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No News is Good News

We have purposely been very quiet on the social media side and updates side of things recently. After a whirlwind beginning of 2021 with more racing on than we could poke a stick at, we needed the past couple of months just to catch up in the workshop and get bikes to our customer base. We have been seriously lucky to have been working on some really cool projects and bikes of late, so we can’t wait to tell you all about them when times allows. This period has also been a great opportunity really bed Josh into our way of doing things and he has taken to it like a duck to water, he great addition to the team and he is doing a wonderful job! In terms of projects, the biggest one has been developments in our dyno tuning and ECU mapping systems, equipment and procedures. Some of the latest work we have done has really come out great. Will be publishing more details on all that soon. Anyway, we hope you have all been well and we’ll have more news to report soon. Motorbikes! FY!

We are Hiring! Motorcycle / Suspension Technician

Minimum 4 years Motorcycle Mechanic / Technician or equivalent required. Ever wanted to work in a professional, high end motorcycle workshop? Here is your chance. We are looking for a qualified motorcycle mechanic who is interested in learning the art of performance and race bike suspension upgrades. In this role your time will be split between general motorcycle mechanical work and specialist suspension upgrades. You will be given on the job training as required and mentoring so that you can grow in this role. We provide an excellent opportunity for your career growth as well as the opportunity to work on top end motorcycles and race bikes. Other Benefits of Working with us: · Work in a very well-equipped workshop · Professional, high quality environment that focuses on the quality on work not how fast you do it · Many opportunities for long term career development and knowledge growth. Your career development is important to us. · Opportunities to have input into process and systems. Your opinion and ideas will be respected and listened too · Opportunity to work within Race Teams and travel to race meetings (optional) · A team and inclusive work environment · Oh and did we mention, you’ll get to work on some seriously awesome motorbikes Desired skills and traits · Must be a qualified motorcycle mechanic or equivalent · A great work ethic, team mentality and willingness to learn. · Servicing experience · Suspension servicing experience will help but not vital · Attention to detail · Previous experience working with race bike will help but not vital, we have that covered · Someone who is excited about working on seriously awesome motorbikes. Location: · Brunswick VIC 3056 · Full Time Remuneration: · Competitive remuneration will be offered and will be based on your experience level Anyone interested please submit your resume to workshop@racecenter.com.au OR call 0457 195 630

SUPPORT FOR BRACKET RACING AT BROADFORD SAT MAY 15th and SUN MAY 16TH

With all the racing we have had on at late, we are not going to be able to provide our usual level of support this weekend as we try to catch up in the workshop. That said our very own Harley (Saucy) Side will be at the track on Sunday and available on the phone Saturday for any of our beautiful customers the need advice a hand or have any issues. You can get our Saucy man on the workshop number 0457 195 630

LARGEY TO START FROM 12th AFTER PROBLEMATIC QUALIFYING

Heading into this afternoon Qualifying 2 we were hopeful that we could find some real pace improvement using all the information gathered from the weekend thus far. We made some tweaks to the setup and Tim immediately felt a gain in front end confidence. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on our side this time round and the bikes quickshifter first stop working all together and then developed an intermittent cut an surge that was occurring mid turn. Largey did his best to deal with the situation but it really put a halt to our qualifying strategy which was to first try to get the most out of the new setup on a used tyre before bolting in a new tyre. We decided to end the session prematurely as it was becoming quite dangerous for Tim with the cut nearly throwing him off a few times. It was a spew because despite the issues and no working quickshifter Tim was only 0.2 off his previous best and wasn’t pushing as hard as he normally would in the final qualy session. Rather than even attempt to repair the faulty quickshifter Jake and Daz will completely replace the unit tonight in readiness for tomorrow’s 2 x 16 lap races around the Wakefield Park Circuit. It sucks a bit and is disappointing but at least the setup for tomorrow’s races is on the improve 😊 Thanks to: Jake Drew, Harley Side, Josh Schembri, Mick Large TL Constrictions, Yamaha Racing Developments SBS Brakes, DNA High Performance Filters, Kenma Australia Pirelli MotoAus, RK Chain, Cykel Products The Grinning Dindo Aus Brakbusters

