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When the option to compete at the Eastern Creek Round of the Motul Australian Formula Xtreme Championship presented itself, Cru Halliday didn’t hesitate. This was an opportunity to measure his progress as a rider, against one of the world’s best. Cru and his team could use this to benchmark themselves against the competition that he will face as his career develops.
It was Cru’s first chance to unleash the power of his 2010 Yamaha YZF-R1 at the 3.93km Western Sydney circuit in a racing environment. The team set the bike up to take full advantage of its strengths and to conserve its tyres.
Conditions were cold and over cast on Friday. The cool track temperature meant optimising grip was a priority. The team made further significant changes to the suspension set up which had not yet been tested. This made every second of track time crucial in order to give Cru the best bike possible for the weekend.
The first of the timed sessions on Saturday had the riders straight into qualifying. Problems with the timing meant that Cru did not show up on the monitors until the session had passed the halfway mark although he was the fastest on track. The team elected to bring him in and change transponders just in case his was faulty. Cru soon appeared on the screen only to be relegated to 2nd by Yamaha Factory Rider Kevin Curtain. He was given a signal on his pit board telling him what he needed to do to bridge the gap. He immediately responded and on his final lap laid down a 1:34.544 to qualify his YRD/Kirk McCarthy Award R1 in pole position by 0.4sec.
Starting from pole position ahead of Kevin Curtain, Pat Medcalf and Craig McMartin presented Cru with the biggest challenge of his short career. His starts would be tested against this level of competition. After an average start by his own standards, Cru was led to the first turn by Curtain and Medcalf. The race soon became a 2 bike affair; the experience of Kevin Curtain verses the fresh talent of Cru Halliday. Cru lead Curtain each lap and stayed in front with a text book weave every lap as they exited turn 12, breaking the slip stream of Curtain on the run to the fast turn 1. With consistent lap times in the 1:34 range, Cru broke away to a 3 second lead setting his fastest lap of 1:34.023 on the penultimate lap.
The format for the day was a progressive grid positioning, putting Cru in pole for race 2. The set up on Cru’s R1 allowed him to get the most out of his Dunlop control tyres which were faultless all day. He was able to conserve his tyres in race 2 with his main rivals being relegated to the rear of the grid after fitting fresh front tyres. In the end he finished the race with a comfortable 7 second lead giving him pole position again for the final race.
Race 3 was all about not doing anything silly and coming home in one piece. Cru was in an early battle with Pat Medcalf. Riding with calculated patience he stalked the Yamaha Factory rider and applied pressure at every opportunity. When Pat ran wide in turn 12 Cru was able to capitalize and take the lead onto the straight. He then went about building his lead over 2nd placed Craig McMartin. As he approached the extremely fast turn 1 and began to tip in, he crossed an oil slick left the previous lap by a bike with a blown engine. At well over 220km per hour Cru crashed heavily destroying his R1 and leaving teeth marks in the chin bar of his Shark RSR2 Helmet. Fortunately he only suffered minor injuries thanks to his top quality Shark Helmet and Berik Leathers. The race was red flagged due to the oil with Cru declared the winner with the result taken from the previous lap. A small consolation after what has been described as one of the biggest crashes at the ultra fast turn in the circuits 20 year history.
 Unfortunately this put an end to Cru’s weekend. Despite having a spare bike, the doctors would not give him a medical clearance to ride on Sunday. He was left a spectator supporting his fellow Yamaha riders.
“I’m really disappointed with what happened in the last race. I was riding well and felt very comfortable with my bike. I feel like I would have been in the race for the top spot on Sunday.
“I want to thank my team for their hard work all weekend even after the crash. My back up bike was prepared for Sunday and ready to go.
“My R1 was faultless all weekend and I was very comfortable with my set up. I was gutted when I saw what was left of it on Sunday morning. We now have a lot of work to do, but we will be back better than ever.”
Cru #65
It would not be possible for Cru to compete this weekend without the support of the Kirk McCarthy Award and its partners, also YRD, GYTR, Bowral Motorcycles, Pope Building Services, Berik Leathers, Shark Helmets, Belray Oils, Carbon Imports, bike-photos.com, G.M.D Computrack, Whites Racing Products, Go Boating, Xsportz.com.au and Pit Stop Motorcycles.
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 Halliday Impresses At Eastern Creek AFXC () 07/12 09:24 AM 
. . Re: Halliday Impresses At Eastern Creek AFXC (Onlooker) 07/12 01:20 PM
. . . . Re: Cru Halliday (FX Supporter) 07/13 10:10 PM
. . . . . . Re: (junkmale) 07/19 04:19 PM
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