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2022 ASBK Round 2 Support Categories review in the Oceania Junior Cup, Michelin SuperSport & Dunlop SuperSport 300 at Queensland Raceway

by Sports Benches

Aside from premier class, we saw a fantastic six laps in the Blu Cru Oceania Junior Cup category in Race 3 earlier this afternoon at Queensland Raceway. There was plenty of competition amongst the up-and-coming juniors upfront, with greater honours to achieve through the ranks someday. In the end, Harrison Watts came out of nowhere from 4th before he usurped No.48 of Ryan Larkin & No.40 Hudson Thompson with the Race 3 victory in the No.14 Yamaha.

Then we move onto the Michelin Supersport category in Race 2, where Tom Edwards was outstanding from start to finish in the same 1st place position in the No.26 Yamaha. And while John Lytras and Olly Simpson finished in 2nd and 3rd respectively, hats off to Scott Nicholson in the No.38, who improved some track position in the last few laps from 6th to 4th.

And now this Dunlop SuperSport 300 Race 3 portion oversaw a lot of competition especially during the last lap. We love the 1st place battle between polesitter Glenn Nelson and Cameron Dunker, but Nelson held off Dunker towards the finish line by 0.043 seconds in the No.39 Yamaha. Then there’s a four-way battle for the final podium spot between two Kawasakis (Johathan Nahlous & James Jacobs) and two Yamahas (Henry Snell & Sam Pezzetta). The Yamahas eventually split the Kawasakis with Nahlous being denied a podium spot in 4th & Jacobs in 6th, while Snell finished 3rd & Pezzetta rounds off the Top 5.

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Motorsport

Wayne Maxwell bounces back with the Race 2 win in the 2022 Australian Superbike Championship main class category at Phillip Island

by Sports Benches

Great to see Wayne Maxwell bounce back with the Race 2 win in the main Superbike category at Phillip Island in the No.1 Ducati, having been unlucky not to hold on while leading earlier today on Race 1. This time Maxwell has done it comfortably from start to finish in 1st place without any hassle, even though a sore finger and a spare bike didn’t bother him too much.

There’s another Ducati rider on the podium that rounds off a 1-2 finish where Race 1 winner Bryan Staring just came home 2nd in the No.67. Yes, he would’ve loved to double up 1st all day today when Maxwell was too good but he fended off a massive threat from Cru Halliday in the No.65 Yamaha, as he leads Halliday (38) by 7 points (45) in the Riders’ Championship after Round 1 of 8.

We also saw another competitive battle further down when Anthony West, Aiden Wagner & Jed Metcher were battling for 10th, in the end it’s Metcher, who pulled off that final Top 10 spot when he came from 17th on the grid, after Broc Pearson were out of form from 8th to 15th & Lachlan Epis wasn’t able to continue with a DNF.

Wow!! So much competitive superbike racing across multiple categories today in Round 1 of the 2022 Australian Superbike Championship at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria.

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Motorsport

2022 Australian Superbike Championship Sunday afternoon race review with the Junior Cup, Supersport & Supersport 300 categories

by Sports Benches

Sunday afternoon action of Australian Superbike Championship racing continues with the Oceania Junior Cup, where it was a competitive five laps despite the race ending red flag via the Lachlan Moody crash. There were so many lead changes with Levi Russo at the beginning from pole position, but it’s Marcus Hamod, who took out the Race 3 win from 12th, having worked his way into the Top 3 with two laps to go before he took the winning move & stayed 1st by the final lap.

Then we move into the Supersport category as Senna Agius just outsmarted a predominate field by Yamahas from start to finish in Race 2. He had a great early battle against Tom Edwards where he regained the lead after the first lap and pulled off very comfortably against Edwards by nearly five seconds, despite a brake scare at one point that almost saw him lose the lead. A good pre-season run by the way from Agius, who took two wins in this category on one weekend, as he will be heading overseas shortly in the Moto2 European series.

