Round 1 of the Australian Superbike Competition’s Formula Extreme Cup kicked off over the weekend of the 15th March at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway. DRT’s K8 GSXR1000 looked the part with major sponsor Pro-Coat taking pride of place.
Going into Round 1 DRT had completed additional testing at Eastern Creek, Winton and Broadford. Friday practice at Eastern Creek showed the bike needed further refinement to be where we wanted on the starting grid at race time. DRT welcomed Rod “Rocket” Simpson to the team to help in the pits on Friday and he and Dean worked hard to arrive at a setup for qualifying on Saturday.
Saturday’s first qualifying session provided DRT with some early success, qualifying 6th with a competitive 2nd row grid placing. Unfortunately in the second qualifying session Dean was unable to find the track space needed to better his 1.38 in Q1, relegating him to 10th on the grid out of the 37 rider field. Chas Hern posted a 1.36 to take pole in Q1 before a spectacular high-speed crash at turn 1 entry.
The much-anticipated start of Race 1 on Saturday afternoon was full of excitement with Dean charging through the pack to make up several positions off the line. Throughout the race Dean worked hard to keep up with the locals on a track he hadn’t raced on before, eventually finishing in 8th place. Determined to improve on this result during Sunday racing DRT worked into the night to make some major changes to the bike’s geometry.

Dean was happier with the bike following the Sunday morning warm-up session and again managed to get a flying start in Race 2, this time moving up 6th spots from 10th to 4th going into Turn 1. A massive near highside at Turn 2 left the door open for a three-bike freight train relegating Dean to 7th place by the end of the race.
Race 3 was a sordid affair with two re-starts as a result of serious crashes. Champion’s Ride Days Scott Osborne was taken to hospital after a big crash at Turn 5 as a result of another rider clipping his rear wheel; DRT wishes Scott a fast recovery. Unfortunately that crash ended the race with Dean declared 5th at the half way point – which meant only half points were awarded.
Overall the weekend was a good result for the team considering Dean was on a new bike and track. We learnt a lot about the Suzuki K8 GSXR 1000 setup and we are confident that we can greatly improve on this in Round 2 at Mallala (SA) on the 19th and 20th of April.
We wish to thank:
Pro-Coat for their support (thanks Rod), Krooztune (thanks Dave & Marty), Dynoverks (thanks Pete), Oleon (thanks Shane), Rod Simpson, Keith Muir Photography, and the team at Chas Hern Racing for their comradery over the weekend; DRT and Chas Hern Racing have agreed to help each other throughout the season with the aim of giving each rider the best chance possible on the day – the spirit of cooperation between the two teams was very evident at Round 1 despite the competitive nature of road racing!

FX Cup standings after Round 1:

Best Regards,
Dynoverks Racing Team