Image: Keith Muir.

The Australian Supersport 300 Championship will feature defending champions Brandon Demmery (Over 300) and Drew Sells (Up To 300) this season, as part of the 2017 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) series.

Yamaha-mounted Demmery has three national championships in the production-based division, claiming the 250 Production crown in 2013, the FX300 Ninja Cup title in 2014 and last year’s Over 300cc Production series from Callum Alderson and Aidan Hayes.

“To be able to run the number one plate will be the first time I have had the chance to do so after previously stepping up in class after each win was one of the deciding factors behind my decision to stay in the 300 class,” Demmery said. “The other was funding – in 2016 we invested a lot of our budget into team infrastructure.”

Alderson will step up to the Supersport category aboard an AARK Racing Yamaha YZF-R6, while Hayes has joined forces with the Demmery-operated team also to ride Supersport and highly-regarded rising talent Broc Pearson will ride alongside Demmery in the Supersport 300 ranks.

Meanwhile, fellow teenager Sells raced to his first-career national championship in the Up To 300c ranks aboard a Kawasaki Ninja 300, edging out Tom Toparis and Sam Condon – who captured the 2016 FX300 Ninja Cup title – for the crown.

Sells will remain in the Up To 300 class to defend his number one plate, however Toparis will switch to Supersport fulltime with Cube Racing aboard a ZX-6R. Condon is also headed to Supersport for the year ahead aboard a BikeBiz Racing Team R6.

Of the R3 Cup competitors, last year’s champion Zac Levy will be pulling double-duty aboard a Yamaha YZF-R6 in Supersport and a YZF-R3 in Supersport 300, as runner-up in the 2016 points-chase Hunter Ford will remain in the R3 Cup, while also doing the Supersport 300s at Phillip Island’s opening round on 24-26 February.