Image: Russell Colvin.

Three-time world superbike champion Troy Bayliss says a last-ditch run at the Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) crown is ‘finished’ despite still being mathematically in contention.

The DesmoSport Ducati rider was hopeful Morgan Park’s fifth round would be the turning point, however after failing to score pole position and two race wins as planned, the 49-year-old has accepted his chances of earning an elusive ASBK title in 2018 have faded.

The Ducati ace did however land on the podium at the Queensland venue, finishing second in race one before a costly mistake in race two – where he led for majority of the outing – resulted in him salvaging fourth position for the third overall.

“I’m satisfied to an extent, because if I was younger I’d be really upset with the result, but honestly it was okay for us at this stage,” Bayliss explained. “We’re a bit disappointed because we believed we could win both races, but we were certainly amongst it at the front and put on a show – that’s always a positive.

“This round was hopefully going to be the turning point for a last-ditch run at the championship, but that’s finished now. The plan was to get pole and two race wins here, which didn’t pan out, so now we just have to aim for some wins and more good results for our DesmoSport Ducati team and sponsors.

“In race two we had made a couple of tiny changes that we thought might help, but the tyre went downhill really fast again. I had no rear brake as I overcooked it a bit and had a small run-off, so that was that – it was just one of those things. We’re still third in the points and second would be the goal, so finishing the year strongly is the only thing that we can do!”

Bayliss sits third in the championship standings, 62.5 markers behind series leader Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) with over 100 points still up for grabs over the last two rounds.