After topping the Supersport times at the weekend’s official Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) test in Phillip Island, Tom Toparis has declared intentions to extract more from his package at the grand prix circuit’s Supersport World Championship (WorldSSP) test on 18-19 February ahead of his wildcard appearance.

In his first official outing aboard the Yamaha YZF-R6, the youthful talent was supremely quick in both sessions, clocking up a fast-time of 1m35.295s – almost two seconds clear of his nearest competitor.

“It’s awesome to be on the Yamaha this year, I’m really grateful for the opportunity to ride the R6,” Toparis stated. “[It’s been a] good couple of days, my first real time at the island on the R6, so I’m super comfortable after the two days and really looking forward to getting to the races.

“We’re doing the world supersport wildcard this year, so we’ll have two days of testing down here during that week, and I think we’ll be able to find a little bit more. Hopefully we can repeat the weekend we had here last year.”

Toparis is one of two Australians who have been granted wildcard entries for the FIM Motul Superbike World Championship (ASBK) opener at Phillip Island on 22-24 February, where reigning ASBK champion Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) will represent the nation in the premier class.

The WorldSBK opener will run in conjunction with round one of the ASBK, meaning both Toparis and Herfoss will undertake double duties in their respective classes throughout the weekend.