Image: Andrew Gosling (tbgsport).

Supersport revelation Brayden Elliott has benefited from having former Team Suzuki manager Phil Tainton in his corner during the opening rounds of the 2015 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).

Tainton has been part of Elliott’s program since the 2014 season in preparing his privateer GSX-R600, with the team also utilising triple ASBK champion Shawn Giles.

After winning the Morgan Park round of ASBK Supersport last weekend, Elliott now leads both that series and the alternate Australasian Supersport Championship in the early stages.

“I had definitely benefited from our pre-event testing at Morgan Park as it was a circuit I had not competed on prior to that test,” Elliott said. “Our qualifying session was a standout, setting the quickest time and being able to maintain it through to qualifying two, which was a real confidence boost as it became my first ever outright pole position in road racing.

“I was feeling very confident going into race one after our successes on Saturday and I opened up a comfortable lead before the red flag stoppage. Luckily we were able to maintain our gap and pull away further in the restart to take a convincing win.

“The battle with Troy [Guenther] in race two certainly provided a challenge, but I was very happy to be able to take the win not only in the race but also for the round. To be now leading the Australian Supersport Championship is a huge thing for not only myself but my family and all of my sponsors and supporters.

“I have to extend a special thank you to Phil Tainton and Shawn Giles, their support has been incredible, it’s been a lot of hard work and effort to get us to this stage, but we are certainly heading in the right direction.”

Tainton, who is using data from his experience running the likes of Troy Herfoss and Josh Waters in Supersport during his Team Suzuki era, said it has been a pleasure to work alongside the Elliott effort.

“We’ve been helping him out from last year and I am actually really enjoying it,” Tainton explained. “Brayden’s a really nice kid, really listens and picks things up between Shawn and I. He takes it all on board and it’s nice to see him doing so well.”

Tainton has been absent from national level road racing since Suzuki Australia ceased major support of its factory road racing operation at the end of 2013, despite Wayne Maxwell winning that year’s ASBK championship on board the Phil Tainton Racing-prepared GSX-R1000.