2019 ASBK – Round Six – Phillip Island

Preview and FP1 Results

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Today marked the start of the penultimate round of the Australian Superbike Championship as riders across all classes used three practice sessions to get themselves and their steeds set-up for the rigours of Phillip Island.

Last year this weekend signalled the end of the Australian Superbike season, but this year the finale heads to Sydney Motorsports Park in early November.

The Superbike category will certainly have to wait until Sydney before a champion is crowned but in the Supersport 600 class it is a fait accompli that with a commanding 85-point lead over Broc Pearson, Goulburn teenager Tom Toparis will win the Motorsports TV backed Supersport title on Sunday afternoon. Toparis topped FP1 this morning from Nic Liminton and Aidan Hayes. 

Supersport FP1

Pos	Name	Bike	Time
1	Tom TOPARIS (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m37.313
2	Nic LIMINTON (SA)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m37.570
3	Aidan HAYES (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m38.908
4	Oliver BAYLISS (QLD)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m39.350
5	Jack PASSFIELD	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m39.816
6	Ty LYNCH (SA)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m40.324
7	Richie DIBBEN (NZ)	Suzuki GSXR	1m40.479
8	Broc PEARSON (QLD)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m40.822
9	Rhys BELLING (VIC)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m41.681
10	Dallas SKEER (SA)	Suzuki GSXR 600	1m41.708
11	Timothy DONNON (SA)	Suzuki GSXR	1m43.322
12	Brodie MALOUF (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m43.410
13	Avalon BIDDLE (NZ)	Yamaha YZF-R6	1m43.757
14	John QUINN (VIC)	Triumph	1m45.845
15	Ryan SELLEN (NSW)	Kawasaki ZX6R	1m46.723
16	Callum O’BRIEN (WA)	Kawasaki ZX6R	1m47.464
17	Jack HYDE (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R6	2m14.054

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Superbike

Of the leading Superbike contenders we believe only Herfoss and Jones will contest the MotoGP support races. Yamaha Racing Team, Ecstar Suzuki and BCperformance Kawasaki all choosing not to participate at MotoGP. There are no championship points on offer and with the risk of injury ever present and budgets tight, it makes little sense for teams to commit to the MotoGP event.

Unfortunately this means that ASBK does not put its best foot forward in front of the international visitors, and the MotoGP crowd, but there is no easy answer. Having the MotoGP event as an ASBK championship points-scoring round is rife with risk, as at any point MotoGP can simply cancel the ASBK races due to a myriad of reasons. Scheduling ASBK races for 0900 of a morning is also, quite frankly, insulting. For these reasons, and others, we do not have a full ASBK championship event in conjunction with the MotoGP round.

Anyway back to where we are at this weekend, round six of the Australian Superbike Championship. 

With 102-points still up grabs across the final two rounds the championship is completely wide open. Only 36-points cover a top-six headed by Mike Jones.

The DesmoSport Ducati 1299 Panigale Final Edition has been piloted almost without error this season by Mike Jones. The Queenslander actually started season 2019 onboard a borrowed ZX-10R and used that mount to bag 49-points at the season opener before then replacing the injured Troy Bayliss for round two. From there Jones took fourth overall at Wakefield Park before then finishing second at The Bend, Morgan Park and Winton. However, the 25-year-old is yet to take an overall round victory. Nonetheless it is Jones that leads the championship chase by a handy 11.5-points over Cru Halliday. At the season opener here in February Jones set a new ASBK Superbike Phillip Island race lap record at 1m31.881s on the K&R Hydarulics ZX-10R, can he muster that sort of pace on the big 1.3-litre Ducati…? Jones was third quickest this morning on a 1m33.427s but there is plenty yet to come. 

Halliday could be dubbed season 2019’s quiet achiever… The YRT man is yet to win a race this season but has headed the championship standings for the majority of the year. Championships have been won before without a rider taking a single race victory, but at both Phillip Island and Sydney Motorsports Park Halliday and YRT have good pace, and are aiming for that breakthrough victory that could propel them back up to the top of the points table. 

Bryan Staring has not had the package beneath him to fight for victory at most rounds this season but at The Bend the Sandgroper walked away with three victories from the triple-header event to give his championship tilt a major shot in the arm. The difference that weekend was Dunlop tyres, the Pirelli runners had no answer for Staring on the South Australian tarmac. Generally though, Pirelli have had the upper hand at the other rounds this year, could Dunlop again make the difference for Staring on the run to the final flag of season 2019 at SMP?