So, so start for Tim Large and Race Center

As far as bad days go, today was a good, bad day. Despite not finding the lap times we had hoped for and TL Turbo having a bit of a whoopsie, our day was still very productive. We would have put a lap time of around 1.00.5 as a pass mark for us today but we only achieved a 1.00.9 so we are a bit off where we had hoped to be at the end of free practice. We stared the day with a little variation on our base FD-03 suspension setup to try deal with the bumps and off camber nature of Wakefield Park Raceway. We didn’t get a very good read onthis variation in FP1 because Tim suffered badly from arm pump and as such completed limited laps. FP2 went pretty well and turned out to be our best session with Tim’s fastest lap of the day set in FP2. His arm pump was also not as bad in FP2 so that was very positive. Using the data we gained in from FP1 and FP2 altered to setup for Fp3 in hope to make the bike more agile and reduce Tim’s arm pump even further. We also hoped it would help mid corner turning and lap time. We used FP3 as a qualifying simulation bolting in a new tyre mid-session. Tim pushed on the new tyre, made a little mistake and tucked the front into turn 2. As far as crashes go, this one was bloody mint!! No damage to rider and only a few minor scuffs to the bike. The new BikePLast fairings we are trailing held up super well, especially as the crash was a pretty quick one. The bike was so undamaged Tim remounted and finished the session in P12 The final debrief for the day concluded the FP3 setup was a setup backwards and at this point in time we are not nailed on our setup for the weekend and also are not quite sure of the exact direction to head. HOWEVER!! We aren’t lost as we know the clear area were we suck and will stick to working on that in calculated setups. We have 2 x 25min qualifiers and we are hoping to find an improvement of around 0.7secs by the end of the day. Let’s see what happens. Thanks to: Jake Drew, Harley Side, Josh Schembri, Mick Large TL Constrictions, Yamaha Racing Developments SBS Brakes, DNA High Performance Filters, Kenma Australia Pirelli MotoAus, RK Chain, Cykel Products The Grinning Dingo Aus

WELCOME JOSH SCHEMBRI

It’s with great pleasure that we introduce our new guy! Josh Schembri. Josh is Race Center’s first ever apprentice motorcycle mechanic. Josh is in his 1st year as an apprentice, but you certainly would not have thought it. Josh has a love for all things mechanical and 4 weeks into his new job he is thriving working under the careful guidance Saucey (Harley Side). You can certainly tell that Josh comes from an upbringing working with tools and mechanics. We have been a little surprised by how well trained he already is and how much of a help he is proving to be. We are rapped to have him and are really looking forward to training him up to be a fully qualified mechanic in the industry that we love. Join us in welcoming the latest edition to the Race Center family, Josh Schembri

