Image: Keith Muir.

Despite starting from second spot on the grid, it was New South Wales rider Michael Blair who took charge of the opening Supersport race at the opening round of the 2015 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).

Blair passed Allsite Concrete Cutting’s Callum Spriggs, who was the fastest rider in qualifying, and settled into a comfortable rhythm during the early stages of the race.

Behind Spriggs in third was pilot Paul Young and early on lap two Young managed to slide past Spriggs into second spot, as Blair looked to open the gap on the pair.

As they came down the straight and into the third lap, the power of Spriggs’ machine was on display as he reclaimed second spot from Young with a nice move up the inside heading into turn one.

The top trio put a small gap on the chasing pack, with four riders – Mitchell Levy, Brayden Elliott, Kane Burns and Ryan Taylor bunched up behind them.

Burns soon ran wide after mistiming a corner and Elliott was soon out of the race when he crashed at turn six on lap four, leaving Levy and Taylor to battle it out for fourth and fifth spot.

But all the action was happening ahead of that pair, as Blair, Spriggs and Young continued to feel each other out – their positions unchanged at the halfway point of the race.

If anything, the race began to look predictable as Blair put close to a one-second gap on Spriggs, who in turn had just under a one-second lead over Young.

Those gaps continued to increase before Spriggs recorded a 1m37.755s on the penultimate lap to draw nearer to Blair, but his efforts were in vain.

Blair kept a cool head and rode home in style to take the race win from Spriggs, while Young dropped off the pace on his way to claiming a podium spot in third.

Levy finished the race in fourth, while Taylor ended up in fifth. The second race of the round will take place at 10:15am on Sunday.

South Australian rider Ollie Simpson has won two races from two starts in the Moto3/125GP class at the opening 2015 ASBK championship round held at Phillip Island on Saturday.

Simpson put in two flawless performances to claim maximum points for the day, and will be looking to make it three on the trot when the third race for the class takes place on Sunday.

Behind Simpson in race one was Matt Barton and Callum Barker, while Barton and Kavney were the final podium placers in race two this afternoon.

Victorian rider Jack Mahaffy claimed opening round honours of the Australian Junior Championship at Phillip Island.

Mahaffy claimed a clean sweep of all three races on offer to finish the 80cc two-stroke class ahead of Dallas Skeer and Scott Nicholson.

Meanwhile in the 150cc four-stroke class it was Dylan Whiteside who claimed the round win with three class wins from three races ahead of fellow Victorian Ben Bramich and Hunter Ford.

Click here for detailed results