Next in the standings, only 2.5-points shy of Staring, is defending champion Troy Herfoss. The Penrite Honda man did his almost customary double in front of his Goulburn home crowd at Wakefield Park but elsewhere wins have eluded the recently married 32-year-old. Herfoss will need to step up and put it all on the line over these next two rounds if he is to successfully defend his #1 plate. These final two rounds are at circuits that, historically, have not proved fruitful for Herfoss. It’s now down to him to turn that form guide around if he doesn’t want to go back to his #17 for season 2020.  

Whereas this amazingly evocative but also somewhat frightening 4445 metres of bitumen is a bogey track for Herfoss, the 12-turn Phillip Island layout is a happy hunting ground for Maxwell. Wayne is three-points adrift of Herfoss heading in to this weekend, despite taking nil-scores in two races this season, the first came here at P.I. following his crash with Aiden Wagner, the second came at The Bend after bashing fairings with Daniel Falzon. Since then Maxwell has won both the Morgan Park and Winton rounds to hit Phillip Island on a high. He also topped FP1 this morning. 

Next in the championship chase is Maxwell’s Ecstar Suzuki team-mate Josh Waters. The Mildura based 32-year-old has not really challenged for victories since the season opener here at Phillip Island. That somewhat crooked smile of his has been absent and elsewhere he has not shown the pace to battle at the front of the field. This might sound a little harsh, but Josh is a three-time Australian Superbike Champion, thus we, and himself, expect more. In his defence though he has been smart all year, incredibly he has never finished a race outside the top six throughout the entire season! Third overall for the round at the season opener, sixth at Wakefield, fourth at The Bend, fifth at Morgan Park and fourth at Winton are his outright round scores from the opening five rounds of season 2019. He is 36.5-points behind series leader Mike Jones, but there are 102-points up for grabs and coming back from there is not beyond Waters if he finds his mojo and a couple of the front runners stumble… Early signs are good with Waters P2 in FP1 this morning. 

One man that could upset the title challengers this weekend however is none other than three-time World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss.  The DesmoSport Ducati squad have been working hard to get the new V4R up to speed largely away from the public eye and this weekend marks the debut of the new weapon in national level competition. There is plenty yet to come from Bayliss and the V4R but they start this weekend with a best of 1m34.116s. 

Superbike FP1 Times

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time
1	Wayne MAXWELL	Suzuki GSXRR	1m33.063
2	Josh WATERS	Suzuki GSXRR	1m33.358
3	Mike JONES	Ducati 1299 FE	1m33.427
4	Troy HERFOSS	Honda CBR RR SP	1m33.518
5	Bryan STARING	Kawasaki ZX10R	1m33.821
6	Cru HALLIDAY	Yamaha YZF-R1	1m33.868
7	Troy BAYLISS	Ducati V4R	1m34.116
8	Matt WALTERS	Kawasaki ZX10R	1m34.139
9	Daniel FALZON	Yamaha YZF-R1	1m34.250
10	Mark CHIODO	Honda CBR RR SP	1m35.018
11	Glenn ALLERTON	BMW S RR	1m35.278
12	Damon REES	Honda CBR	1m35.397
13	Alex PHILLIS	Suzuki GSXR	1m35.970
14	Aaron MORRIS	BMW S RR	1m36.509
15	Jamie STAUFFER	Ducati V4R	1m36.519
16	Lachlan EPIS	Kawasaki ZX10R	1m36.781
17	Sloan FROST	Suzuki GSXR	1m37.123
18	David BARKER	Kawasaki ZX10R	1m38.374
19	Nathan SPITERI	Suzuki GSXRR	1m38.690
20	Philip CZAJ	Aprilia RSV4	1m38.755
21	Matt TOOLEY	Yamaha YZF-R1	1m38.909
22	Dean HASLER	BMW S RR	1m39.174
23	Kyle BUCKLEY	Kawasaki ZX10R	1m39.376
24	Brendan MCINTYRE	Suzuki GSXR	1m40.001
25	Michael EDWARDS	Yamaha YZF-R1	1m42.148
26	Trent GIBSON	Ducati V4R	1m42.643

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YMI Australian Supersport 300

In the YMI Australian Supersport 300 category, Max Stauffer has a 39-point lead over Senna Agius, who in turn is 36-points ahead of Hunter Ford. After that though it’s close with just 17-points separating Ford all the way down to eighth-placed Zac Levy. The big improver in the previous round at Winton was overall winner Yannis Shaw, who moved up to sixth in the standings and it was Shaw that topped FP1 this morning at Phillip Island, 1.6-seconds clear of the field! 