5 KEY POINTS FROM OUR ASBK RETURN

Often in racing or any sport for that matter, there are things that just don’t go to plan. While our return to the ABSK paddock with rookie Tim Large had a few of these moments, the overall outcome was probably a true reflection of where we are currently at. Here are 5 key points from our weekend. 1. How did Largey find his extra pace? After missing the important test prior to the round, Tim started the weekend extremely strong, smashing 1.8secs off his previous PB at Winton to clock an impressive 1.24.7 sec lap on his Yamaha YZF-R6. More impressive was the fact that Winton is not a track that Tim has done heaps of laps around and he is only in his 2nd full season of road racing. We have been working lately on Tim’s corner entry speed and line choice, this remained our focus heading into Friday. We have also been working hard on consistency and extracting the best for the available tyre grip. The thing about running new tyres is often the rider cannot extract the maximum grip in the first couple of laps when the tyre is at it’s peak. This is because it does take a few laps for any rider to get right on the limit of grip. This is exactly why we see times drop so much in the 2nd run of a MotoGP qualifying session when a new tyre is fitted. The rider is already up to speed thus when the fresh bag is fitted the rider has a better chance of extracting all of it’s potential. So, in simple terms this was our Friday strategy, to push Largey very hard in the key areas we were working on and do it all on used rubber. Then once we were confident that he was riding at his peak, pit him mid-session for a new tyre. We did this in FP3 and it instantly worked with Tim dropping is the 1.24s. This strategy is a great way to help up and coming riders find the extra pace they need. However, timing is everything, knowing when to do this is the key and a skill. Doing it at the wrong time just results in wasting tyres and frustrating the rider. 2. A Rookie Error We have been very open that 2021 is a development year for us and we are not just saying that. Even with an experienced team, a rookie is still a rookie and will make rookie errors from time to time. These errors are actually awesome for their development, some things are just better learnt firsthand. Tim’s mistake was he pushed a little too hard in an area he was already very quick. Instead, he should have focussed more on his weaker areas. Focussing on your weak points is never much fun and is a lot more like hard work. So naturally when the red mist descends, a rider’s tendency is to try harder in the parts they are already fast because they feel confident there. It is the completely natural thing to do. However, it is not smart. The best lap time improvement comes from improving the areas you suck in, not the ones where you are already good. Tim just went balls out into the fast sweeper, a section of track he was already fast. This coupled with the strong tail wind on Saturday morning that was different to Friday caught him out. He was in a bit too hot, the bike started to run wide and when he tried to pull it back on the line and it simply said “good-bye Timbo” It was a high speed crash but luckily Tim was unharmed, the bike on the other hand not so much……. While it was a rookie error, we are super happy he did it and we are also sure it won’t be the last time he ever does something like that. It’s part of his development and he is required to push his limits, sometimes he will make mistakes. With experience the mistakes will just be less frequent. 3. Lack of Preparation As a team we were very under prepared for the weekend and ASBK. We were aware of this heading to Winton and knew we were going to need a bit of luck and things to go smoothly for there to be any possibility of a decent result. The lack of preparation did not really have anything to do with Tim’s illness heading into the round. It was more to do with a lack of spares, and 2nd bike prep heading into the round. The main reason for this has been the tsunami of work that has hit the workshop in early 2021. The amount of track days, club racing, tassie trips that have been all scheduled at once now that the lockdowns have lifted has been very difficult to stay on top off. Add to this we have been a staff member down for a little while it has meant that the race team has had to take a back seat to our customer work. Tim’s #2 bike was just way too under spec to be competitive at ASBK level. So while we used it a Qualyifing 2, it was a mad scramble to get the #1 bike rebuilt for race day. Jake Drew and Saucy did a great job in getting that done but with sheer amount of work to do and lack of spares it was always going to be a tough gig. Ultimately this all caught up with us in Race 2 where Tim failed to finish when the mounts for the seat unit broke. 4. A Setting change that didn’t work Our Friday went smoothly with our strategy working perfectly. We didn’t make any settings changes at all over the Friday instead using our tried and tested FD-03 base setting and focussing on our plan for Tim’s riding. After our Friday night debrief, we decided to modify the setup a little to provide Tim with better braking stability and more ground clearance. We only got a handful of laps in Qualifying 1 before Tim’s big off, but Tim still managed to get back into the 1.24s. With only our limited information we were still unsure if the change was a step in the right direction but there was enough evidence to stick with it as the lap time was decent and Tim preferred the extra ground clearance. Sunday morning warm up was going to be key for us to give the new setting a good test but when an electrical gremlin struck as a result of the crash, we lost the opportunity to properly test the change. In race 1 we stuck with the new setting but after a handful of laps it was clear this setup was a backward step. Tim was struggling for pace with the bike not turning as well mid turn as the Friday setting, this really hurt his lap time. With hindsight it turns out the 1.24 Tim did on that new setting on Saturday was the improvement in the rider, not bike. So for Race 2 we reverted back to the Friday setting. Tim instantly felt more confident and was ready for a good race. Unfortunately, the rear set mounts had different plans 5. A True reflection for the better While we could sit here and say, “only if this happened or that happened the results would have been better”. We could also say next time we are going to be better and all that carry on but that is more just hope than reality. There is absolutely no doubt Tim and team were making progress and if circumstances were different the laps times would have continued to drop. But truth is that would have needed a fair bit of luck to go our way. Our results were actually a very good indication of where we are at and the work we have ahead of us. As much as it sucks, with things going wrong we will be better in the long run. The next round of the ASBK is at Wakefield Park, a track that Tim does not know. We also have the Vic Titles before then which will mean the workload we have will not ease before then. So Wakefield Park will be another challenging weekend for us but they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! Results: FP3 - P11 1.24.7 Q1 - P13 1.24.9 (crash) Q2 - P16 1.25.5 Qualifying Overall - P14 Race 1 - P14 Race 2 - DNF Massive thanks to Jake Drew, Mick Large, Saucy Yamaha Racing Development Program SBS Brake Pads DNA High Performance Filters Kenma Austrlia Pirelli RK Chains

