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Sunraysia racers go coast to coast

Posted on December 9, 2011

SUNRAYSIA’S motorsport champions were out in force last weekend, blitzing big names and titles across the length and breadth of the nation.

RACING WONDERS: Waters brothers Brodie (third from left), Josh (fifth from left) and Nick (seventh from left) on the Phillip Island 8 Hour podium last weekend.

Motorcycle road racing brothers, Josh, Brodie and Nick Waters led the charge, dominating proceedings at the inaugural Phillip Island 8 Hour Australian Endurance Championship by taking all three steps on the podium.

Josh teamed with fellow Team Suzuki riders Troy Herfoss and Robbie Bugden on their 1000cc Superbike machine to take victory for Team Suzuki in what is arguably the toughest national road race event in the country.

The 8 Hour is raced at breakneck speeds around Australia’s most spectacular circuit for eight hours straight, testing both the endurance and speed of riders and their machines.

Starting from pole position, Josh led from the Le Mans-style start and by the half way mark he and his team had the race firmly in control.

The team completed 279 laps, or 1241 kilometres during the 8 Hour to finish five laps ahead of the fellow Team Suzuki riders Brodie Waters, Ben Attard and Mitchell Carr, who competed on the 600cc Supersport machine.

Josh also set the fastest lap of the race.

Youngest of the Waters brothers, Nick, rounded out the podium on a privateer Suzuki GSX-R1000 bike, with Ben Henry and Bryan Staring.

Nick was locked in a titanic battle for second position for much of the race but had settled into third by the four-hour mark.

The result marks what could be a family first in Australian road racing, with three siblings taking the top three steps of the podium in an Australian Endurance race.

Meanwhile, as the Waters brothers were dicing it out in the inaugural Phillip Island 8 Hour, fellow Sunraysia siblings, Todd and Rick Kelly, were locked in their own race battles, competing in Sydney at the final round of this year’s V8 Supercar championship.

The Sydney Telstra 500 was a tough weekend for the Kelly brothers who suffered from both strategy issues and misfortune.

Despite changeable conditions and a difficult strategy call, Rick Kelly elevated himself to sixth in the series standings by the end of the weekend, racing through heavy traffic to take 12th in the final race of the year.

It was a more difficult weekend for Todd, a weekend that promised a lot in terms of raw car speed.

Todd was one of the fastest drivers on the track in the final race of the year and was set for a top-five finish before he was hit from behind by Garth Tander.

The resulting crash into the tyre wall meant Todd was forced to simply circulate for the remainder of the race to salvage points, eventually finishing 18th in the championship.

However, his result was enough to give his Jack Daniels Racing team fifth in the team’s championship, an impressive performance for a relatively young team.

Across to the other side of the nation, in Perth, and reigning Australian Top Fuel Champion Darren Morgan continued his title defence at the opening round of the 2011/2012 series.

He was joined by former Australian champion and fellow Sunraysia driver Phil Lamattina.

However, for Morgan, it proved a tougher than expected weekend, after bowing out in the opening round of heats after coming up against Damien Harris.

Despite the setback, the reigning champion said his team was able to collect valuable data from the weekend, which will help at the business end of the championship next year.

“It was disappointing that we didn’t win, however we can take some huge positives out of the weekend – those being that we’ve made some changes to the car and setup-wise they have solved some issues that we’ve been trying to put our finger on for some time,” Morgan said after the meeting.

“At this early stage of the championship, those discoveries are quite significant and will pay dividends as we go down the line.”

Phil Lamattina meanwhile had a weekend of ups and downs.

The Wemen driver went into the round third in the championship and set the quickest time in qualifying.

A bye in the opening round of eliminations meant Lamattina’s first elimination heat was in the second round, but a small mistake in the pits resulted in the car’s throttle cable coming off mid-run, leaving Lamattina without power half way down the track.

The setback left the Wemen driver with a poor lane choice going into the semi finals against Andrew Cowan, who eventually went into the final.

Lamattina has retained his third position in the points standings ahead of the next round of the series next month.

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