Modern 05; 1- William Strugnell; 2- Brad Miller; 3- Graham Snaith

Pre Modern 00; 1- Giovanni Chiodi ; 2- Nick Hinds; 3- Mark Boag

Limited; 1- Dave Williams; 2- Ben Liebig; 3- Wayne Batson

Juniors; 1- Samuel Pezzetta ; 2- Ryder Gilbert; 3- Cooper Rowntree

Naked Bike ; 1- Dave Williams ; 2- Michael Fisher; 3- Alessandro Malatesta

2020 SA CHAMPIONS – TRIAL!

Trial 1 & 2020 SA #1; Connor Hogan

Trial 2; 1 – Adrian Harry, 2 – Haydon Barwick (junior), 3 – Alex Cowan

A Grade Sidecar; 1 – Steve Rees / Melissa Rogers

Open Women; 1 – Lillie Yiatrou, 2 – Alisha Harry (junior), 3 – Tess Warnest

Trial 3; 1 – Aaron Long, 2 – Lillie Yiatrou, 3 – Daniel Fraser

Trial 4; 1 – Carl Henschke (junior), 2 – Jackson Poker (junior), 3 – Greg Rogers

Trial 5; 1 – Martin Whitaker, 2 – Kurt Janda, 3 – Matt Petersen

Junior A; 1 – Harry Petersen, 2 – Kody Irrgang, 3 – Isaac Schultz

Junior A Girls; 1 – Charlotte Cowan, 2 – Hayley Stephen, 3 – Ashley Barwick

Junior B; 1 – Bailey Irrgang, 2 – Cameron Stephen

Junior B Girls; 1 – Lucy Cowan, 2 – Sasha Hardin, 3 – Caitlin Hardin

Historic White; 1 – Brian Lang, 2 – Chris Schultz, 3 – Andrew Earl

Veterans; 1 – Rob White

DALLAS SKEER’S SUPERSPORT REPORT FROM MAC PARK – AND A NEW LAP RECORD FOR THE 600’S!

October 9, 2020 Filed Under: News, Road Racing, State Championship

It was good to be back racing again and at my local track Mac Park after a 6 month break from seeing the lights go out. We had done 4 practise days at Mac Park since racing stopped in February and I had some good days and some other days where I struggled to find the pace I usually can do. Last weekend couldn’t have gone much better with the weather being our only set back.

Friday practise was very warm with air temperature of close to 30 degrees which gave a false sense of what the weekend ahead was going to be like. We had chosen to ride the number one race bike that usually gets ridden in ASBK and I had never ridden it at Mac Park with the setup I usually race on. Friday was a lot harder than we thought with the bike not handling very good when entering the corners. Luckily Dad was able to get it pretty much sorted after 5 practise sessions. I was only able to manage a best of 1.11min.623 which was about .6secs off where I wanted to be.

Going straight into a single 20min qualifying session wasn’t ideal as there was still one untested change done to the bike from Friday. It seemed to have made the difference as after 6 laps I was able to post a 1.10min.171 to secure pole position for the 600 Supersport class and 3^rd on the gird the 15 lap Master of Mac Park feature race on Sunday. I was surprised to do that time as it’s the quickest any 600 has gone around Mac Park and 0.5secs quicker than my PB, plus one whole second faster than my old lap record. As it was not a race the qualifying time doesn’t count as a lap record.

There was 4 Supersport races with two on Saturday and two on Sunday, then the final 15 lap feature at the end of the weekend which included Superbikes! Saturday afternoon was forecast to be raining and thankfully it held out.

Race 1 was my best ride for the whole weekend after leading from start to finish I was able to pull a six second gap from second place and set a new lap record of 1.10min.040 smashing my previous 1.11min.162. Not only was able to do that lap, I was able to back it up the next lap with a nearly identical time of 1.10min.056 and comfortable stay within 0.5secs of that lap time over the 6 lap race.

Race 2 was a little more interesting with light rain threating but not actually wetting the track, so we were able to stay on slicks. Being cautious the first lap I got passed and was happy to sit behind and follow the other rider to see how they react to the track conditions with the slight rain. After 3 laps I had good confidence and was able to make a easy pass back into the lead and pull a gap of 2.5secs and a time of 1.10min.713 proving there was plenty of grip.

Sunday started with going straight into racing with an extra warm up lap for the first race. It had rained Saturday night so the track was wet but drying. To wet of the slicks but only just wet enough for wets. I didn’t get a very good start and fell back to third off the line. I was able to stay with the two front riders for a lap but just didn’t have the confidence in the conditions and dropped off the back of them. I finished third and was able to post a 1.15.797 over 10 seconds ahead of the next rider.

Race 4 and the final 600 Supersport race was in very similar conditions to race 2 on Saturday with light rain all race but the track staying dry. I once again fell back to second and sat there for 3 laps to feel the conditions out and then made a pass to take the lead and pull and instant gap. Posting a 1min.11.531 and finishing 3 seconds ahead after the 6 laps.

The final race of the day is where the weather finally broke and it meant that 15 laps where going to be in extremely wet conditions with a lot of standing water on the track. Being mixed with the Superbikes is always fun but a challenge as they have 400cc more than my Suzuki 600cc Supersport. I did not get a good start dropping two places by turn 1 off the line. The rider in 3^rd had a mechanical problem early on so I was stuck in 4h behind a slower superbike for the first lap and half, by that time the leaders had a decent gap and I just focused on being smooth and gaining pace as I felt out the wet conditions. Being 15 laps I had to deal with a lot of lapped riders and that made my race a bit more interesting rather than just doing 15 laps by myself. By lap 12 I could see the superbike rider in 2^nd slowing down so I upped the pace a little and kept pushing. Unfortunately it was too little too late and I settled for third only 1.8secs off of second and was able to nearly match the fastest lap done by the winner on a superbike, with a 1.15min.921.

It was great to be back racing and to do the lap times I was able to do which showed I didn’t lose anything over the break and hopefully when ASBK starts again in November at The Bend Motorsport Park I can be real competitive. A big thanks to Dad for sorting the bike on Friday and standing out in the rain, also all the great sponsors and supporters that have been understanding with the Covid situation

Pictures: damir8.com