Fraser Rogers consolidated his lead in the ThundersportsGB GP3 championship at Oulton Park on Saturday to lead both Championships.The day started badly however for the young Wiltshire rider. During the 20 minute qualifying session he was caught out at the Britten’s chicane just after the Shell Oils loop Fraser said ‘ As it was a long session and I was on new wets it was agreed I would put in some steady laps to find the grip and get some heat into the tyres before sticking in some quick laps, putting the power down to exit the chicane I was flicked off, the joint between the surfaces goes right across the point of putting the power down, even in the dry you have to be careful.’

Fraser is well known for his pluckiness, team manager John Davies and his dad ian were amazed to see him push the bike over the rise of Dear Leap, a combination of part riding and pushing the machine he had managed to get the bike back to the pits. The damage was minor and after 10 minute turnaround he was back out on track to put in a qualifying lap. Whilst the time was way slower than pole sitter Sam Hornsey it was enough to get him off the back row on to row 7 of 9 rows in 26th position.

Fraser knew what he had to do in the race as Sam Hornsey was tying with him for the overall championship lead. The other bad news for Fraser was the race had been nominated as a ‘Gold’ race with double points up for grabs! he was going to have a tough time to get up with the leaders in this 13 lap race however a combination of lady luck smiling on him and clever riding saw him in 14th place at the end of lap one. by lap 8 he was up to 7th place. John Davies said ‘to be fair we were lucky in the race, Sam had crashed out on the second lap leaving Ulsterman Andy Reid to take an impressive win. fair play to Andy he rode a measured and mature race which helped us in the championship, however over a season most riders get their bad and good luck in equal measures’.

The race was red flagged on lap 9 at this point Fraser was in P7 on the road but P6 in the results as a rider ahead of him was not aware he had been disqualified for cutting a corner. Rogers now moves to his main focus of 2009 at the Red Bull Rookie Cup at Assen on the 27th June.

Follow his progress on www.redbullrookiescup.com

                                                  

JDF riders Danny Murphy and Matt Davies were once again on the podium at Oulton Park following good performances at the previous round at Pembrey.

On their Magnum Motorsports powered RS125 Aprilia’s Danny and Matt had never seen the circuit before Friday morning.Both riders achieved impressive qualifying positions on the front row in tricky conditions at oulton Park despite the circuit having numerous testing corners particularly in the wet.

Danny qualified in P3 on 2:38.183 1.962 seconds behind on form pole-sitter Andy Reid, Matt next to team-mate Danny with a time of 2:39.685 to complete ther front row.

Oulton Park like Cadwell is the toughest test offa rider on the calendar due to the topography and a high number of corners the rider needs to learn. A circuit were time can be lost easily as well as gained, it usually takes a rider a number of meetings to get to grips with the historic Cheshire circuit. Rochdale rider Danny Murphy put in the performance of the weekend with two solid second postions and was never troubled by the rest of the field. Consistently qualifying on the front row and achieving regular podium positions, his first win appears to be just around the corner.

The podium performances were even more impressive as Danny had completed just 11 laps of the circuit on the Friday test day. Due to an A Level examination Danny completed just 6 laps of the circuit prior to scooting off on the back of Dad Steve’s bike to take the exam! Steve Murphy said ‘it was the best performance in the series so far by Danny, given the conditions and the length of the circuit he impressed a lot of people, not just me his dad which is what you may expect!’ After nipping back to the circuit after the exam Danny completed a further 5 laps of the circuit. The two solid results have taken Danny to witihn just 34 points of second placed rider Connor Tagg.

Young Aussie Matt Davies said ‘we have nothing like this type of circuit back home, awesome is all I can say!’ Following in the footsteps of the likes of Casey Stoner and Troy Bayliss who raced many times at the circuit, Matt put in very competitive lap times on the Friday test session and was the quickest around the 2.7 miles long Cheshire circuit. Getting mixed up in a first lap tumble with Wayne Ryan, Matt did not complete the first race. Race 2 however saw Matt follow team mate Danny home to finish in third place to take the final podium position of the weekend.

