Well, the Belray Six Hour has been run and won. On a scorching day, made only slightly more tolerable than Friday by some cloud cover, the race was a BELTER.
After some memorable interviews with past champions, Mike Steele and Len Atlee, the race field lined up on the main straight for the Le Mans start. All eyes were on the front-runners, of course, and, at 1030 when the flag dropped, the Big Kahuna Yamaha R1 of Grant Hay was just a little bit tardy off the line and was swamped by both the Demolitions Plus Honda CBR of Russell Holland and the Dean Evans Revolution Raceparts R1 of Damien Cudlin.
Hay soon got into his stride, however, and got by into 2nd place and started shadowing the Honda. Within 5 laps the leaders were lapping the tail-enders and it was here that Holland began to assert his superiority, using the traffic intelligently to not only keep Hay at bay but actually build a lead.
The wind was a headwind, right into the riders’ teeth as they came down the straight, but pushing the bike to the left as they came off the bridge and through the right-hand sweeper immediately afterwards. And it was here, at a corner where accidents rarely occur, that 5 separate accidents happened during the day. Peter Baker, working in race commentary, christened it, “Bermuda Corner” 🙂
At the 2nd of these accidents, the Honda team decided to pit and, it worked to their advantage as they worked the Safety Car period superbly to sweep into a 2 lap lead when the Big Kahuna team botched their pit stop. Even though Holland was at the very back of the pack on the restart, the on-track position flattered the Yamaha and order was soon restored.
From then on the Honda team of Holland, Craig Coxhell and Gareth Jones, controlled the race. They led at every hour marker and, even with pit stops, never gave up the #1 position for the next 5 hours. And every time the Yamaha teams of #63 (Hay, Davies and Dan Stauffer), #1 (Damien and Alex Cudlin) and #6 (James Spence, Warwick Nowland and “Aussie” Dave Johnson) looked like threatening, the Honda boys just turned the wick up a little more to totally demoralise them.
This is not to say that the other riders were mugs and rolled over and let them win, oh no. Dan Stauffer’s first stint on the R1 was inspiring and the multiple Aussie champion showed us all exactly why he’s the master of the R1. But when the lead bike is running like clockwork, the 3 riders are all doing nearly identical lap times and they’re already 2 laps ahead at the end of the first hour, it does make it hard.
But by far the highlight of the race, and its defining moment, was Holland’s second spell on the bike during the 3rd hour. Holland was in a different class; he was on a different PLANET. He conjoured passing manouvers today at corners and straights where the conventional wisdom says you can’t and where I have never seen people pass in over 40 years of watching racing at Oran Park. It was a towering display of motorcycling magic. I fancied I saw the ghost of the late Gregg Hansford hovering at times as Holland soared to heights that I did not think were possible. Another slow stop by the #63 team benefitted the Honda boys, and, by the time Holland’s stint (that seemed to last FOREVER – how DID he get that fuel consumption while riding at that pace?) was over, the team was 4 laps to the good.
Far from being in “cruise and collect” mode, however, first Coxhell and then Jones, just ground the opposition into the dirt, in the end winning by 3 laps (courtesy of a late pit stop to get Holland back onto the bike for the finish). The winning bike covered 277 laps, 7 more than the 1986 record set by Kevin Magee and Michael Dowson.
Despite a few problems with a loose fairing late in the race, the #63 bike hung on for 2nd, finishing on 274 laps, the same amount as the 6 Hour Team bike and just 12 seconds to the better. The 6 Hour Team and the Dean Evans combination had swapped 2nd and 3rd all race, but a late pit stop from Alex Cudlin saw them off what would have been a well-deserved podium.
Despite the presence of several WEC regulars, the race belonged to a trio of sprint racers, although admittedly three battle-hardened sprint racers.
The top placegetter’s were all on Superstock 1000 bikes, of course, but the first Production bike home was the Team Green Racing ZX-10R of Jason Kain, Mark Hatch and Rod Taplin, finishing in 5th place with 261 laps completed. The first Superstock 600 finisher was the Astute Team of Sam Ayliffe, James Corcoran and Kevin Corcoran, riding a Yamaha R6.
Tomorrow I will have some excellent photos to share with you so check back here then and see what all the excitement is about. In the mean time, I’m going to just savour the memory of a sublime ride by Russell Holland. He waks on water!