News 1 May 2017

Cube Racing displays plenty of Winton potential

Cube Racing press release:

Cube Racing teammates Oli Bayliss and Tom Toparis left Winton’s third round of the 2017 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) wanting more this afternoon, but showing their capabilities once again during the round.

Still just 13 years of age, Bayliss – son of triple Superbike world champion Troy Bayliss – scored a new circuit best lap by claiming the Supersport 300 pole position with a scorching 1m32.340s lap-time on Saturday.

Bayliss smashed the race lap record in race one later that afternoon with a 1m32.462s, but unfortunately crashed out while challenging for victory. Another crash in race two on Sunday morning spelt an early end to his weekend.

“I qualified on pole and in the first race I was leading my class, but made a mistake, tucked the front and that wrecked one of my bikes,” Bayliss recalled. “In race two today I was in front again for my class and somebody crashed, but I hit their bike and ran into the wall and that was another DNF. That bike was badly damaged as well, so I can’t do race three. On the bright side I broke two lap records and I’ve gotta be happy about that!”

Meanwhile, after qualifying ninth in the hard-fought Supersport ranks, Toparis collected an important haul of points with two finishes on Sunday across the pair of 13-lap races.

In race one Toparis claimed seventh position, before in the second he ended up ninth, resulting in P7 overall. As a result, he climbed to fourth in the championship point-standings with four rounds remaining.

“I think it’s okay to say we struggled a little this weekend, but the pace we were running was pretty good and we were fast,” Toparis said. “We did the best we could and all in all, it was a good weekend to learn a lot as a team. I had fun this weekend and the weather was perfect, so we will move onto Darwin positively and I’m happy to be fourth in the championship now.”

Cube Racing team owner Ben Henry was satisfied enough with the performances of both riders at round three, now looking to make further inroads for strong results to come.

“Oli was really impressive and showed that from now on we will pretty much be seeing him at the front,” commented Henry. “Up until it all went wrong, it was really exceptional and I’m happy for him because he puts so much effort in. Tom was really good as well, he never had the pace to win this weekend and that’s just what happens sometimes, but in terms of the championship it was a really good result for him and he’s in with a shot, that’s for sure.”

The 2017 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) will now take a two-month hiatus before returning on 7-9 July at Hidden Valley Raceway in the Northern Territory.

Like Cube Racing on Facebook and visit www.asbk.com.au for further information. Cube Performance Centre also has an exclusive Cube Racing section on its website, available to view at www.cubeperformancecentre.com.au/cuberacing now.

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