Oran Park will soon be no more. Half-built McMansions are at its back fence already. Fitting, then, that the farewell motorcycle race at this icon of Australian motorsport should be a running of an iconic Australian motorsport event – the 6-Hour endurance race.

Organised by James Spence Promotions with naming-rights backing from Bel-Ray Lubricants, the event has attracted a healthy field of an even 30 teams, and a strong contingent of riders who don’t just do this for fun. Joining the organiser himself on the #6 The 6 Hour team R1 is former FIM World Endurance Champion Warwick Nowland, while the Dean Evans-managed Revolution team has Australian Superbike regulars, brothers Damian and Alex Cudlin, on their 2009 R1 built by the Central Coast Performance Cycle Centre. The #36 Fireblade of the Demolition Plus team and the black #63 2009 R1 of Big Kahuna Racing each go one better, with three ASBK runners sharing the racing duties – Russel Holland, Gareth Jones and Craig Coxhell for Demolition Plus, Grant Hay, Zac Davies and Daniel Stauffer for Big Kahuna.

Kawasaki turned out with backing for two teams – #10, fronted by ASBK runner Jason Kain, backed by Mark Hatch and Rod Taplin, and #96, run by the staff of the Liverpool-based dealer Aitken’s Motorcycle World, with shop owner Paul Aitken managing, his Superstock-1000-pilot son, Jamie, as lead rider, backed up by Michael McMillan and veteran Murray Clark.

Behind these leading five teams come the enthusiastic shop-based teams. Cessnock Motorcycles, a big KTM dealer, turned out in matching orange team t-shirts and Simon Galloway, Phil Chapman and Phil Lovett on the tidy #46 KTM Super Duke. Kawasaki Newcastle have put a pair of experienced Central Coast racers on board their #15 ZX-10R – Graeme Wilshaw and Ken Bradley. Sy’s Harley-Davidson are fielding the lone air-cooled entry – a Harley XR1200. Hiding behind its #9 number board are David Butler and Dave fuller. The XR1200 doesn’t walk away with the least-likely-entry trophy, though. Team Italian Stallion’s choice of a Benelli TnT 1130 for Adrian Pierpoint, Paul Row and Derrick Pastuszek to punt around pips them there.

Dailybike friends, Sam Ayliffe, James Corcoran and Kevin Corcoran of Team Astute Finance, are in the rest of the field. Their #11 series 1 Yamaha R6 is typical of the club-level racers keen for the strategic experience of endurance racing.

A six-hour endurance race is a different proposition to the six, eight or ten-lap sprints which dominate Australian road racing. Patience is needed out on the track, and speed and precision in the pits. A baking-hot sun pushed the air temperature during Saturday’s practice and qualifying over 40 degrees, and made tyre wear out on the track and engine cooling during pitstops an issue. Very few of the teams looked likely to get away without at least one tyre change. Rider fatigue will also be a factor. The Cudlin brothers will run a strategy based on hour-long stints, with fuel stops halfway along. The less experienced runners will be lucky to manage half that if the heat keeps up on race day, as it is forecast to. Several of the faster bikes, the #63 R1 of Big Kahuna Racing, in particular, were having trouble keeping their wheels in line. As per Superstock regs, street-legal treaded tyres are used, and even with the minimal pipes-and-remap tuning allowed, on a blazing hot day, the latest batch of litre sportsbikes can be too much for anything short of a full slick.

In endurance, qualifying means relatively little. Russell Holland was the only one to threaten a sub-1:10 time, banking a 1:10.087. Only Team Demolition’s Grant Hay and Zac Davies dipped into the 1:10’s, the rest of the top teams content with times down to the 1:13’s. From there, qualifying times ranged down to trackday-like 1:26’s. Laurie Fyffe, team manager and lead rider for team Radguard, showed up a good portion of the field when he put his #32 GSX-R600 into eighth with a time of 1:16.239. A good half-dozen Superstock-spec litre bikes are behind him. Our team Astute aren’t doing too badly. Qualifying against everyone’s number one rider, Sam Ayliffe’s 1:19.352 put him 23rd. Against “softer” opposition, #2 rider James Corcoran managed 14th with a time just about a second quicker.

The race kicks off with a Le Mans start at 12:30. Plenty of time to sleep in and still make the race and take part in saying farewell to Oran Park… forever, unfortunately. There’s no getting away from that.

- Marko Alat

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It comes as no surprise to see Casey Stoner (Ducati) grab the top slot in qualifying as he dominated all three sessions to continue his remarkable comeback from the illness that saw him miss three races mid-season and the chance of another world championship.

A three win hat-trick looks a distinct possibility for the Kurri Kurri kid to further cement the fact that whatever afflicted him this year is well and truly behind him as he sets the foundation for a dominant off season of testing that will be mirrored in his title chase in 2010.

“We’ve been fastest in every session so far so we have to be pleased with that and the fact we were able to do most of the lap times we did on a race tyre today is a good sign,” Stoner explained.

“I felt pretty comfortable out there but one of the softer rear tyres pushed the front that bit harder and it folded on me in four or five corners. It’s a shame because potentially we could have gone that bit quicker but I can’t complain. We’re on pole position again, in good shape for the race tomorrow and looking forward to it. Hopefully the weather holds out because it would be nice for everybody to end the season with a good race.” 


Dani Pedros on his Repsol Honda was second quickest – nearly three tenths of a second off Stoner’s, 1:32.256 lap – with fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) rounding out the front row.

Newly crowned World Champion, Valentino Rossi heads the front row just ahead of fellow Yamaha rider Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) continuing his late season resurgence. Hayden has shown that with time there is another rider who can control the fickle beast that the Ducati is and will be a definite threat in 2010.