After what appears a trend for young Fraser  of qualifying in P2, he was looking forward to the Superpole race. Having won the previous Superpole races at the opening round at Mallory Park, and at the second round at Cadwell Park a third back to back win looked on the cards.

After a terrific start which saw him tip into the first corner in first place, the exit was an unaccustomed high-side for Fraser which saw him tumble resulting in a injury to his left wrist. Talking to him afterwards Fraser said ‘ I had a real good start, entering the corner I felt another machine hit my rear tyre, so I thought I needed to get on it for the drag to the right-hander after the hairpin, clearly too much throttle, I stayed down on the track as I could see the rest of the pack whistling by me!

Race 1 of the E2E GP3 championship on the Sunday saw Fraser score his lowest result of the year so far, with a fith place. Seven seconds behind race winner Sam Hornsey John Davies said ‘ Fraser was in a lot of pain as a result of the injury sustained the previous day however the medical team were happy the injury was not so serious, although in pain Fraser did not take the easy option of sitting it out’.

The final race of the day saw Fraser exhibit the kind of grit and determination that he will need to compete successfully on the world stage in the Red Bull Rookie series a support event in Moto GP.

As a result of the non-finish in the Superpole race the previous day, Fraser was moved back to P6 on the grid, the first time he had to start a race not on the front row. Clearly in some distress with the wrist injury he managed to get off the line despite dropping the clutch a bit early.

At the end of lap one he was in 10th place some five seconds behind race leader on lap one Simon Low. What we witnessed over the next 11 laps was quite extraordinary. despite riding with what was later diagnosed as a broken arm he ripped past the riders ahead two at a time. By lap four he had closed Tome Carne down in fifth place. John Davies said ‘ at this stage I thought Fraser was going for another steady finish, he clearly had other ideas! we could see why he was picked for the Red Bull series, as it is not just about been able to ride a motorcylce quickly, other character attributes are required for top level competition’.

Despite the leading four riders having a five second lead over him he put a massive effort in over the next three laps to get on the tail of Sam Hornsey in third place, lap nine ,ten, and eleven Fraser was in third place waiting for a chance to take the lead.

The last lap saw Fraser post the fastest lap of the weekend at 1.0994 to miss out on the win by just 0.052 of a second from Sam Hornsey. The lap time on the last lap was impressive for a number of reason, just 0.3 of a second off the lap record and the only rider over the weekend to achieve a sub 1.02 lap he was in a lot of pain in Parc Ferme, this achieved on a stock machine!

Derek Price of Magnum Motorsports and Academy partner said after the race ‘ I was very impressed with the ride, we have made changes to the engine set up which gets the best out of the machine, however it is a stock machine without any kit parts on it. With John setting up the the suspension to suit Fraser and managing the engine during race weekends, Fraser is beating kitted machines with quite a bit more horsepower than he has at his right fist!

 John Davies said ‘hopefully Fraser will be fit enough to capitalise on the fighting spirit he exhibited today to take to the next Red Bull round at Mugello; the Academy was set up to achieve just what we have seen from Fraser over the Pembrey weekend’.

At just 13 years of age we can see why Fraser Rogers is being tipped to join Countrymen Bradley Smith, Danny Webb, and Scott Redding in 125 Moto GP.

JDF riders Matt Davies and Danny Murphy achieved a one-two in race 1 after a terrific battle which saw the two riders move through the field to take first and second position in the opening race at Pembrey.

 

The team-mates worked their way through the field to battle it out for the top step. Danny Murphy losing out on his first win by just 0.080 of a second to team-mate Australian Matt Davies gaining his first win in the series. The last Australian to win a Superteen race was of course Casey Stoner in 2000.

