bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup – Round Five 2022 – Morgan Park Raceway

Another huge weekend for the riders in Australia’s best motorsport development series as the mi-bike Motorcycling Insurance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul (ASBK) made its way to Warwick, QLD to compete at Morgan Park Raceway. Here’s what happened…!

FRIDAY

“Come to Queensland” they said, “It’s a lovely winter getaway”. Well, they got the winter part right with rain and cooler temps and while the earlier runners got some dry track (and the Alpinestars Superbike riders got no more than three dry laps!), for most it was moist.

…and that created its own set of circumstances. For most riders that meant sitting in their garage and not out on their bike, but not for the bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup (OJC) riders.

The rain hit like a ton of bricks, red flagging the Alpinestars Superbike session due to a power cut to the track, and the conditions meant most of the top tier only managed 4-5 laps. This was in complete contrast to the bLU cRU OJC field who were out in droves throughout the treacherous conditions.

It was a perfect storm for chaos, but the bLU cRU OJC riders showed their progress and talent, managing – perhaps even enjoying – the conditions like absolute pros, with most banking at least nine laps in the 15-minute first practice session and incredibly, not a single rider coming undone in these conditions.

Sam Drane took the honours in Practice One as the quickest to adapt to the wet, comfortable no doubt thanks to a month’s worth of Flat Track in the USA. He finished just 0.064 ahead of Hudson Thompson.

Practice Two saw the conditions the same- if not worse- and the field would once again follow the Alpinestars Superbikes on track. This time out though, only four of the premier class managed any laps in the preceding 35-minute session, compared to 19 in the OJC where most again managed around nine laps.

By the end of Practice Three, the vast majority of the OJC field were nearing 30-laps on a day that saw most other classes with their feet up (and dry) – invaluable experience in conditions many had yet to face.

Practice One Results | Practice Two Results | Practice Three Results

SATURDAY

QUALIFYING

An almost dry track greeted the OJC riders on Saturday morning for Qualifying One as the 11:30 AM session got underway. While the rain had finally departed in the very early hours of the morning, the track took much of the day to work its way to fully dry, and so the 19-strong OJC class took to the track in “mostly dry” conditions.

Harrison Watts led the way early, starting with a 1:39.580 and working his way down to a 1:39.019 before Hudson Thompson brought the first 1:38 of Qualifying One. As the session was declared dry, Bodie Paige and Harrison Watts exchanged fastest laps to end the first qualifying session in the 1:36s.

Into Qualifying Two, with the track now properly dry, Levi Russo came alive. After setting a fastest time of 1:39.131, Russo’s fourth lap of the session was already a second faster, and faster he continued to get – taking pole position and a new qualifying record for the bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup, setting the highly aesthetically pleasing time of 1:36.666 on lap 12 of 13 in Qualifying Two.

Watts took second row with his Q1 time of 1:36.864 and Hudson Thompson took third to round out the front row with a 1:37.547 set in Q2.

Qualifying Results

RACE ONE

Result subject to video review and penalties.

Not something fans of any racing like to see- especially when it comes to junior racing.

But the reality is when one rider jumps, others tend to go with them and for the OJC, it’s a learning process and even when their coach Gary McCoy has drummed it into them, there’s no teacher quite like experience.

Three jumped starts aside, the riders settled into a race rhythm that saw six riders slowly work their way up the road. Watts, Thompson, Paige, Russo, Rende and Hamod worked together and – as befits OJC- against each other. Hamod and Rende would face ten second penalties for their jumped start, so while they were seemingly fighting for the lead, the end of the race would see them relegated outside the top four.

Detailed Results

SUNDAY

RACE TWO

Levi Russo was missing from the grid following a crash in the warmup, giving the leaders an easier task, and it was Hudson Thompson who made the most of the opportunity from the start. It wasn’t long before a leading pack broke away, establishing a little over a second between Marcus Hamod in fifth and Ryan Larkin in sixth by the end of lap one.

As they crossed the line for the first of six laps, it was already evident that this race would be hard fought, as Harrison Watts made the move on Thompson to lead by 0.047, with less than half a second separating first from fifth.

Larkin and Alexander Codey did their best in sixth and seventh to catch the leading group, but without the tow it was very difficult work.

Cameron Rende found a way past Watts through Dunlop corner with Hamod now up to third, but it was short lived as Watts had a game plan and took the lead once more just after the line.

Three laps down the leading pack of five was three seconds ahead of the next riders, with plenty of jostling for position throughout each lap. Crossing the line to start lap four – the gap to fifth was under a third of a second.

Watts was still looking strong, taking the bulk of the time in the lead, even if it’s never more than a few corners at a time as this group was not afraid to put the moves on each other on a near-constant basis…

Starting lap five, Bodie Paige with the bright red helmet decided the time was right and took the lead down the straight, continuing to hold on for the entire lap and even over the line – holding off Watts in the tow.

Rende managed to claw his way back in to take the lead once more from Paige, setting up the move on the exit of Michelin corner to hold on through Suzuki corner and into the Yamaha chicane. But right on the back of Rende coming out of the last corner was Paige, who tucked in with a perfectly timed tow to take the win by just 0.011, barely the width of a tyre.

Rende held on to second place with Watts right behind rounding out the podium.

Detailed Results

RACE THREE

Levi Russo made the grid this time out and with a solid start held the lead into turn one.

In the usual OJC fashion the lead group exchange the lead numerous times throughout the first lap and by the end of lap one it was Harrison Watts leading Bodie Paige with Hudson Thompson and Russo in third and fourth.

From second place on lap two, Thompson made a mistake at the entry to Suzuki corner ending his race early, losing the front under brakes into the right hander.

A bit of a gap emerged as the leading group reacted to the collapse of Thompson, but by the start of lap four it was all back to the usual tight racing with Paige leading the way.

Marcus Hamod and Paige battled throughout lap four exchanging the lead, with Cameron Rende, Watts and Russo keeping them honest.

In the midfield, a second group was tucked closely together led by Hunter Corner with another five bikes, all within half a second of each other.

Into the final lap, Rende takes the lead, but we’ve seen time and time again that it means almost nothing if you can’t find a good half-second gap before the tow kicks in onto the main straight.

A mistake by Hamod, drifting out onto the grass, gave Watts a great little gap coming into the Yamaha chicane. The gap was about 0.25 but it wasn’t enough and Watts was completely swamped heading across the line.

The timing board showed Rende the winner by 0.73 over Watts and Paige in third 0.05 behind Watts, and it took a video review to confirm the result. Hamod did well to hold onto fourth after his excursion on the grass, holding out Russo in fifth.

The second pack came across the line eight seconds adrift of the leaders, with Ryan Larkin taking sixth from Sam Drane, and only 0.577 splitting sixth from tenth.

Detailed Results

ROUND RESULTS

bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup
2022 Calendar

Pre-Season Official Test – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC 27 – 28 January
With ASBK
ROUND 1 – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Cowes, VIC 25 – 27 February
With ASBK
2 Day OJC Coaching – Winton Motor Raceway – Benalla, VIC 1 – 2 March
ROUND 2 – Queensland Raceway – Ipswich, QLD 18 – 20 March
With ASBK
ROUND 3 – Wakefield Park Raceway – Goulburn, NSW 22 – 24 April
With ASBK
ROUND 4 – Morgan Park Raceway – Warwick, QLD 5 – 7 August
With ASBK
ROUND 5 – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC (with MotoGP) 14-16 October
ROUND 6 – The Bend Motorsport Park – Tailem Bend, SA 25 – 27 November
With ASBK
ASBK Night of Champions Dinner – The Bend, SA 27 November