Wanneroo Raceway - SAASC 2004 Round Four

A hot lap of Wanneroo with Joshua Waters June 24th, 2004 - By, Trevor Hedge & Joshua Waters

This weekend at Wanneroo Raceway Australias best motorcycle racers are aiming to break lap records across all classes. One record that has already fallen this year is the 600cc Supersport lap record. This was broken by Mildura teenager Joshua Waters when he came to Perth to contest the second round of the Rural Building Company sponsored WA Supersport Championship last month. He lowered the mark from the previous 58.78s record down to 57.84s. But not to be outdone local Supersport runner Russell Nash then lowered the mark again in the final race that day down to a 57.70s. Today Waters will be aiming to eclipse that mark onboard the YZF-R6 Yamaha he campaigns for the Datadot / Sydney City Motorcycles Team as they contest the fourth round of the 2004 Shell Advance Australian Supersport Championship at Wanneroo Raceway. Also out to smash the record will be his Datadot teammate Glenn Allerton who is currently the leading Yamaha campaigner in the national Supersport title. But leading the way in the title chase is the Castrol Honda pairing of Josh Brookes and Adam Fergusson who between them have won every Australian Supersport race this year apart from the final race at Wakefield Park, where the duo did not race due to safety concerns.

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Wanneroo Raceway - SAASC 2004 Round Four

But Waters (VIC) has a head start on the others today as he has done plenty of laps around the 2.4km Wanneroo circuit this year while participating in the WA State Championship. Here he takes you for a hot lap around what is one of Australias best racetracks for motorcycles. As I cross the start line on a flying lap I click fourth gear hard on the gas before getting hard on the brakes to slow for turn one (Cat Corner). Just before tipping in to the corner I shift down two gears and hold a tight line on entry before drifting out a little in the middle of the turn, this enables me to stand the bike up on the exit as I line the bike up for a good run through the esses. I go up a gear as I exit the turn, keeping the bike as far left as possible for the kink and as soon as I am clear of that point I line the bike up for the ripple strip on the exit of the esses on the right. Here I stay as wide as possible still in third gear and even have my knee hanging over the ripple strip on the inside before flicking the bike over to the left in order to get a nice line into turn four (Shell Corner). This is the only real left on the track and it comes up real fast. As the tyres have not had much work on the left it can be easy to lose the front on entry to this turn, but at the same time you cant afford to lose time here. The turn is uphill so speed washes off quickly, so your entry must be fast and you have to work to keep your corner speed so you can get a good run on the exit. I hold the bike tight in turn four before you really have to pick the bike up and slam it right in order to make turn five (Skyline or Barbagallo Corner). I try to clip this so tight that my knee is nearly dragging in the grass so you can carry good speed through here, but you have to be careful feeding on the power on exit as it is quite easy to highside here as the track falls away. But as soon as you can you wind the throttle to the stop and shift up a gear for the run down to turn six (The Basin or Kolb Corner). I stay as wide as possible entering turn six and go down one gear. There are a variety of lines that can be used through this heavily cambered corner but I like to hang out wide and try to keep corner speed for a good run up the steep hill on exit. Then I shift up to fourth gear before clicking fifth as I crest the top of the hill, and then short-shift to sixth as I start the run down the hill (Simoco Straight). The braking area for turn seven (Novus Corner) is uphill, so you go in very late and click down through the gearbox to third gear before tipping in and then get on the gas as early as possible on exit for a good run down the start/finish (Dunlop) straight and hopefully my pit-board will show that I have cracked a low 57! While Josh is hoping for a low 57 it seems quite likely that the Castrol Honda boys may enter the 56 second bracket this weekend as their pace in Australian Supersport this year has been very fast indeed. As for the Superbikes, well I don't think the possibility of a 55 second lap on the new surface is out of the question, perhaps even a 54 if conditions are perfect. The previous Production Superbike lap record is a 57.2055 set by Adam Fergusson on the CBR 919 Fireblade back in 2000, while the outright FIM Superbike lap record around the WA circuit is 56.6002 recorded by Steve Martin on a Ducati in 1999. The track was certainly not in as bad shape as some of the others on the championship calendar before the resurfacing, but with the fresh tarmac it is a near perfect surface. Wanneroo has always been very hard on tyres, the new surface also seems to punish the tyres somewhat so it will be interesting to see who has the upper hand in the tyre department between the Dunlop and Michelin Superbike runners...

