Image: Keith Muir.

JD Racing Yamaha’s Daniel Falzon has taken out the opening race of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli at Phillip Island this morning.

After claiming the YMI Superbike pole position yesterday, 22-year-old Falzon broke through for the first win of the season after controlling the reduced 11-lap affair from the front.

A minor delay prior to the start prompted an additional warm-up lap before the lights went out and it was Falzon who managed to win by 0.013s from Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) and Crankt Protein Honda Racing duo Bryan Staring and Troy Herfoss.

Only 0.868s separated the top four by race’s end, while 12.670s back in fifth was Robbie Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance), who got the better of Cru Halliday (IPONE/YMF/YMI Yamaha) and leading rookie Mitch Levy (ATR/Landbridge Transport Yamaha).

The top 10 was completed by Alex Phillis (Race Dynamics Aprilia), Beau Beaton (Racer’s Edge Performance/McMartin Racing Ducati) and Kyle Buckley (Kawasaki BCperformance). Current Australian Supersport champion Troy Guenther (Next Gen Motorsports BMW) claimed 11th.

Trouble struck title-threat Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team) at turn four on lap one when he went down, but remounted for an eventual 17th. Matt Walters (Swann Insurance/Repsol Kawasaki) was another notable faller after running well inside the top 10.

Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Josh Waters was right in the mix of the top five before encountering problems of his own, dropping down the order between laps seven and eight. He pulled into pit-lane and exited the race soon afterwards.

After dominating every session of the Motul Australian Supersport class this weekend it was expected Mark Chiodo (Triumph) would win the opening race this afternoon, however a crash at the midway point dashed his hopes.

Chiodo led the first three laps before he went down at MG on lap four, which enabled Mason Coote (Yamaha) to take charge at the front. From there he remained unchallenged with a 3.795s advantage, joined on the podium by Ted Collins (Suzuki) and Ryan Taylor (Yamaha).

In fourth came Ben Burke (Yamaha), joined in the top 10 by talented rookie Tom Toparis (Kawasaki), Jordan Carlsson (Yamaha), Sam Condon (Yamaha), Nic Liminton (Yamaha), Chiodo after he remounted and Callum Alderson (Yamaha).

Races one and two of the Australian Supersport 300 Championship were held, book-ending the day’s championship action, where Reid Battye (Kawasaki) and Tom Edwards (Kawasaki) split wins.

In this morning’s opening race Battye bested Edwards by a minor 0.087s, with KTM-mounted Billy Van Eerde third. Race two saw Edwards reverse the result on Battye this time only 0.061s apart, as Zac Levy (Yamaha) recovered from a crash in race one for third.