Australian Jack Miller will look to secure his best-ever finish in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez this Sunday, due to build upon his first-career dry weather podium in the MotoGP World Championship.

Pramac Racing’s Miller was sixth in the attrition-filled Jerez race one year ago, however with momentum on his side in 2019 he’s confident of a strong result regardless if any of the front-runners exit on Sunday.

“The other podium, or victory, was in the wet and it felt great but less like I’d achieved it,” Miller said of his 2016 Assen win. “To get a dry weather podium under our belt is always nice. The bike is working great, I feel super-comfortable at the moment we’ve been strong at all three rounds.

“The team are doing an amazing job and, like I said before, it’s a shame we had that result in Qatar because it would be interesting, especially after how things have shaped up, to see where we would be in the championship. We had a great test here in November, so I look forward to carrying some of that momentum hopefully into here.

“As you said, with the asphalt it will be a little bit of a question mark, we’ll have to go out there and see how the tyres work and having four options here it will be a little bit different to see what we’ll do in the race. Last year we had a decent result but that was due to everyone falling off in front of us – we’ll see what we can do this year.

“I’ve had good pace in the past, just never really been able to put it all together in the race. So I’m hoping this year we can put it all together and have a good weekend, if it goes like it has been at the last couple of GPs and we can keep working in the same way through the practices I think it will be good.”

Because of the recent resurface at Jerez, organisers will allow for an expanded Michelin tyre allocation this weekend as MotoGP teams will have four front and four rear tyres available to them for the Spanish GP.

Maxima BMW team manager Wayne Hepburn has indicated a disaster weekend at The Bend Motorsport Park will be difficult to overcome after two of its BMW S 1000 RRs were severely damaged during round three of the 2019 Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).

Three-time ASBK champion Glenn Allerton was the first casualty for the privately funded squad when he was collected by Suzuki-mounted Alex Phillis in a two-rider crash on lap one of the opening encounter, sustaining a broken right wrist in the incident and calling for a premature end to his weekend.

The team’s woes didn’t stop there, with 2017 Supersport champion Ted Collins also falling victim to another rider’s error in race two, the youthful talent crashing heavily as a result.

“The Maxima BMW team hasn’t really had a great start to the season and we really wanted to make this weekend our turn around round,” Hepburn explained. “We were well and truly on the way to doing that. Everything which both Glenn and Ted did was exactly what we set out to do.”

“Unfortunately, as soon the lights went out for the races, it fell apart, through no fault of the riders. We are not pointing any fingers. However, how unlucky can one and two riders be? Especially for Glenn and Ted, as they have both had a run of bad luck. I understand we have to make our own luck, which we are trying to do.

“As we are a ‘privateer team’, these crashes will put a big dent in our 2019 season, which will make it very hard to proceed. Anyhow, we have a two-month break until the fourth round of the championship. So, Glenn will work on getting back to full fitness in regard to his wrist and of course, so will Ted. However, the team has a lot of work to do to get these bikes back into working order again.”

Collins’ 13th place finish in race one granted him 19th overall. Allerton and Collins are ranked 15th and 16th respectively in the championship standings.

Kawasaki BCperformance’s Bryan Staring marched to a second win in as many races at The Bend Motorsport Park this morning, easing to victory in the Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).

Staring’s Ninja ZX-10RR on Dunlop tyres has proven to be the package of the Kawasaki Superbike class this weekend in South Australia, building a 7.908s advantage in 10 laps.

It was Wayne Maxwell (Team Suzuki Ecstar) who controlled the pace in the early laps, before Staring – after running as far down the order as fourth – made his way to the front on lap six. From there it was no stopping Staring, winning his third race in two days.

Behind Staring at the chequered flag was the ever-consistent Mike Jones (DesmoSport Ducati), who also worked his way through the pack and managed to fend of Maxwell in the closing laps. Championship leader Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team) wound up fourth, in front of Josh Waters (Team Suzuki Ecstar).

It was a quiet race for Penrite Honda Racing’s reigning champion Troy Herfoss on his way to P6, while Daniel Falzon (Yamaha Racing Team), Arthur Sissis (Suzuki), Glenn Scott (GSR Kawasaki) and a fast-starting Alex Phillis (Team Suzuki Ecstar) were the top 10.

A pair of notable non-finishers were Ted Collins (Maxima BMW) and Lachlan Epis (Kawasaki BCperformance), the duo coming together on lap eight and going out of the race.

The second Australian Supersport race was taken out by runaway series leader Tom Toparis (Yamaha), 6.144s clear of Nic Liminton (Yamaha), with Reid Battye (Suzuki) third.

Positions four and five earlier this morning in the second of three national Supersport races belonged to Broc Pearson (Yamaha) and Dallas Skeer (Suzuki).