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Wanneroo Raceway - SAASC 2004 Round Four

It is unfortunate that the map of the circuit is only one dimensional as it fails to portray the heavy camber and extreme elevation changes of the circuit. The line on the map that shows track from Barbagallo Corner across to Simoco Straight is the short track layout and this stretch of tarmac is not used on the long circuit which the riders will race on this weekend. There are access roads on the infield of the circuit with medical cars on the infield and a well fitted out medical centre is located on the bottom floor of the infield tower which is situated near the start / finish line, basically exactly where the flags are shown on the map is the location of the medical facility. Good pit facilities exist for the riders with plenty of pit bays available. Spectators are generally well looked after but the track does suffer from a lack of quality seating, as does every other racetrack in Australia. The best part of the track for the riders is Skyline (Barbagallo Corner) and The Basin (Kolb Corner). Spectators can get up on the inside of Skyline (Barbagallo Corner) but unfortunately are not allowed in the area of The Basin (Kolb Corner). This is unfortunate as it is the best part of the track as the riders really light the rear tyre up on the exit of this turn all the way to the top of the hill where the front wheel rises over the crest in excess of 250kph. Good spectator viewing can be had on both the entry and exit of Novus. The entry of which is uphill and is regarded by many as the second hardest braking point on the championship calendar. Only the right hander at the end of the back straight at Mallala is harder on the anchors. The track is regarded as one of the safer on the calendar. The only points of concern are really the wall situated near the exit of Cat Corner and also on the outside at Barbagallo Corner. The air fence should take care of those problems and all going well we can hopefully have a fairly incident free weekend. Practice commences on Friday with qualifying on Saturday. Australian Championship racing kicks off on Sunday morning around 10:30am with the first Supersport race. The Nakedbikes, Pro Twins and Ultralites have not made the trip across the Nullarbor so the race programme is much less crowded than normal which I see as a good thing. The round has received good exposure in the lead up to the event with editorial articles and advertising in both of the WA weekend newspapers last week with follow up articles also expected in the WA press this weekend. TV advertising has also been shown in the RPM timeslot on Channel Ten in preceding weeks. Good weather is forecast for Friday and Saturday, but there is a strong chance of showers on Sunday. Lap records at Wanneroo As of June 24, 2004
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Production Superbike - Adam Fergusson (Honda Fireblade) - 57.2055s October 8, 2000 FIM Superbike Steve Martin (Ducati 916) - 56.6002s August 1, 1999 Supersport Russell Nash (Yamaha YZF-R6) 57.7013s May 23, 2004 Superstock Jamie Boland (Suzuki GSX-R600) 60.3125s May 23, 2004 250 Production Aaron Gobert (Aprilia RS) 63.2953s October 8, 2000

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Wanneroo Raceway - SAASC 2004 Round Four

125 Grand Prix Joshua Brookes (Honda RS) 60.7983s October 8, 2000 250 Grand Prix Rip Crocker (Yamaha TZR) 58.05s October 8, 1995 Event Schedule Saturday Sunday W1 - Supersport Warm Up W2 - Superstock Warm Up W3 - 125 GP Warm Up W4 - Superbike Warm Up W5 - Sidecar Warm Up R3 - Supersport Race 1 (10 laps) R4 - Superstock Race 1 (7 laps) R5 - C & D WA Support Race 2 (7 laps) R6 - 125 GP Race 1 (10 laps) R7 - Superbike Race 1 (10 laps) R8 - Sidecar Race 1 (8 laps) Lunch Break R9 - Supersport Race 2 (10 laps) R10 - Superstock Race 2 (7 laps) R11 - 125 GP Race 2 (10 laps) R12 - Superbike Race 2 (10 laps) R13 - Sidecar Race 2 (8 laps) R14 - Superstock Race 3 (7 laps) R15 - Supersport Race 2 (10 laps) R16 - 125 GP Race 3 (10 laps) R17 - Superbike Race 3 (10 laps) R18 - Sidecar Race 3 (8 laps) R19 - C & D Feature Race 2 (7 laps)

Q1 - Supersport Qualifying 1 Q2 - Superstock Qualifying 1 Q3 - C & D WA Support Qualifying 1 Q4 - Australian Superbike Qualifying 1 Q5 - 125 GP Qualifying 1 Q6 - C & D WA Support Qualifying 2 Q7 - Sidecar Qualifying 1 Q8 - Superstock Qualifying 2 Q9 - Supersport Qualifying 2 R1 - C & D WA Support Race 1 (7 laps) Q10 - Superbike Qualifying 2 Q11 - 125 GP Qualifying 2 Q12 - C & D Feature Qualifying 2 Q13 - Sidecar Qualifying 2 R2 - C & D Feature Race 1 (7 laps)

Late Braking News MCNEWS.COM.AU

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