Round five of the Australian Superbike Championship proved to be another successful round for Yamaha riders and teams filling the podium across most classes contested at Morgan Park, over the weekend.
A good size crowd lined the fences on a perfect winters day in Queensland to witness some first-class racing and the battles were thick and fast in all divisions. Of the 15 podium positions available, Yamaha riders and teams filled 13 of them in another impressive showing for the bLU cRU.To view the YRD bLU cRU round review: https://youtu.be/sooAC-v_0nU
Superbikes
Five of the top ten riders in the Superbike class were Yamaha mounted at Morgan Park. With the YRT duo of Mike Jones and Cru Halliday in second and fifth respectively, there was also a good showing from Bryan Staring in sixth, Ant West in eighth and Arthur Sissis in ninth.
Staring was off to a slow start early in the weekend but picked up pace all weekend to end up logging a consistent 6-7 result to take sixth and maintain his sixth place in the championship. West was on the pace early and right in the battle when the bikes rolled out on the track Friday, but he couldn’t quite go with the lap record setting pace of the lead group when the lights went out and had to settle for eighth while Sissis is still recovering from a wrist injury and not back to 100% strength. He was able to start fast but the physical nature of the Morgan Park circuit left his wrist fatigued in the later stages of each race and he began to drop down the field.
600cc Supersport
Olly Simpson put together the most consistent day to take the win in the 600cc Supersport division. Simpson finished with 2-1 results to finish three points clear of Cam Dunker in the runner up position. In third place was John Lytras who after a tough first race, regrouped for an impressive showing in race two and he shadowed Simpson across the finish line in an enthralling end to 600cc action.
Pole sitter Hayden Nelson had a tough go of it. After dropping through the field in the early laps of race one, he charged his way for and hit the front with just a few laps to go, only to fall when there was some oil left on the track from a previous crash. As a result, he was unable to finish the race and the damage to his bike was too much to repair before the start of race two.
300cc Supersport
Cameron Swain had as dominant weekend on paper, taking pole position and then winning all three races over the weekend in the 300cc Supersport class. But on the track, it was far from that as Swain had to continually fend off challenges from a cluster of riders behind him.
His sensational weekend and huge points haul saw him narrow the gap to series leader, Brendon Demmery, with now just 3 points separating the pair with two wounds to go.
Second the day was Henry Snell and just edged Marcus Hamod with his 2-3-2 results against Hamod’s 3-2-3 positions.
Championship leader, Demmery, finished off the podium with 4-4 -DNF results.
Yamaha R3 Cup
The round belonged to Henry Snell who finished with a consistent 3-3-1 results to take a narrow one point victory over Cameron Swain and his 2-2-2 finishes. Just a point behind them was Brodie Gawith with 4-1-4 results.
In the championship, it is Swain who holds a 10-point lead over Demmery and Gawith in third.
OJC- R15
There was action all weekend in the Oceania Junior Cup as the young guns punted their Yamaha R15 machines around the Morgan Park Circuit. Archie Schmidt was the winner on the day with 63 points, ahead of Bodie Page on 59 and Jake Paige on 58.
Bodie Paige leads the championship with a 27-point gap back to Archie Schmidt in second and Haydn Fordyce in third.