It was once again Olly Simpson (Yamaha) who took the honours in YMI Supersport race two, edging Hunter Ford (Yamaha) by only 0.009s.

Senna Agius (Kawasaki) came third and Harry Khouri (Yamaha) fourth – those riders split by seven-tenths across the line. KTM-mounted Seth Crump was fifth.

Detailed results

Kawasaki Thailand Racing Team guest Bryan Staring delivered a phenomenal first race win at The Bend Motorsport Park’s second round of the 2019 Asia Road Racing Championship.

Staring, who also went on to win the first Australian Superbike race this afternoon, overcame countryman Broc Parkes to stand atop the podium in his ASB1000 debut.

It was Staring who led the initial lap before Parkes took charge and looked to go on for victory, until rear tyre wear caused him to slow in the second-half of the 12-lap duration. That enabled Staring to counter, regaining the lead on lap eight and going on to win by 2.117s.

Parkes’ Yamaha Racing Team Asean teammate Yuki Ito completed the Saturday podium in South Australia, edging by Honda’s Zaqhwan Zaidi on the final lap for third place. Rounding out the top five was Azlan Shah aboard his BMW. Next best of the Australians, wildcard Yannis Shaw (DB Racing Services Kawasaki) was P13.

Today’s SuperSports 600cc outing was topped by Peerapong Boonlert (Yamaha Thailand Racing Team), while Andy Muhammad Fadly (Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki Racing) earned victory in race one of the Production 250 category.

Reigning Australian Superbike champion Troy Herfoss endured clutch dramas in race one at The Bend this afternoon, limping his factory-backed Fireblade home to 12th position.

Herfoss was about exit the opening outing of the weekend in South Australia when a red-flag stoppage ultimately enabled him to go on and finish for points.

The restart was enough for Herfoss’ clutch to cool on his Penrite Honda Racing CBR1000RR SP and, despite constant troubles throughout the nine-lap duration, he brought it home with caution after running as high as fifth place.

“I hope the riders are okay, but for us the restart was a get out of jail free card,” Herfoss told CycleOnline.com.au. “My clutch was done and I was actually coming back to pit-lane on that lap. Then the red-flag came out, so I went back to the start-line.

“That allowed the clutch to cool down a bit, which is why I babied the bike off the start. The whole race, the clutch was slipping so I never got to get going. It didn’t really slip on the warm-up lap, but in the race, once I gave it full gas it was slipping. It just got worse and worse, but it was promising and my speed’s good.”

The nine points salvaged by Herfoss this afternoon resulted in him dropping from second to fourth in the point-standings, now 14 points in arrears of leader Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team), who was third in today’s first encounter.

Mike Jones (DesmoSport Ducati) has set a best-lap of 1m51.220s time at The Bend Motorsport Park to claim pole position for round three of the 2019 Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) in South Australia.

Recently signed for the remainder of the season with the factory Ducati outfit, Jones lodged the quick-time in the final moments of the session, stealing P1 from home favourite Daniel Falzon (Yamaha Racing Team), who set a time of 1m51.592s.

Former lap record holder Wayne Maxwell (Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia) held on for P3 with a time of 1m51.675s, as points leader Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team) was fourth ahead of Josh Waters (Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia).

Bryan Staring (BCperformance Kawasaki) was sixth followed by Mark Chiodo (Penrite Honda Racing), Glenn Allerton (Maxima BMW), reigning champion Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) and Matt Walters (Kawasaki Connection).

Yamaha-mounted Olly Simpson took out pole in the Supersport 300 category, narrowly edging out Brandon Demmery (Yamaha) by 0.089s. Third was credited to Hunter Ford (Yamaha) ahead of Senna Agius (Kawasaki) and Seth Crump.

Supersport qualifying is scheduled at 2:35pm local time.

Detailed results

Josh Brookes is satisfied with his pre-season preparations ahead of Silverstone’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB) opener this weekend, which will mark his racing debut with Be Wiser Ducati.

The former champion has performed strongly in pre-season testing aboard the all-new Panigale V4 R, injecting confidence into the Australian as he makes a bid for a second BSB crown.

“I’m very pleased as everything is looking very competitive at this early stage going into the season,” Brookes explained. “To be so close to where we need to be is very promising considering we’ve found an excellent set-up at all the tracks we’ve tested at, without doing massive changes.

“Both at Silverstone last week and previously in Europe, at totally different tracks and opposing weather conditions, we have been towards the top of the times, so we have a good working area and hopefully that transpires into a good result this weekend.”

Compatriot Jason O’Halloran has taken up Brookes’ former position at McAms Yamaha this year, topping the timesheets in majority of pre-season tests. Rookie Ben Currie (Bournemouth Kawasaki) will make up the trio of Australians in the premier class of the British championship in 2019.