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Yamaha

Motorsport

2022 Australian Superbike Championship, Mike Jones too good to pull off with back to back race wins at Queensland Raceway

by Sports Benches

Outstanding start to begin the Sunday afternoon from Mike Jones in the No.46 Yamaha, who started from pole position after an impressive qualifying run yesterday and finished in the same 1st placed spot with ease. Wayne Maxwell came home 2nd in the No.1 Ducati where he bided his time at his starting 3rd spot over the first 9-10 laps. Although he may have been out of reach when trying to chase down Jones in the final few laps, he benefitted a spot when fellow Ducati rider in the No.67 Bryan Staring lost control on Lap 11 of 16.

Nice to see Josh Waters secure a podium spot in the BMW in 3rd place ahead of Glenn Allerton in the same BMW bike. They both fired off well & were both on top of their game before the Bryan Staring accident on Lap 11, gave them another lifeline to redeem themselves for the final podium position, and Waters held off Allerton towards the finish line. Cru Halliday caps off the Top 5 out of Race 1 in the No.65 Yamaha while Troy Herfoss did well to guide his No.17 Honda as the lone Top 10 finisher there in 6th from 9th. And special mentions to a couple of Yamahas, such as Anthony West in the No.13 from 13th to 8th, as well as the No.28 of Aiden Wagner from 12th to 9th, and the No.2 Mark Chiodo from 11th to 10th.

Moving onto Race 2 now and Mike Jones once again unstoppable all weekend long with the pole position plus two race wins now in the No.46 Yamaha. He controlled Queensland Raceway as soon as Jones kept 1st spot, where no one couldn’t find a way to chase him down. Good to see Bryan Staring bounce back in 2nd for the No. 67 ahead of his fellow Ducati rider Wayne Maxwell in 3rd, after Staring spun out into the gravel earlier in Race 1. Shoutout to Arthur Sissis at 4th in the No.61 Yamaha ahead of the BMW Pair of Josh Waters (5th) & Glenn Allerton (6th), having finished a series of Top 7-10s beforehand. And the same goes with Anthony West once again in the Top 10 through another 8th placed finish, when he benefitted from moving up spots with patience, especially after the DNFs later on of Cru Halliday (Mechanical) & Jay Metcher (crash).

It’s been a wild weekend of Australian Superbikes in Queensland, as Mike Jones leads the Riders’ Championship in the Premier Class by 86 points. We can’t wait for Round 3 when the ASBK moves to Wakefield Park in Goulburn, NSW, next month on Friday, April 22 to Sunday, April 24, 2022.

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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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