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time
1	Yannis SHAW (NSW)	Kawasaki EX 400	1m51.102
2	Seth CRUMP (QLD)	KTM RC390 390	1m52.694
3	Luke JHONSTON (NSW)	Kawasaki EX 400	1m53.384
4	Max STAUFFER (NSW)	Yamaha R3 321	1m54.106
5	Matthew RINDEL (VIC)	Yamaha R3 321	1m54.172
6	Senna AGIUS (NSW)	Kawasaki EX 400	1m54.700
7	Ben BURKE (NSW)	Kawasaki EX 400	1m54.888
8	Brandon DEMMERY (NSW)	Yamaha R3 321	1m55.529
9	Peter NERLICH (VIC)	Kawasaki EX 400	1m55.830
10	John LYTRAS (QLD)	Yamaha R3 321	1m55.974
11	Locky TAYLOR (QLD)	Yamaha R3 321	1m57.424
12	John QUINN (VIC)	Kawasaki EX 400	1m57.519
13	Zylas BUNTING (NSW)	Kawasaki EX 400	1m57.851
14	Laura BROWN (NSW)	Yamaha R3 321	1m58.406
15	Harry PARKER (NZ)	Yamaha R3 321	1m58.619
16	Ben BAKER (NSW)	Yamaha R3 321	1m58.710
17	Stephany KAPILAWI-JAMES (QLD)	Kawasaki EX 400	1m59.814
18	Ryan SMITH (NSW)	Yamaha R3 321	2m00.532
19	Hunter DIPLOCK (NSW)	Kawasaki EX 300	2m02.824
20	Zak PETTENDY (NSW)	Yamaha R3 321	2m04.158
21	Ryan MOSCARDINI (QLD)	Yamaha R3 321	2m04.759
22	Greg FARRELL (NSW)	Kawasaki EX 400	2m07.820
NC	Reece OUGHTRED (VIC)	Yamaha R3 321	/
NC	Grace POUTCH (VIC)	Kawasaki EX 400	/

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YMF R3 Cup

The YMF R3 Cup contest is also tight, with Hunter Ford wrestling the lead away from John Lytras in the previous round. Ford and Lytras are separated by five-points, with Zac Levy a further eight-points adrift in third. Brandon Demmery moved up to fourth courtesy of his Winton round win.

Pos	Name	Bike	Time
1	Max STAUFFER (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m49.720
2	Luke JHONSTON (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m50.175
3	John LYTRAS (QLD)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m50.211
4	Locky TAYLOR (QLD)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m50.319
5	Hunter FORD (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m51.569
6	Matthew RINDEL (VIC)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m52.482
7	Reece OUGHTRED (VIC)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m52.764
8	Brandon DEMMERY (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m53.037
9	Archie MCDONALD (VIC)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m53.125
10	Laura BROWN (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m53.434
11	Ben BAKER (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m53.782
12	Harry PARKER (CAN)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m54.858
13	Zak PETTENDY (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m55.018
14	Ryan SMITH (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m55.146
15	Stephany KAPILAWI-JAMES (QLD)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m55.153
16	Jacob HATCH (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m56.758
17	Hunter DIPLOCK (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m57.678
18	Ryan MOSCARDINI (QLD)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m59.423
19	Patrick BOGNAR (VIC)	Yamaha YZF-R3	1m59.761
20	Patrick LI (VIC)	Yamaha YZF-R3	2m03.875
21	Dominic FLETCHER (NSW)	Yamaha YZF-R3	2m04.608
22	Jamie PORT (VIC)	Yamaha YZF-R3	2m13.168

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Oceania Junior Cup

Just nine points separate Carter Thompson and Angus Grenfell at the head of the Oceania Junior Cup standings. Grenfell moved into the lead after winning the first two races at Winton, but handed it back to Thompson when he crashed out of the weekend’s final race. The consistent Jacob Roulstone is third in the standings, 29-points behind Thompson.

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Sidecars

Champions will also be crowned this weekend in the Horsell Consulting Australian Sidecar Championship, by virtue of it being the final round of the 2019 season. The F1 Class is led by Corey Turner/Danyon Turner, who hold a 19-point advantage over Jeremy Joyce/Corey Blackman, with defending champions Howard Ford and Lee Menzies further adrift in third. It was that latter pairing that topped FP1 this morning. 

In the F2 Class (for the 600cc outfits), Pat Clancy and Stephen Bonney hold a solid 59-point lead over John Clancy/Warren Grubb, with Simon Reynolds/Kathryn Warne in third.

