Chas Hern has won the first round of the Australian Formula Xtreme championships at Eastern Creek in Sydney’s west.

Chas showed dominance from the first session where he was fastest in warm up, and in qualifying. His second lap of Qualifying session 1 was more than 1.2 seconds faster than any other time set in the 20 minute session.

Chas posted a 1.36.2 on lap two of qualifying, but it was the next lap that would have the greatest impact on the weekend. As Chas entered the main straight there was a bike almost half way down the straight, when Chas looked up from his lap board he noticed the bike was less than 3 bike lengths in front of him and he collided with it before he even had a chance to back off. Chas and his Mick Hone/Hern Engineering Suzuki GSXR 1000 slid 300 meters at an estimated speed of 270kph until stopping in the grass out of turn 1.

“I did see the bike in-front coming out of turn 12, but he was almost 30 to 40 bike lengths in-front of me. I thought I would pass him up the inside out of turn 1 but he must have had problems for me to catch him so fast”

The other issue was the lap boards were being displayed only 100 meters before the turn 1 entry, and at high speeds it’s not easy to pick your board. Chas only managed to spot his board around 80 meters from his braking point when he also noticed the collision was inevitable.

Chas suffered bruising all over his body as well as a later diagnosed fractured scafoid in his left wrist.

The Mick Hone/Hern Engineering Suzuki GSXR 1000 sustained a broken front wheel, totaled Akrapovic exhaust, smashed dash bracket, missing handle bar and foot peg and needed new fairings.

While Chas was being attended to by the excellent Suzuki race safe medical crew, his team was busy rebuilding the bike in a bid for him to be able to remount. Dean and Chris from Dynoverks racing also helped Peter and Gen rebuild the bike. With parts being kindly donated by the Craig Nicholson/BV rigging team, the bike was back in 1 piece.

Chas was out of the medical centre around 20 minutes prior to qualifying session 2, where he managed to slip into his spare Spidi race suit and with his wrist tapped up tight he made 3 laps to make sure the bike was ok. He was 2 seconds a lap slower than his first Qualifying time but was still the second fastest rider in session 2.

With Chas starting from pole the team could only hope for points. Although the wrist was not in too much pain, 9 laps would be a challenge to hold on to the Suzuki weapon.

In Race 1 Chas managed to make a great start and lead from start to finish crossing the line 1.2 seconds ahead of last years main rival and fellow Suzuki rider Brayden Carr.

Race 2 and it was Chas again who lead the field into turn 1, but Brayden would soon pass on lap 2 over Corporate Hill. In less than 100 meters Chas rode around the outside of Brayden at turn 9 to again take the lead back. As the pair were both setting lap times of mid 1.36, a full second faster than any other rider, Brayden was pushing Chas to his limit and he again came past, this time down the main straight. Sitting behind Brayden for a few laps gave Chas a little time to relax and he timed his run onto the main straight and was able to slipstream past Brayden for the lead again, which he was able to hold to the end, winning by .351 of a second.

The last race of the weekend was going to be the hardest for Chas as his wrist had almost no strength and it was looking like he would not be able to go the full 9 laps. Before the lights went out Chas’s fingers had slipped off the clutch and he jump started. Chas followed Brayden as long as he could before Steve Liddicoat went underneath into turn 2 and then high sided his bike, almost bringing Chas down as they touched. Tim Cowie took full advantage of this, passing Chas and relegating him back to 3^rd.

As the field entered turn 9 the red flag came out. Chas proceeded back to his P1 grid position, before being relegated back to P17 for jump starting.

As the lights went out the field took off and Chas managed to slide into 6^th position by turn 2 and began working through the field. He worked up to P5 before the race again was red flagged and half points were awarded.

Chas is now in plaster for 3 weeks in a bid to make a full recovery by the next round at Mallala mid April.

The Team would like to thank Mick Hone motorcycles, Hern Engineering, Mobil oils, EK chains, Spidi leathers, XPD boots, Knox Star Mercedes and BluGreen multimedia for their support. Dean from Dynoverks for his help rebuilding the bike, Craig Nicholson for the parts to rebuild the bike, Phil Tainton for his help and Dunlop for providing great tyres for the series.