2012 WSBK Report

Hi Folks,
Arrived back today after having done 2,380kms to get down and back to this year's races. The WSBK racing was great but the Supersport was spoilt by the death of a young rider in a crash with another bike (I didn't see that accident). Both WSBK races had their highlights and clearly Biaggi and Checa are going to be pretty hard to beat throughout the season. Ex-Yamaha rider Marco Milandri, who is now riding a BMW, also looks competitive as does Johny Rea (Honda) and Tom Sykes (Kwaka). Effenbert Ducati also had a good result and would be pleased with the weekend.

The historic racing was also good to watch with machines like the Honda 1100 (TRex) not quite as fast as the Katanas - stll looked good though.



Just as interesting is the variety of bikes out in the visitor's paddock. You can have a few hours of fun just wandering about looking at bikes. I put 9 forum cards on various Bandits so someone might contact us as a result. I didn't see Bhoffo but hope I didn't accidently tag his bike.

From our perspective, we did 2.5 days on the road to get there and 2 days to get back. The weather going down, and at the track was markedy different to coming back. Going down was quite pleasant, the track was stinking hot (close to 40c) and coming back was 2 days of rain. A bit of everyting. I won't go into every detail but we had no incidents - quite remarkable given coming back on Mon I was about 100m behind a Hilux which aquaplaned off the road, snapped a white post but got it back on the blacktop after some exciting manoeuvres! I didn't have time to brake or change lanes so hit the same pondage on the blacktop at about 80kmph but got through without needing the change of undies the Hilux driver probably did. A scary moment. We went through Yea (Vic) which had had 125mm of rain that same morning (so a local said) and there was flooding everywhere, as you can imagine. We were probably lucky to get through as the water was only about 30cm below the road level at one bridge.

Here's a couple of piccies over the course of the trip.

Wed - Southern Cloud lookout south of Tumbarumba.


Thu - hitting the High Country - the Rocky Valley storage dam above the Vic ski-fields town of Falls Creek


Thu - visiting the old Vic gold mining town of Walhalla.


Fri - visiting the Expo tent at the track.


Tuesday - a roadside stop on returning to Canberra. We started the day with wet gear and it just got worse!


No piccies of bikes racing on the track - they all look the same in photos! Might have to start planning the 2013 ride.

Glad you made it home Dave. I was thinking of you on Mon riding in that shit.
I must have been too far in front to score a pic

I did get a couple of pics that included you mate but not you and the FZ so I didn't post it. And yep, on the back road into Stratford you definitely got further and further ahead - as you said at the pub, blind crests and blind turns. You had the advantage of at least knowing which way the road went over the crest so we had to slow down - not too much mind you! Many thanks again for coming up to meet us and guiding us through an alternative route to one of the most boring bits (Bairnsdale-Stratford).

PS: We did the Traralgon-Gormandale-Yarram bit on Fri morning - it was pretty foggy over the Strezleckis but good fun.

Good report , glad you had a great time ( does the young lady come with the QBE bike & stuff )

Had a great ride down myself, left the Sunday before and had first night at Goulburn with mates.. we continued on Monday and went via Cooma > Thredbo > Khancoban and Corryong for the second night. Third night at Lakes Entrance via Mt. Beauty > Mt. Hotham > Omeo (what a great ride that section is!!!) Then to Cowes for 5 nights. Thursday was a 'rest day' and then to the track for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
As Ewok mentioned, the weekend had a sour note due to the tragic death of a young rider on Saturday afternoon. I've actually written a letter of complaint to the organisers; there was poor communication to the spectators following the accident (not that we needed to know that someone was killed but would have been nice to have been advised earlier on that because of a serious accident the track was likely to be closed for the remainder of the day) and also because there was hardly any mention of the accident on Sunday. I thought it would have been appropriate to have a minute or two silence in the young guys memory and for the condolences to his family etc - but no.
The last WSB race on Sunday was 'tremendous' - Biagi was pushed off the track on the 2nd lap and was then dead last. He used the remaining 20 laps to overtake all but one of the other riders and came in 2nd at the finish behind Cheka - who was pretty damn good himself after having a heavy fall himself in the first WSB race only a few hours earlier - probably doing close to Mach 1 as he came around the last corner into the main straight! No doubt his bike had to be rebuilt and he had to get back on it.... remarkable in my books!
We left Monday and were in rain most of the way to Lakes Entrance, then off and on to Cann River and up over the hill to Bombala. Stayed that night in Cooma (which is now in flood!!) Left Cooma in the rain on Tuesday morning and I split from the other guys at Goulburn - I took a wrong road out and was on the Crookwell > Bathurst road instead of going straight to Taralga... had to detour from Crookwell to Taralga on about 10km of dirt (glad it was mostly dry by then) and then up to Oberon and home to Katoomba... Some 2800km or so in total... a Great Ride!!
I put about half a dozen or so of the 'Bandit' tag cards on other bikes too - but none appeared on mine Ewok!! (I was based alongside the main straight about 200mts from turn '1')
Will try to get some photos up later...

Next time you are in Lakes Bhoffo let me know :-)

2wheelsagain wrote:Next time you are in Lakes Bhoffo let me know :-)

Was thinking of you as I passed through that area...was with other guys and there's always a time restraint when you're with others and have accom. bookings to keep...
Always next time!!

Cheers!

To Bhoffo: We were at the other end of the main straight, ie coming out of turn 12. I was watching him when Checa crashed it right up from us in Race 1 - no warning at all that the Ducati was going to let go. On Saturday I went down to the exit of turn 2 - I reckon that is a great spot to watch from although there is no 'big screen' down there. But you can see them coming off the straight and all the way through turns 1, 2 and 3 from there. Although it's kind of no-where in relation to facilities, that's where I plan to be next year.

Given the length of the straight, no wonder we didn't bump into each other, although Bev and I went down to Turn 1 just before WSBK Race 1 - must have missed you in the crowd. I was certain I didn't see your bike as I knew you'd be about the place somewhere. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the trip with the lads. Roll on 2013.

beautiful photos, lucky Biaggi and Marco Melandri who may visit those places

V Lamps

Ewok1958 wrote:To Bhoffo: We were at the other end of the main straight, ie coming out of turn 12. I was watching him when Checa crashed it right up from us in Race 1 - no warning at all that the Ducati was going to let go. On Saturday I went down to the exit of turn 2 - I reckon that is a great spot to watch from although there is no 'big screen' down there. But you can see them coming off the straight and all the way through turns 1, 2 and 3 from there. Although it's kind of no-where in relation to facilities, that's where I plan to be next year.

Given the length of the straight, no wonder we didn't bump into each other, although Bev and I went down to Turn 1 just before WSBK Race 1 - must have missed you in the crowd. I was certain I didn't see your bike as I knew you'd be about the place somewhere. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the trip with the lads. Roll on 2013.

After Friday we ended up on the hill inside the fence where the 'world race cafe' is... gave us a great view of most of the track and in shade for much of the time which was a bonus on Saturday when it was 'stinking' hot in the sun..

gsxfa wrote:beautiful photos, lucky Biaggi and Marco Melandri who may visit those places

V Lamps

They may not get to see much more than a few Hotel rooms lined with beautiful grid girls and a 3 kilometre of race track.... (sounds pretty good to me!!)

Thanks for the report and the pics guys.

Great RR Ewok. Sorry I missed it.

I was thinking of you guys when it was pissing down here and I knew you were coming through the mountains. Did you manage to find your obligatory strectch of gravel or mud?