Pos	Rider	Class	Time
1	Howard FORD / Lee MENZIES (QLD)	F1	1m48.461
2	Jeremy JOYCE / Corey BLACKMAN (WA)	F1	1m51.094
2	Mick ALTON / Christine CLANCY (NSW)	F2	1m53.057
4	Bruce COLLINS / Peter DEANGELIS (VIC)	F2	1m53.113
5	Patrick CLANCY / Steve BONNEY (VIC)	F2	1m54.163
6	Jeff BROWN / Darren SHELDRICK (NSW)	F1	1m55.082
7	Graeme EVANS / Jarrod SCOTT (WA)	F1	1m55.399
8	John CLANCY / Warren GRUBB (VIC)	F2	2m01.020
9	Corey TURNER / Danyon TURNER (QLD)	F1	2m03.172
10	Phillip UNDERWOOD / Stephen FORD (QLD)	F1	2m03.731
11	Damien EDIS / Melanie SCHLUTER (VIC)	F2	2m30.084
12	Simon REYNOLDS / Kathryn WARNE (NSW)	F2	/

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AEST/AEDT Schedule

Friday 4th October
8.00	8.20	Riders Briefing	Briefing	20 mins
9.05	9.25	YMI Supersport 300	FP1	20 mins
9.30	9.45	Horsell Sidecars	FP1	15 mins
9.50	10.15	Motorsports TV Supersport	FP1	25 mins
10.20	10.40	YMF R3 Cup	FP1	20 mins
10.45	11.10	Kawasaki Superbike	FP1	25 mins
11.15	11.30	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	FP1	15 mins
11.35	11.55	YMI Supersport 300	FP2	20 mins
12.00	12.15	Horsell Sidecars	FP2	15 mins
12.15	12.40	Lunch – ASBK Pillion Rides	25 mins
12.40	13.05	Motorsports TV Supersport	FP2	25 mins
13.10	13.30	YMF R3 Cup	FP2	20 mins
13.35	14.00	Kawasaki Superbike	FP2	25 mins
14.05	14.20	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	FP2	15 mins
14.25	14.45	YMI Supersport 300	FP3	20 mins
14.50	15.15	Motorsports TV Supersport	FP3	25 mins
15.20	15.40	YMF R3 Cup	FP3	20 mins
15.45	16.10	Kawasaki Superbike	FP3	25 mins
16.15	16.30	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	FP3	15 mins
16.35	16.50	Horsell Sidecars	FP3	15 mins
Saturday 5th October
9.05	9.25	YMI Supersport 300	Q1	20 mins
9.30	9.50	Horsell Sidecars	Q	20 mins
9.55	10.20	Motorsports TV Supersport	Q1	25 mins
10.25	10.45	YMF R3 Cup	Q1	20 mins
10.50	11.25	Kawasaki Superbike	TP	35 mins
11.30	11.45	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	Q1	15 mins
11.50	12.10	YMI Supersport 300	Q2	20 mins
12.15	12.35	Horsell Sidecars	Race 1	8 Laps
12.35	13.10	Lunch – ASBK Pillion Rides	35 mins
13.10	13.30	YMF R3 Cup	Q2	20 mins
13.35	14.00	Motorsports TV Supersport	Q2	25 mins
14.05	14.20	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	Q2	15 mins
14.25	14.45	YMI Supersport 300 (no media grid)	Race 1	7 Laps
14.50	15.05	Kawasaki Superbike	Q1	15 mins
15.20	15.35	Kawasaki Superbike (Top 12)	Q2	15 mins
15.40	16.00	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	Race 1	6 Laps
16.05	16.25	Horsell Sidecars	Race 2	7 Laps
16.30	16.50	YMF R3 Cup	Race 1	7 Laps
Sunday 6th October
9.05	9.10	YMF R3 Cup	Warm Up	5 mins
9.15	9.20	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	Warm Up	5 mins
9.25	9.30	Motorsports TV Supersport	Warm Up	5 mins
9.35	9.40	YMI Supersport 300	Warm Up	5 mins
9.45	9.50	Kawasaki Superbike	Warm Up	5 mins
9.55	10.00	Horsell Sidecars	Warm Up	5 mins
10.05	10.25	YMF R3 Cup	Race 2	7 Laps
10.30	10.50	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	Race 2	6 Laps
10.55	11.15	YMI Supersport 300	Race 2	7 Laps
11.20	12.00	Kawasaki Superbike ^	Race 1	12 Laps
12.05	12.35	Motorsports TV Supersport ^	Race 1	10 Laps
12.35	13.05	Lunch – ASBK Pitlane Walk	30 mins
13.05	13.30	YMI Supersport 300*^	Race 3	7 Laps
13.35	14.15	Kawasaki Superbike*^	Race 2	12 Laps
14.20	14.50	Motorsports TV Supersport*^	Race 2	10 Laps
15.00	15.20	Horsell Sidecars (inc. MA championship presentation)	Race 3	7 Laps
15.30	15.50	bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup	Race 3	6 Laps
15.55	16.15	YMF R3 Cup	Race 3	7 Laps

Source: MCNews.com.au