Calculated victory in two-part final race completes perfect weekend.
The Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli saved its best for last in another action-packed affair eventually won by Daniel Falzon (JD Racing Yamaha).
Three laps into the third and final race at Phillip Island on World Superbike weekend, it appeared Caterpillar-supported Falzon was going to sail off at the front for another dominant win.
However a red flag flew following three laps, causing a brief stoppage and restart, with the domestic races to be determined by combining times of the two-part race. Once it did get back underway, fireworks erupted at the front.
This time Falzon had to fight his way forward from fifth, but had the comfort of a time advantage to his credit from part one. He crossed the finish-line in third, however that was enough to complete a perfect weekend on combined times.
Reduced to 10 laps due to the delays, Maxwell led across the line at race’s end in another strong performance, but was fourth on combined times. Instead, filling the race podium alongside Falzon was Robbie Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance) and Bryan Staring (Crankt Protein Honda Racing).
Fifth came Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Josh Waters, sixth was Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) despite crossing the stripe second, and the top 10 was completed by Cru Halliday (IPONE/YMF/YMI/Yamaha), Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing), Mitch Levy (ATR/Landbridge Transport/Yamaha) and Michael Blair (YRT/Central Coast Car Museum Yamaha).
Defending champion Herfoss led his share of the final bout, but was forced to slow on lap three of the restart when he had problems with the on-board camera attached to his factory Fireblade – costing him vital championship points in the process.
So overall it was 22-year-old privateer Falzon with the stunning clean-sweep, 22 points clear of Bugden and a further seven ahead of Herfoss after many of the title-contenders encountered troubles across the three races at some point. Still, there was no denying Pirelli-shod Falzon of the victory in this given round.
In the final Supersport race of the weekend directly afterwards, Mason Coote (Yamaha) proved he was a deserved round winner by out-racing Mark Chiodo (Triumph) by 0.147s after a 10-lap dual.
A lonely third behind them in race three was Ted Collins (Suzuki) in another consistent result, while Ben Burke (Yamaha) and Sam Condon (Yamaha) completed the top five. Overall for the round it was Coote who won by 13 points, with Collins and Chiodo – despite his race one fall – rounding out the rostrum.
A five-rider scrap in the third and final Australian Supersport 300 Championship race this morning resulted in the overall victories for Zac Levy (Yamaha) in the Over 300 and Tom Edwards (Kawasaki) in the Up To 300 categories.
Last year’s YMF R3 Cup winner Levy broke through for his first combined Supersport 300 win of the weekend in today’s eight-lap affair, finishing 0.514s ahead of Jack Mahaffy (Yamaha) and Edwards, who was top of the Up To 300s.
Joining Levy on the Over 300 podium overall for the round was Max Croker (KTM) and defending champion Brandon Demmery (Yamaha), while Edwards stood atop the Up to 300 podium ahead of Reid Battye (Kawasaki) and last year’s champion Drew Sells (Kawasaki).