Chas Hern Takes Top Spot in Tasmania

In the latest round of the 2008 Australian Super-bike Championships Chas Hern stepped it up to take the overall round victory in the Formula Xtreme class, on his Mick Hone Motorcycle Suzuki GSXR 1000.

After lapping under the lap record in warm up he showed that he was fit and ready to take the fight to Championship leader Brayden Carr, and would close the points lead down to 6.5 going into the last round in Sydney on October 17th and 18th.

The team also had some sponsors come aboard prior to the Tasmanian round with Bendix Brakes supplying Chas some of there new Carbon [C-Matrix] race pads for the dry and MR sintered pads for wet weather, both proving to work well as Chas lapped almost 1 second faster than any other rider in the wet warm up on Sunday, and made all his passes under brakes in the dry.

KLS Tyre warmers also have joined the CHR Team, with Chas now using their Carbon fiber, temperature controlled warmers.

With the weather looking like there could be rain Chas was keen to get the dry bike set up working straight away, and on the last lap of warm up he went under the circuit record.

In Qualifying Chas posted the fastest time up until the closing stages of Qual 2 when Carr slipped 100^th of a second under his time and relegated Chas back to 2^nd.

  

Race 2

Chas again followed Carr into turn 1 and would again follow until the 9th lap when he passed into the hair pin but this time it wouldn’t stick with Carr re-passing on the run out. Chas again slipped underneath Carr into turn 6 and lead until the flag.

  

Race3

As the light went out the front wheel went sky high and when Chas pulled in the clutch nothing happened and he was then forced to continue the race with no working clutch. He entered turn 2 in 4th position and 2 laps later team mate Dean Oughtred [Dynoverks/ Pro-Coat Suzuki GSXR 1000] went past relegating him back to 5th.The next lap Dean high-sided out of the hairpin and his Suzuki side swiped Chas, causing him to run off and lose the tow from Tim Cowie [Suzuki GSXR] in 2nd. Chas managed to set 2 faster laps than Cowie and made a move into turn 6 for the second spot, but as they tipped into the corner the bikes became locked together forcing Tim off the side of his bike and Chas into the gravel trap where he somehow managed to stay on and rejoin the race. Two corners later the race was red flagged due to Tim being knocked unconscious in the fall, and Chas was awarded second behind Carr, Tim being excluded for causing the red flag.

  

We would like to wish Tim all the best and hope he recovers in time for Sydney. We also wish Dean a speedy recovery after suffering 2 broken wrists in his fall.

  

Chas now looks ahead to the Hughie Hoare endurance race at Broadford on September 20-21 where he will be teamed up with Relentless Suzuki rider and 3 times Isle of Man TT winner Cameron Donald. He will then be competing against Australia’s best in the Super-Bike support race at the Moto GP at Phillip Island in October.

We would like to Dunlop for the great tires, Mick Hone Motorcycles, Woodcraft, Hern Engineering, Spidi leathers, Nolan helmets, Mobil oils, XPD boots, EK Chains, BluGreen Multimedia, Knox star Mercedes, KLS Tyrewarmers, M.C.A, Bendix brake pads, Underground design, North Melbourne physiotherapy, Keith Muir of bike-photos.com, Race Fit, Phil Tainton racing for the help with suspension and Suzuki Australia for their support.