Largey Qualifies P14 after High-Speed Crash

After an extremely positive Friday practice in his first ever ASBK meeting, Race Center’s Tim Large has qualified 14th for tomorrow’s MotorSports TV Supersport races with 1.24.9 around Winton Motor Raceway. However, the day was filled with drama after Tim suffered a very high-speed crash at turn 5 while trying to improve his times. Tim started the day of great and was finding his grove when he made a little bit of a rookie mistake. He tried to push harder in a corner he was already quick and, on the limit, the fast turn 5. The extra push coupled with a string tail wind was enough for him to lose the front on his Yamaha YZF-R6, sending the #1 race bike flying! Thankfully, Tim was completely unhurt in the crash however the bike didn’t fare so well. With little time between qualifying 1 and 2, the team had no choice but to set his spare Yamaha R6 for the dry and use that. Tim’s #2 bike is quite a bit down on spec in comparison to the #1 bike, in particular the #1 bike has a full race engine build whereas the #2 bike doesn’t. Still Tim regroup after a pep talk form the team, put his head down and bum up to get within 0.6sec of the time he set on the #1 bike. A fair effort indeed. The team of Jake Drew, Harley Side, Mick Large and Daz worked flawless together throughout the day and as we go to print the #1 bike is almost completely rebuilt!! What a stella effort, it was a serious amount of work to get all that done. The team will be working super hard tomorrow to see if we can edge ourselves forward in this ultra-competitive class. You can follow all the action at Round 2 – WINTON MOTOR RACEWAY (asbk.com.au) Wish us luck for the two 14 lap races tomorrow. Thanks to SBS Brake Pads DNA High Performance Filters Kenma Australia RK Chains Pirelli Moto Austrlia Kenma Australia and of course Yamaha and Yamaha Rider Developments

A Dominant Weekend for Team Race Center at Mac Park

March 6th and 7th saw the running of the 2nd round of the 2021 Hartwell Championships at Mac Park and again the Race Center crew where in fine form. When you consider that out of the 16 races that featured a Race Center rider, we won 13 of them, it’s fair to say the team was in mega hot form at Mac Park. For the 600 boys their life was not made easy by the Grinning Dingo’s Daniel Leonard who has been in hot form of late. Leonard snatched pole ahead of the Race Center boys meaning they had their work cut out on the ultra-hard to pass Mac Park circuit. With Daniel grabbing the hole shot in each race the boys had to dig deep to take the win. However, between Harley Side #95 (Saucy) and Luke Sanders #88 they managed to get the job done in each race. Luke Sanders #88 - On the back of a fresh FD-03 setting update for his Yamaha R6, Luke had a stella weekend taking the win in 2 of the 4 600cc races plus a dominate win in the feature Greg Bailey Race by over 9 secs from teammate Harley Side. Luke also managed a fastest lap of 1.11.9 which is super impressive on a 600. It was great to see Luke back in form and he sighted great improvement in front end confidence with the new setting update. Harley Side (Saucy) #95 – Saucy’s hot form continued, his performance was a clear signal that it wasn’t just the new surface at Broadford that has led to his pace increase. Saucy clocked a blistering 1.11.6! just 0.5 off the lap record, when you consider the short time Harley has been racing that is just phenomenal. Saucy took 2 outright wins plus 4 in class out of 4. He also followed Sanders home in 2nd in the Greg Bailey Feature Race. Saucy did have to work his way to the lead making some great passes along the way and really enjoying the battles with teammate Sanders. Will Sharrock #88 – Will had a ripper weekend setting some really fast times aboard this Yamaha R6. Will didn’t quite have the pace over race distance of the leaders but still managed a 1.12.1 a 3rd and 3 4th places over the weekend. He did have a little tumble in the last race but in true Will still remounted to finish the race. On ya William!!!! Jason Male #54 – In round 1’s race summary we reported Jason Male was back on the bike after a long layoff. Well, it seems to have done him the world of good!! Jason took 3 wins out of 4 races in the 600 Novice class, his first ever wins!!!!! Jason even lead most of race for before he ran out of puff in the last few laps to fall back to 2nd. Yet is was more than even to take out the round win and give him the current series lead in the Novice 600 class. Congrats mate!!! Over to the 1000cc bikes and it was Flash Harry himself, Daniel DiNuzzo #45 that took 3 wins from 3 starts and pole position aboard his Yamaha R1 with fresh Race Center ECU Map and FD-02 suspension. Impressively Daniel is graded as a Non-Expert yet he still took pole and won each race outright against the Expert class. Danny D got down to an impressive 1.12.0!! However he decided to sit out the Greg Bailey Feature race sitting a potential lack of fitness 😊Danny D has been in the Race Center student pool for a little while now and it riding so great. Well done mate. Daniel’s stablemate Joel Gilmore #11 had a weekend to forget unfortunately. He was riding awesome and mega fast lapping in the 1.11s. However he only managed to finish 1 race after having a couple of tumbles and some continued mechanical troubles. As much as it sucks for Joel his situation is a good advert for why keeping up a solid maintenance program on you race bike is so important. His run of mechanical issues has cost him a lot of great results over the past few meetings and must be frustrating for him. We hope to see things turn around for him soon. Last but in no way least, Fergus Gibson #85 – We didn’t forget him!!! Ferg is racing his new KTM 890 in the Thunderbike class. He scored 2 wins and two 3rd places netting him 2nd overall for the round. Considering Fergo supposedly retired from racing over a year ago he is riding pretty great 😉. With the new bike Ferg was complaining of a few flat spots in the power delivery, so between round 1 and 2 we got the bike into Race Center HQ for tune. He was rapped with the result sighting a big improvement in the bikes power delivery. Ferg declined to have his photo present in this report after hurting our win ratio so badly (this is a joke for anyone that doesn't get it and is offended) All in all, a massively successful weekend. Well done team!! Thanks to all our supporters!

