    |
 |
|
|
|
The Wanganui motorcycle racer made history last September by giving the GSX1300R Suzuki Hayabusa its first win in Sports Production racing anywhere in the world.
Now he’s repeated that by scoring the Hayabusa’s first win in Formula Xtreme racing.
Bernard’s latest win came at the opening round of the Suzuki Road Race Series at Manfeild on March 5 which featured the first Formula Xtreme races ever held in New Zealand.
Formula Xtreme is an Australian racing class started by Sydney-based New Zealand promoter Terry O’Neill. Since then it has regularly attracted three times more competitors than the Australian Superbike Championship.
For this year’s Suzuki Road Race Series, co-ordinator Tim Gibbes negotiated exclusive New Zealand rights to the class with O’Neill’s company Formula Xtreme Promotions Pty. Ltd., which established the big bike category across the Tasman in 1996.
Formula Xtreme pits road-based machines of 800cc to 1300cc against each other with a simple set of rules that allow more freedom than the current New Zealand Open Sports Production formula.
To score the Suzuki Hayabusa’s first Formula Xtreme win, Brian Bernard had to hold off the hard charging Timaru ace John Hepburn, the man who took the Suzuki Hayabusa into the record books in February when he established a New Zealand record of 307.447 km/h at Edendale in Southland.
With Bernard and Hepburn locked in combat in each of the three Formula Xtreme events, Suzuki New Zealand was delighted to have the Hayabusas dominating the class and scoring 1-2 finishes in each of the three races.
“That wasn’t easy,” Bernard commented later. “Johnny was pushing me all the way. There was no time for a breather.”
The two Suzuki riders treated spectators to a masterful display of wheel-to-wheel racing but each time Bernard found a little extra to keep Hepburn at bay.
Behind the two Suzuki men Wellington’s Sean Aitken emerged third overall on his Suzuki GSX-R1100, with 3-3-4 finishes in the three races, but only after a torrid scrap with Bruce Telford (Aprilia RSV1000) and the Kawasaki ZX-9Rs of Derek McAdam and Steve Bridge.
These four went at it hammer and tongs in every Formula Xtreme encounter, with Bridge taking fourth overall with 5-4-3 finishes from McAdam’s 4-5-5. Telford was sixth with 6-6-6 placings on the Aprilia, but it was close enough that if any of the other three had made a mistake, the Aprilia could just as easily have been third.
Series co-ordinator Tim Gibbes is delighted with the first hit out by the Formula Xtreme bikes in New Zealand and expects the class to build over the course of the Suzuki Series to culminate in a trans-Tasman Challenge in November.
With the Suzuki Hayabusa’s in Formula Xtreme trim, Hepburn and Bernard were recording lap times almost a second under the best lap times the big Suzukis have recorded in Open Sports Production trim.
“The bike was getting into getting into bigger slides and wheel-spinning longer than it ever has in Sports Production trim,” Bernard says, revealing that his Hayabusa is now producing 180 bhp at the rear wheel.
“There is definitely more to come in terms of lap times as we get the chassis and suspension dialled in better,” he added, “and I guess I should be looking at some gearing changes too.”
The Suzuki Road Race Series continues with the second round at Taupo’s Centennial Park circuit on April 16, with further rounds alternating between Taupo and Manfeild.