 

Danny said afterwards ‘ it was a great race, particularly coming through from one of my usual not so good starts, I kept the pace up and worked my way through from 7th place at the end of lap one. I could see by my pit board I was several seconds behind the leaders, but I kept the pressure on, disappointed by missing out on the win by such a small margin, however I was pleased Matt won it for the team’.

 

This was a great result for Danny, as he only made his motorcycle racing debut at Pembrey in August 2008. He only learnt to ride a motorcycle five weeks earlier in the July 2008!

 

A newcomer on a motorcycle but a very experienced racer, Danny was a champion kart driver winning multi-championships on four wheels before making the conversion to two wheels.

 

Danny was asked why the move from four to two wheels?

 

‘To move on in four wheels sport would have taken too much money, dad rode a motorcycle and after discussing the Superteen series with our Kart sponsor and tuner Derek Price of Magnum Motorsport we decided to give it a go, Derek had tuned the 2007 Champion’s bike for JDF. We have not looked back, a great series and a new challenge!

 

Dad Steve said ‘ running with JDF has also helped us a lot, John has a number of years experience in the series, as Danny said JDF won it in 2007 with James Folkard, and was runner up last year with Bruce Winfield. The atmosphere in the team awning with Matt and Academy rider 2008 Superteen champion Fraser Rogers is quietly determined’

 

Team manger of JDF racing John Davies said ‘achieving the right atmosphere in the team is in my opinion the most important aspect to get right first, this in turn will help achieve the results we are all here for. Winning is the ultimate goal however if the basics are not in place winning will not happen, too many dad’s and riders do not understand this concept of getting the basics right and building from there, they complicate the issues and lose their way’.

 

Motorcycle racing in essence is a pretty simple undertaking, the guy that closes the throttle later and opens it earlier usually wins the race; we have to ensure the riders absolutely understand the basic concept of riding the machine correctly!

 

Australian Matt Davies showed his potential at the opening round at Mallory Park in March by achieving a podium on a stock machine.

Round two at cadwell Park was one to forget for Matt, as a crash on the Friday open practise put him out for the rest of the weekend as a result of mild concussion. Dad Anthony said ‘ we were a bit disapppointed that he was ruled out for the whole week end, however the Doctors’ made the correct decision, we new after that he would be stoked for Pembrey which proved right’!

 

Flying in from Australia on a 20,0000 miles round trip shows determination. Interestingly Matt is following in the same path as Casey Stoner. Having cut his teeth on the dirt in Australia as Stoner did winning numerous titles Matt needed a new challenge.

Dad Anthony said ‘Matt had won a lot of races on the dirt, we also competed in a number of road track races on an 80cc machine. After a while Matt was winning comfortably and did not get the challenges he needed to progress.

After looking at various options including racing in a Malaysian championship Anthony decided to give the Superteen Challenge a go. ‘ I contacted Ian Newton promoter of the series in the U.K, I was suprised Casey had trod the same route nine years ago, as we are now, winning the Superteen championship in 2000 we did not know in Australia he was a Superteen Champion, in fact we had not even heard of the series back home’!

 

After a good qualifying session which saw Matt post 4th fastest time to complete the front row, it was clear from the start Matt was determined for a least a podium result. By lap two of the ten lap race he had slotted into second postion, having had a tussle with another rider showing good form Nick Anderson, Matt led the race for the remaining laps.

Team-mate Danny Murphy was also looking for a podium and in chasing Matt set the fastest lap of the race at 1.07566.

Danny said afterwards ‘ I am not getting off the line cleanly, when I do I think I should be able to consistently run at the front! The remaining races of the weekend saw Matt Davies achieve further podium results with two second places and a non-finish as a result of overcooking things at the notorious Pembrey hairpin.

 

Danny Murphy achieved a 4th and 6th place and a non-finish due to a crash battleing with Championship leader Andy Reid in the last race of the weekend. The consolation being another lap recored for the Rochdale rider at 1.06392.

Out of the three rounds so far Danny has set two lap records; clearly once he gets his start sorted out he will be a challenging regularly for the top step!