Race Report

Levels Raceway, Timaru, January 28-30, 2011

Words by: KC Bernard

Photos by: Dallas Alexander

Round 1 - NZ National Champs, Timaru

After a season off due to the financial climate, Yamaha & Bernard Racing managed to get it together for this season’s national championship series. Bernard Racing’s Dan Stauffer (Australia) competed in the Tri Series with fantastic results – Stauffer winning 2 out of 3 races at Cemetery Circuit and becoming the only new comer in 41 years to win the main event of the day – the Robert Holden Memorial.

The natural conclusion was to carry on and head south for the National Series and see what Dan could do on a Superbike spec Yamaha R1. Brian had only two weeks to transform the standard Yamaha R1 into a Superbike. “It seemed a logical move to invite Dan to continue on to compete in the NZ National Series but again this was a last minute throw together. I am pleased with the way the bike and everything came together...well, I didn’t have time for it not to or we wouldn’t have made it to Timaru!”

Just as well they did, the action at the first round was nothing less than thrilling at the 2.4km Levels Raceway in Timaru on January 28-30 in windy overcast conditions. Dan arrived at the Levels raceway circuit on Friday for what was supposed to be a quiet first look at the track and a start with bike set-up. Dan had other ideas and by the end of the day’s test, he was unofficially the fastest man on the track!

Saturday was much of the same with a steady improvement on times in practice and qualifying as Dan learned the track and the bike. The first practice session ended with Suzuki’s Robbie Bugden timed at 1.04.2, Dan Stauffer 1.04.5 and Andrew Stroud 1.04.7. The second practice had Bugden at 1.03.9, Craig Shirriffs 1.04.2, Dan 1.04.2 and Stroud 1.04.8. Qualifying saw a battle for pole position ending with the top six riders just 0.4 seconds apart; Robbie Bugden 1.03.81, Dan Stauffer 1.03.87, James Smith 1.03.9, Andrew Stroud 1.04.1,Craig Shirriffs 1.04.04 and Sloan Frost 1.04.09.

Dan was happy with the set-up with only some minor changes being made to the Yamaha’s stock suspension for the next day’s races .....“It was my first outing on the Bernard Racing Yamaha R1 as a superbike and I was immediately impressed! The power delivery was very smooth, which enabled me to get much more power to the ground than other superbikes, so in the tighter sections of the track we could make up so much ground, and the R1 paired with the Pirelli tyre combination really allowed me to carry a lot of corner speed and make some passes that apparently left my Team Manager, Brian Bernard chasing blood pressure tablets!!”

The first race on Sunday saw an epic battle for the lead, which almost ended in a major crash when Dan was lining Stroud up for a pass onto the start finish straight just as Stroud had a problem mid way thru the chicane and Dan was forced to take evasive moves to prevent ramming him from behind! Dan tucked the bike in tight at the last apex, clipped the ripple strip which sent the bike and Dan into the air and both of his feet off the foot pegs! In the process of getting back on the seat, Dan’s right leg went under the rear wheel, running it over and sending him off into the grass at 200KPH!! Being the true professional that he is, he managed to stay calm, and saved what would have been a nasty high speed crash. While this was going on, Bugden had gone past Dan to take second place. Dan came back on the track and proceeded to hunt down Bugden and managed to pass him to re-take second place.

Race two was a bit less eventful but there was still a race long battle for the lead ending with Stroud 1st, Bugden 2nd and Dan 3rd. The team comes away from round one 2nd equal in the points.

Brian will be fine tuning the R1 in Dunedin on his way to Invercargill with the help of Rick Jamieson and the team at MCR - Motorcycle Replacements. “We have some fine tuning to do yet but we are happy so far with the R1, it’s a great bike. We have a good package all round with Dan Stauffer, Yamaha and Pirelli on board. Our sponsors and supporters have really come to the party to get us to these National rounds and we plan to do them justice by taking out the Championship title. With some luck on our side to keep things running smoothly, we’re in with a good shot.”

It seems Dan shares Brian’s confidence for the season.... “Our best laps were towards the end of the race and we were very consistent, which means that the package we have with the Kerry Dukic tuned suspension and Pirelli tyres were working wonderfully. I can’t wait for the next few rounds, more development of the R1 that will see us even more competitive!!

A special thanks to all our team sponsors and supporters that have continued their support for the National Championship events. We are looking forward the National Championship Season and grateful for the opportunity to provide Dan Stauffer with the Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike to compete on our New Zealand National circuits.

The team Schedule is as follows:

National Championship

Rnd 1- Jan 28-30 Levels Raceway, Timaru.

Rnd 2-Feb 4-6 Teretonga, Invercargill.

Rnd 3-Feb 11-13 Ruapuna, Christchurch

Rnd 4-Mar 25-27 Hampton Downs, Meremere.

Rnd 5-Apr 1-3 Manfeild, Feilding.

Battle of the Streets

Feb 19-20 Hacksaw Grand Prix, Paeroa.

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