Features 30 Mar 2015

Breakdown: 2015 FX-ASC Rd1 Sydney Motorsport Park

The vitals from Sydney's Australasian Superbike opening round.

With the opening round of the 2015 Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship complete, CycleOnline.com.au breaks down the specifics from race day Sunday in Sydney.

Image: Keith Muir.

Image: Keith Muir.

Superbike

Pole position: Troy Herfoss (via Saturday AFX-SBK round win)

Race one results:
1 Aiden WAGNER
2 Troy HERFOSS
3 Cru HALLIDAY
4 Wayne MAXWELL
5 Mike JONES
6 Glenn ALLERTON
7 Sean CONDON
8 Matthew WALTERS
9 Linden MAGEE
10 Beau BEATON
11 Ben HENRY
12 Evan BYLES

Race time: 22m56.910s
Margin of victory: 0.098s
Laps completed: 15
Fastest lap: Cru HALLIDAY 1m30.856s

Race two results:
1. Troy HERFOSS
2. Aiden WAGNER
3. Wayne MAXWELL
4. Cru HALLIDAY
5. Glenn ALLERTON
6. Sean CONDON
7. Mike JONES
8. Linden MAGEE
9. Ben BURKE
10. Matthew WALTERS
11. Ben HENRY
12. Evan BYLES

Race time: 22m57.819s
Margin of victory: 0.056s
Laps completed: 15
Fastest lap: Troy HERFOSS 1m31.122s

Superbike overall results and championship standings:
1. Troy HERFOSS 48
2. Aiden WAGNER 47
3. Wayne MAXWELL 38
4. Cru HALLIDAY 38
5. Glenn ALLERTON 31
6. Mike JONES 30
7. Sean CONDON 29
8. Linden MAGEE 25
9. Matthew WALTERS 24
10. Ben HENRY 20
11. Evan BYLES 18
12. Ben BURKE 12
13. Beau BEATON 11

Verdict:
Team Honda Racing picked up where it left off last year, exactly as we expected them too with overall winner Herfoss, but it was the sheer speed and skill of Wagner in his first-ever Superbike appearance that stunned onlookers throughout the weekend. Herfoss proved his might as a title favourite with a 2-1 showing, splitting wins with Wagner’s 1-2. Combined with his point for pole, he leads the series after round one. Unless he goes to Europe as originally planned, Honda needs to do all it can to sign Wagner (similar to what they did with Herfoss one year ago), because his debut was up there with the best-ever. As for the Yamahas, Maxwell and Halliday tied for third overall and had a stunning battle in race two, with third of the R1Ms Allerton making progress to conclude the weekend fifth overall. With a two-day test coming up at Mallala, now with experience on their side in race trim, YRT with YMI will only get stronger from here. And not to forget the Kawasakis of Jones and Condon either, because both were also impressive at various points across the weekend. As for the series, two longer races are definitely better than three shorter ones, but the 13-rider field was smaller than we’d like to see at round one – largely because the C- and D-grade Superbikes are now in their own class under the Formula Xtreme banner.

Image: Keith Muir.

Image: Keith Muir.

Supersport

Pole position: Callum SPRIGGS 1m34.050s

Race one results:
1. Michael BLAIR
2. Brayden ELLIOTT
3. Mitch LEVY
4. Troy GUENTHER
5. Jay PRESEPIO
6. Paul YOUNG
7. Brad SWALLOW
8. Cambridge OLIVIER
9. Ben BLYTH
10. Kyle BUCKLEY
11. Michael KNIGHT
12. Jordan CARLSSON
13. Jack BAKER
14. Anthony QUINN
15. Callum ALDERSON
16. Brandon DEMMERY
17. Rowen SMITH
18. Patrick LI
19. James PARKER
20. Keiran MAHER

Race time: 11m08.831s
Margin of victory: 0.247s
Laps completed: 7
Fastest lap: Jay PRESEPIO 1m34.277s

Race two results:
1. Callum SPRIGGS
2. Troy GUENTHER
3. Brayden ELLIOTT
4. Mitch LEVY
5. Paul YOUNG
6. Michael KNIGHT
7. Brad SWALLOW
8. Kyle BUCKLEY
9. Luke MITCHELL
10. Ben BLYTH
11. Jordan CARLSSON
12. Cambridge OLIVIER
13. Jack BAKER
14. Callum ALDERSON
15. Brandon DEMMERY
16. Anthony QUINN
17. Rowen SMITH
18. James PARKER
19. Keiran MAHER
20. David ROUGHLEY

Race time: 9m32.418s
Margin of victory: 1.705s
Laps completed: 6
Fastest lap: Michael BLAIR 1m34.374s

Race three results:
1 Callum SPRIGGS
2 Michael BLAIR
3 Brayden ELLIOTT
4 Troy GUENTHER
5 Paul YOUNG
6 Mitch LEVY
7 Cambridge OLIVIER
8 Brad SWALLOW
9 Ben BLYTH
10 Luke MITCHELL
11 Michael KNIGHT
12 Jay PRESEPIO
13 Kyle BUCKLEY
14 Jack BAKER
15 Jordan CARLSSON
16 Brandon DEMMERY
17 Callum ALDERSON
18 Rowen SMITH
19 Anthony QUINN
20 Patrick LI

Race time: 9m34.656s
Margin of victory: 0.809ss
Laps completed: 6
Fastest lap: Callum SPRIGGS 1m34.713s

Supersport overall results and championship standings:
1. Brayden ELLIOTT 62
2. Troy GUENTHER 58
3. Mitch LEVY 53
4. Callum SPRIGGS 50
5. Michael BLAIR 47
6. Paul YOUNG 47
7. Brad SWALLOW 41
8. Cambridge OLIVIER 36
9. Ben BLYTH 35
10. Michael KNIGHT 35
11. Kyle BUCKLEY 32
12. Jay PRESEPIO 25
13. Jordan CARLSSON 25
14. Luke MITCHELL 23
15. Jack BAKER 23
16. Callum ALDERSON 17
17. Brandon DEMMERY 16
18. Anthony QUINN 14
19. Rowen SMITH 11
20. James PARKER 5

Verdict:
When Spriggs crashed in race one, it was Blair’s chance to grab the early title lead and round win, but then he crashed in the second leg which blew the weekend wide-open. Spriggs bounced back to win the second and third races, but Elliott took full advantage for his first FX-ASC overall win and the first Supersport success for Suzuki in some time. Guenther and Levy were also strong on Sunday and rounded out the podium, which means Spriggs and Blair will have to come from behind in the title race at this point. They should be able to, but as we saw over the weekend, this is racing and anything can happen.

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