“We have made a lot of progress from yesterday but we have had to work hard and make huge changes to the bike,” Hayden said.” I know it’s not usually a good sign when you can’t roll something competitive out on a Friday but that’s what we’re aiming for and for the moment my team are doing a great job in the time we have available. The bike was more much enjoyable to ride today and after being fifth this morning I was hoping for the same result this afternoon because that is my worst qualifying result here at Valencia. We’ll take sixth though – it’s not my best qualifying position but from where we started the year in Qatar I think I was last on the grid and in the hospital so to end it with a second-row start is pleasing. Tomorrow is going to be a tough one as always but we’ll try to get a good start, make sure we don’t get squeezed in down in turn one and have some fun. I’m looking forward to it.” 


Ben Spies who is treating this weekend as a test on the MotoGP Yamaha after winning the Superbike World Championship demonstrated to the world that he will be another threat this year, qualifying ninth fastest nearly half a second in front of the man he will replace James Toseland who is back in 14th spot.

The battle mid pack is shaping as a corker as between Edwards in fifth and Alex De Angelis (Gresini Honda) in 12th there is less than 0.8 second.

The disappointment of the weekend would surely have to be Chris Vermeulen who has posted his worst qualifying performance of his MotoGP career when he qualified in 18th and last place. He has been suffering from a severe dose of flu that has seen the Queenslander coughing and sneezing in his helmet while trying to qualify. Valencia is such a tight and technically demanding track that you have to be right on the ball to extract the best form the bike.

As predicted on dailybike.com on Friday it will be a battle between the Aussie and the diminutive Pedrosa as the pair have been the dominate pair at Valencia in recent years sharing the top spots in the last two years but there will be plenty of attention from the FIAT Yamaha’s of Lorenzo and Rossi. Lorenzo has stated that he is more interested in securing second in the championship than going for the win but once the lights go out expect to see something different. Rossi on the other hand hasn’t got anything to lose and seeing he hasn’t won at Valencia since 2004 will be keen to make amends.

1 Casey Stoner Ducati MotoGP 1:32.256


2 Dani Pedrosa Honda HRC 1:32.519


3 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory 1:32.537


4 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Factory 1:32.922


5 Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech3 1:33.085


6 Nicky Hayden Ducati MotoGP 1:33.154


7 Randy De Puniet Honda LCR 1:33.391


8 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 1:33.475


9 Ben Spies Yamaha MotoGP 1:33.539


10 Andrea Dovizioso Honda HRC 1:33.678


11 Mika Kallio Ducati Pramac 1:33.809


12 Alex De Angelis Honda Gresini 1:33.844


13 Loris Capirossi Suzuki MotoGP 1:34.097


14 James Toseland Yamaha Tech3 1:34.107


15 Marco Melandri Hayate Racing 1:34.188


16 Aleix Espargaro Ducati 1:34.308


17 Gabor Talmacsi Honda Scot 1:34.357


18 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki MotoGP 1:34.537

 - Bracksy

The qualifying session for the 2009 Australian MotoGP saw a rejuvenated Casey Stoner take pole from rival and championship leader Valentino Rossi by a miniscule .050 seconds with a best time of 1′30.341 aboard the Ducati Desmosedici GP9.

Stoner’s team had used a number of setup combinations to get the best out of the bike but it was Valentino Rossi who calmly remains the biggest threat to Stoner for tomorrows race. While taking up the number grid position it was Rossi’s consistency throughout the whole circuit that is most ominous for the other contenders. Even switching between bikes Rossi was fast and when he’s in this mood, he’s a hard man to beat.

Dani Pedrosa has proved that the Honda RC212V is a much improved bike of late and this is reflected in the Spaniards time of 1′31.070, 0.729 seconds slower than pole-sitter Stoner. Despite the third position, Pedrosa expects a tough race considering the pace of the top two men. A crash in the session apparently hasn’t caused much physical damage.

Jorge Lorenzo has been struggling since arriving at the circuit but put in a gritty showing to come up with a best time of 1′31.071, just being pipped to third by his Spanish rival and countryman. It doesn’t get much closer than that and might make Jorge think twice before reaching for that extra croissant at breakfast on Sunday!

Laying low for most of the weekend but producing the goods when needed was Colin Edwards. The Yamaha Tech 3 rider was right on the pace of the two riders immediately in front of him and could surprise a lot of people come Sunday. Just 0.025 seconds off Lorenzo’s time, Edwards will need to make a great start to be in the hunt for a podium finish.

Alex de Angelis had a tumble in qualifying like quite a few of the other riders but also produced a time that could see him in the hunt for a podium finish. His fastest lap of the session was a 1′31.260.

Nicky Hayden (Bracksy’s pick for a podium!) snuck into seventh place aboard the factory Ducati with Randy de Puniet, Mika Kallio and Andrea Dovizioso rounding out the top ten.

Grip has played a major part in the weekends affairs so far and this is due to the recent weather washing away ‘the good rubber’. Even when the circuit had fresh rubber laid down earlier by some brilliant support races, this was again washed away in a torrential downpour later in the evening.

Sunday is going to be an interesting race for sure! db

Results:

1 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1′30.341

2 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1′30.391 +0.050

3 3 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1′31.070 +0.729

4 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1′31.071 +0.730

5 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1′31.096 +0.755

6 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1′31.260 +0.919

7 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1′31.325 +0.984

8 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1′31.380 +1.039

9 36 Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing Ducati 1′31.384 +1.043

10 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1′31.472 +1.131

11 24 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1′31.640 +1.299

12 52 James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1′31.722 +1.381

13 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1′31.873 +1.532

14 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki 1′32.190 +1.849

15 7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1′32.338 +1.997

16 41 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda 1′32.752 +2.411

Not classified

88 Niccolo CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing Ducati

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