Largey Hospitalised - Yet still will make ASBK debut

Stepping up to the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, presented by Motul (ASBK) in the Motorsports TV Supersport class was always going to be a tall order for Race Center’s Tim Large, however it’s a task that has become all that more difficult after a troublesome couple of weeks. Tim was forced to abandon the recent Winton test after only a handful of laps due to a bad case of gastro. Despite needing the valuable laps, Tim just didn’t have the energy to ride and the Race Center team pulled the pin on the test. After looking like things were slowly on the improve Tim’s condition took a turn for the worse and he was hospitalised this weekend just past. A prolonged period of pain, no energy or ability to eat and drink forced him into hospital. Tim was released on Sunday night at which that time we were preparing to pull out of this coming weekend’s round at Winton Motor Raceway. Despite it presenting a great opportunity for Tim to sample this big step up in competition, he just was not well enough and too weak to consider riding. We decided to leave the decision until Wednesday night and we are very pleased to report Tim has improved quite a bit and he will be racing this weekend 😊 In only his 2nd full season of road racing, stepping up to national level will be a very big step for Tim but it will also be a great experience for him. In 2021 he will only be doing selected rounds and will be on older Yamaha R6 machinery as we use it as a learning year for Tim and his crew with the eye to doing a full season on new equipment in 2022. For us a Race Center it is a bit of a re-birth into national racing and it’s really nice to be doing it in a structure where our main racing focus remains local level, grass roots racing including the VRRC, then providing a development path for riders to take the step up to ASBK. This n ew structure also gives the opportunity for some of our VRRC riders to pit crew for Tim, this weekend we are extremely fortunate to have #82 Jake Drew accompanying Daz and Tim’s Dad Mick as our pit crew. Our workshop will remain open on Friday even though the race team will be away with Saucy running the show accompanied by our new guy Josh, thanks boys! For those interested in a attending or following this weekend’s action head to Round 2 – WINTON MOTOR RACEWAY (asbk.com.au) for ticketing, live timing and live streaming. Wish us luck, and send Tim a nappy or 2 if you have them 😉

Thank you FLEX – Matthew Gregory has decided to move on

After almost 3 years with us, Matthew Gregory has decided to move on. While it is sad to lose one of our team members, we are extremely grateful for the massive contribution Flex made to our business. In his time here Flex produced some amazing work including some really complex builds. He also helped change processes, systems and was a part of projects to better our quality of work and efficiencies. Along the way we also had a lot of great laughs! It would be fitting if we produced a Flex Soundtrack. Some of his impersonations of Daz coupled with the noises he used to make while working were just hilarious. Losing a talent like Flex is always difficult but sometimes change is just inevitable. Flex is going to try his hand in the construction industry for a while and we wish him the greatest success in his future endeavours. From the entire Race Center Family, a massive thank you Flex!!!!!