And we round off the Supersport 300 class before the 2nd Superbike race, with another competitive show on Race 3 where we’ve seen so many riders battling back and forth for the top spot. But it’s Varis Fleming who just won in such a photo finish v the two Kawasakis, James Jacobs (2nd) & Joseph Mariniello (3rd) by 0.028 & 0.059 secs respectively. He began the race from 6th spot having been patient for the whole time, before the Glenn Nelson & Johnathan Nahlous crash on Lap 6 opened the door for Fleming to enter the bidding late and steal that race win.

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Motorsport

Bryan Staring off to a great start with the win while Wayne Maxwell lost control through the gravel while leading in Race 1 of the 2022 Australian Superbike Championship, Superbike Category

by Sports Benches

Such a brilliant opening race to watch that kickstarted Sunday during Race 1 of 2 in the main Superbike Category at Phillip Island.

Comfortable start from defending champion Wayne Maxwell through the first 5-6 laps of 12, who started on pole position following a fantastic qualifying run yesterday. However, he just couldn’t hold on while leading when Maxwell lost control at Turn 8. But it’s good to hear that he’s okay now & will race again in time for Race 2 later this afternoon.

While one Ducati Maxwell rode on may unluckily be out early, there’s still another same machinery that still dominated this race & his name is Bryan Staring in No.67. He started from 5th where he fired off through to 2nd immediately before Staring had to be patient behind Maxwell by a second for a while, took advantage of Maxwell’s downfall & he took control of this race by over 5 1/2 seconds which is too easy to pull off.

The two Yamahas round out in 2nd and 3rd when Cru Halliday battled hard to keep his runner-up spot despite a poor start, which successfully fended off against fellow Yamaha rider Mike Jones. Jones did a great job earlier on where he passed Josh Waters for 3rd, now he may have struggled past Halliday but at least he takes home the final podium position.

Also great to see Glenn Hallerton stay in the Top 10 for this entire time from 9th to 6th, where he was just one spot shy of the Top 5 behind Daniel Falzon.

And a special mention to Anthony West, who may have started at the back in 15th, but he overcame an early error in Turn 4 at Honda Corner before he caught up some lost time & eventually finished 10th.

Race 2 will begin at 3.15 pm this afternoon AEDT.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Stan Sport who just expanded their motorsports content into two-wheel racing

by Sports Benches

It looks like Stan Sport is increasing their motorsports content when they’re now into the two-wheel world of motorcycle racing, in addition to a catalogue of four-wheel offerings through IndyCar, ARG SpeedSeries, Formula E, World Rally Championship and World Endurance Championship.

They will be streaming every race live, ad-free and on-demand of the Australian Superbike Championships plus two other Motorcross series, such as the brand new ProMx competition being held here domestically and the FIM Motorcross World Championship.

There’s no word yet on whether the Australian Superbike Championship will get some free-to-air treatment like the ARG SpeedSeries, with one race live and the rest being one-hour highlight shows on 9Gem.

However, SBS is expected to be the free-to-air partner of the ProMx competition in an announcement next week, where their agreement with Motorcycling Australia began last year, according to motoonline.com.au. It’s a little strange here since Nine owns Stan, when some of the Stan Sport content they own is being simulcast via their free-to-air channels either on the Nine Network or 9Gem.

It would be great if Nine can have a 1-3 pm Sunday time-filler by showing a mix of motorsport disciplines before Sunday Afternoon football of NRL, having lost the Netball rights recently to Fox Sports/Kayo. But then it’s second-tier sports content which is why the possible Stan Sport & SBS media partnership with ProMX is understandable.

Lots of motorsport competition between the networks is heating up there, as we’ll wait and see what Stan Sport/Nine and Fox Sports has to offer when it comes to the next Formula 1 TV rights renewal for the Australian market later this year.

When it will start?

  • FIM Motorcross Championship, Sunday February 20 from Matterley Basin in Winchester, England
  • Australian Superbike Championship, Friday to Sunday on February 25-27 from Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria
  • ProMX Championship, Sunday March 27 from Wonthaggi, Victoria
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