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Round of the Baskerville | SPORT

The Sports Riders Club of Tasmania (SRCT), formerly the Sidecar Racing Club of Tasmania, has been running ride and race days at Baskerville Raceway near Hobart since 1976. The club has hosted several Australian Road Race Championships in the past, the most recent being in 1999.

Through the hard work and commitment of the SRCT members, Baskerville has seen strong resurgence in motorcycle racing in recent years and now regularly hosts well subscribed ride days, and race days with capacity grids.

This coincides well with the efforts of the ‘Baskerville Foundation’ who in 2013 set about raising funds for a much needed upgrade of the Baskerville facility. Improvements have been ongoing since then, but this December will see work begin to completely resurface the circuit. Baskerville has long been regarded as one of the best motorcycle race tracks in Australia, and with a new surface and ongoing facility upgrades its popularity is sure to rise.

The feature event on the SRCT calendar, now in its third year, is the Motorworks 2 Hour, an endurance event for 600cc and 1000cc bikes, with prize money on offer for each class. Supporting the two hour will also be a full grid of Under 300cc competitors in the supporting 20 lap lites race, and a number of sprint races across multiple classes providing plenty of action across the day.

“This is a tough event as Baskerville is a demanding circuit” club president Mark de Jong points out. “2 hours around Baskerville is hard work and is a real test of man and machine. With fuel stops, tyre wear and rider changes, the event throws plenty of challenges as last year’s winners Robbie Bugden and Mike Jones found out. At the first rider change, Buggie was handed a bike that was stuck in 4th gear after Mike ground the end of the gear lever off!”

Both riders will be back again in 2016, but won’t be teaming up this year. Bugden has chosen to ride with up and coming local rider Chris McGrath on a 2016 ZX10-R, while Jones, fresh from his debut MotoGP appearance will ride solo on a locally prepared Ducati 996.

Jones and Bugden/McGrath will be heading off against local ace pairing of Brett Simmonds (a former 125gp wild card) and Kurt Sushames (runner up in last year’s event) while several other locals have teamed up to challenge the dream teams for the podium.

” I’m really looking forward to heading back to Tassie to compete in the Motorworks 2 hour “Bugden said. “Last year I had such a great time and the event is run really well. So when the opportunity came up to race with a new teammate in Chris McGrath, it really was an easy decision. I’m really looking forward to getting down there and getting stuck into it.”

The SRCT provides travel assistance of $500 for all mainland teams. Contact details and entry forms can be found on the SRCT website, along with details and the costs of joining and participating in SRCT’s upcoming events :  www.srct.org.au

Upcoming Events

Nov 5th SRCT Ride day

Nov 6th Motorworks two Hour endurance race and sprints

Nov 24th-27th Baskerville Historic Road Racing championships

Dec 11th SRCT Ride day

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