A Bag Full of Race Wins, 57s, PBs and Amazing Tyre Wear – What a way to kick of our Race Season

After a non-existent 2020, our 2021 race season could not have gotten off to a better start at Round 1 of the Hartwell Championships. The entire Race Center family put in sensational performances, including a lot of personal milestones. Sorry for the late report we have just been super flat out in the workshop! Tim Large 74 (TL Turbo) was in hot form. Still relatively new to road racing Tim took pole position and 5 wins from 5 races aboard his Race Center Yamaha R6. This included a mega performance in the last race where he produced a scintillating 57.4 even though he started the race on a used tyre. Tim held his nerve and held off very strong challenges from the talented Scott Nicholson who was still coming to grips with getting his new R6 off the line. Tim nailed each start giving him a lead on lap 1 while Scott had to work his way back and did impressively. While Scott came close Tim’s grit was too strong, impressively not making even the slightest mistake despite the pressure of leading every lap. Great concentration and well done Turbo!! Next in line was probably the surprise packet of the weekend, well surprise for others but not for us! Our very, no bum, Saucey man / Harley Side. Saucy finished 3rd outright in each race behind TL Turbo and Nicholson and 1st in his class. In the process young Saucy beat some very creditable opposition and rode stella all weekend. On top of all that Saucy joined the 57 club, smashing his PB with a new 57.9 which is super-fast for a 600!!! Saucy became the 5th of our relatively inexperienced riders to join the 57 club. He joins Lee Ramstein, Joel Gilmore, Daniel DiNuzzo and Tim Large. Yes, the Broadford resurface has netted faster times but the improvement from this lot has been astronomical. Must be something in the water?! Joel Gilmore had a little bit of a troubled weekend with a couple of bike issues but still rode amazingly to consolidate his spot firmly in the 57 bracket. It was a tough weekend for Joel as his partner in crime Danny D (Daniel DiNuzzo) couldn't attned. Other notable rides were the battle between our novice odd couple, Buzz Kiely and James Ahimastos. Buzz getting the better of the tall Greek but only just. Both boys ,smashed their PBs getting into the 60s and well as finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. It was a very big step for our Buzzly boy and a great return for James who has been off the bike for a very long time. Speaking of riders making a return, it was great to see Jason Male back in the seat as well as our old and dear friend Matt Maver. Jason was another to smash his PB, this time by over 2 seconds (probably doesn’t say much about his previous PB but hey) while Matty did struggle a little to get back up to speed however you couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, it was great to have them back. Will Sharrock had a strong weekend with a new PB but probably was a bit off the pace he would have hoped for, so we have a little bit of work to do there. It was also great to see Brendon Wilson enjoying his new Race Center setup smashing out 58s and racing extremely well. Unfortunately we did have one casualty, Lee Ramstein fractured his wrist in a sicking crash where luckily no one was seriously hurt. Lee did attempt a pass at the back straight kink, normally a no pass zone. However the rider in front had left a gap there every lap before so Lee decided to use it on lap 4. Unfortunately on the lap the rider in front did close the gap and Lee was already half way though the move and clipped him and came off at over 200km/h. It was an ambitious pass but there was some merit in trying it due the previous laps so a bit of an unfortunate racing incident. Still for anyone that prefers to err on the side of cautious it is a dangerous place to pass and should be avoided. Another great side of the weekend was having Dingo Meade and Jake Drew in rider support roles for our tram. Was a lot of fun in our little Kindergarten. This coming weekend will see the next round of the Hartwell Championship at Mac Park followed by the ASBK Round 1 at Winton. Thanks to all our supporters and sponsors SBS Brakes Pads, DNA Filters, RK Chains