Image: Russell Colvin.

Yamaha Racing Team’s Glenn Allerton has captured the opening race victory of the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli at Phillip Island this morning.

Allerton won by 0.223s in the 10-lapper ahead of reigning champion Mike Jones after taking charge on lap three. Jones led the opening sector of the race in his DesmoSport Ducati debut.

“That’s awesome for the team and everybody involved to come here at the last minute,” Allerton beamed. “It was a good race for me, I did everything right and was in the right places.

“I knew I had to keep Mike between me a Wayne, so I’m really excited for the team and hopefully we can put two more together tomorrow.”

A fast-finishing Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team) worked his way forward from sixth on lap one to finish third, just 0.275s outside of Allerton – logging the fastest lap of the race in the process at 1m33.074s.

Fourth was Cru Halliday on the third of the Yamahas in a major improvement over qualifying, getting the better of Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing).

Herfoss was involved in a scary clash involving teammate Jamie Stauffer (Crankt Protein Honda Racing) on lap three. Jones wobbled onto the front straight, baulking Herfoss and causing Stauffer to ram into the rear of his CBR1000RR SP and crash spectacularly.

Another casualty was national Supersport champion Brayden Elliott on debut in the premier class, dismounting his GSX-R1000 at turn two on lap three.

It was a strong showing for Daniel Falzon on the JD Racing Yamaha in the early stages, dicing inside the podium positions, before eventually crossing the line behind Michael Blair (Blairbuild Yamaha).

Earlier in the day it was Matt Barton who won the opening Moto3/125GP race of the weekend, 0.651s over Brian Houghton and 0.711s over Tom Edwards in an entertaining race to the line.