The opening round of the Yamaha YMF Loan Australian FX Superbike Championship was taken out by Yamaha Racing Team’s defending champion Kevin Curtain on Sunday at Eastern Creek.
Curtain won ahead of impressive rookie teammate Rick Olson, the defending FX600 champion, while Carr Brothers Motorsports’ Brayden Carr rounded out the podium aboard a BMW S 1000 RR.
Curtain was awarded the overall after initial round winner Dan Stauffer’s DGS Ducati team ‘withdrew their entry’ after misinterpreting the rules, according to a statement from the series.
It’s believed that the team’s ECU was deemed illegal following the event, excluding them from the round’s result. Stauffer retained his Saturday FX Nationals victory.
Since the DGS team chose to withdraw their entry, their results from all three races have been removed from the official results.
“It would seem there were a number of honest mistakes made on interpretations of the rules and when the the team owner was made aware of these he decided that in the best interest of the sport he would would withdraw their entry from the round,” ARTRP’s Terry O’Neill said.
“I do believe these were honest mistakes that occurred and there should be no negative reflection on any member of their team in this matter, furthermore I would like it to be known that in fact the DGS team members all went out of their way to assist the series officials to sort this out.”
The FX 600 category was won by Curtain ahead of former Red Bull Rookie and ASBK Superlites series leader Josh Hook, who won the final race of the weekend in a breakthrough performance aboard his privateer Honda. Third was another ex-Red Bull Rookie in Dylan Mavin.
Early FX600 pace-setter Mike Jones crashed his Reece Bancell Scholarship YZF-R6 in race two, forcing him out of the proceeding races.
Other winners on Sunday included Richard Zaja (Formula Oz), Nick Diles (FX 125GP Pro), Ryan Kuffer (FX 125GP Sport), Tony Sims (250-Mono) and Richard Marrocchini (FX400).
CycleOnline.com.au project bike rider Aaron Gobert won race one of the Supersport and Formula Oz before crashing out on Turn Five in race two. Gobert, who was preparing for the Hidden Valley ASBK round, set a personal best of 1:34.9 early on Sunday.
The FX series will continue at Wakefield Park in New South Wales on 29 April-1 May.
2011 Yamaha YMF Loan Australian FX Superbike Championship
Round One – Eastern Creek, NSW
FX-Superbike Results: