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2021 Race Center Christmas Party & Bruce Hill Memorial Trophy – 18th December

The 2021 Race Center Christmas Party is go and will be held on the 18th December 2021 This will be the 4th running of the perpetual Bruce Hill Memorial Trophy which will then be followed by a very fun after party. This is an open invitation to all Race Center customers, friends, family, partners, and supporters of our little team. Bookings are essential to allow us to cater properly. The link to book is below and would be great if you could book by 6th Dec 2021 You can choose to participate in the Go Kart race or just attend the after party, or better still do both!! Go Karts - Bruce Hill Memorial Trophy We have a very exciting twist this year and it won’t be so easy for reigning champ Tim Large (TL Turbo) to defend his crown!!! This year there will be driver pairings, yep just like Bathurst. Teams will be made up of 2 drivers, each driver receiving a 10min qualifying session with their combined times forming the grid for the feature race. The feature race will be a 40min marathon that will feature a driver swap halfway through, yep for real! To keep things interesting and to have some parity, driver pairings will be selected based on driver weight. The heaviest driver will be paired with the lightest, the 2nd heaviest with the 2nd lightest and so on. The venue will again be ACE Karts in Albion (Sunshine) BUT this year they have all new, fresh go karts. Thus, they should be much more even than last year This is going to be mega! We can have a maximum of 22 Karts, so 44 drivers and you must arrive to the venue by 1.15pm – Cost is $100 per driver After Party – Welcome to Brunswick (Brewery & BBQ) This year we have booked a function spot at the super cool Welcome to Brunswick Brewery which kicks off at 5pm. The event will be catered with a ‘food only’ option OR ‘food and drinks’ option available. We have had to put up a minimum spend so the way it will work is everyone attending will get the food package, while those who select the drinks option will receive wrist band for their drinks. The money on the bar will eventually run out at which point you can just buy any more that you want.. Although you should be pretty well lubed by that stage. If you do plan on having a few we do encourage you to select the drinks package too as we have to put the money up regardless to secure the function spot. Food only is $40 Food and Drinks is $100 If your prefer you can book and pay over the phone by calling the workshop on 0457 195 630 Bruce Hill Memorial Honours List 2020 Champion – Tim Large (TL Turbo) 2nd Jake Drew (Jake Drew World Wide) 3rd Tyson Jones (Tyson) People Champion – Daniel Duda – High sided his RSV4 leaving Race Center on the morning of the party breaking his leg :( Best on Ground – Harley Side (Sauce) – World biggest hangover the next day Team Champions – Race Center 2019 Champion – Tim Sandy 2nd Tyson Jones 3rd Nathan Jones People Champion – William Sharrock – Blown Kart Best on Ground – Super Daz – Blindest at the after party, had an accidental nap in the bush Team Champions – Race Center 2018 Champion – Luke Sanders Peoples Champion – Dingo Meade – DNS due to high blood alcohol reading from night before Best on Ground – William Sharrock – Blindest at the after party – speaking proved very difficult for William

Introducing Julian Redondo

You may have seen recently we advertised for a new technician? Well, it’s with great pleasure we introduce Julian Redondo! Julian has been working within the industry for 4 years and comes with a great skill, attention to detail and a great work ethic. Julian will initially be spending most of his time in our general workshop and then start the transition into a more specialised role of suspension technician under the guidance of Daz and Saucey. Julian has a passion for motorbikes and racing, so we reckon he will fit in just right with us in his new home at Race Center. While are on the employee front, our young apprentice Josh Schembri has been coming on leaps and bounds, we are just so happy with his progress. The no bum Harley Saucy Side has been exceling in his role as workshop manager. This has allowed the head honcho Daz to focus on the more specialised work, quality management and a bunch of new R&D projects to further improve our products, quality and performance. Join us in welcoming Julian!!

Return to Broadford – Can you really afford to have the wrong tyre pressures?

This weekend we see a return to action at Broadford’s State Motorcycling Complex. Frist will be the Champions Ride Day on Fri 6th, followed by MV’s Women’s Day on Saturday the 7th and Preston Motorcycle Club’s Bracket Racing Event rounding out the weekend on Sunday 8th. As it has been a while off, we just wanted to remind people that the track surface should still be treated as relatively new. While it will be settling down more and more, it will still provide very high grip levels. This means the required tyre pressures to avoid tear will be a lot different to other circuits with older surfaces. The Race Center team has done a lot of testing on Pirelli rubber at the circuit. We have found pressures that not only massively reduce the risk of tear but we have even manage to lap under lap record pace on these pressures 😉 We have done this testing across a vast array of riders so you can be very confident in them. All the data is available in our Race School article, while this is a paid subscription the money saved on tyres alone will be well worth it. NOTE: This data is only related to Pirelli and Metzler tyres You simply can't argue with the wear and lap times we have been achieving!

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!