Image: Foremost Media.

Points leader Mike Jones (DesmoSport Ducati) has earned pole position at Winton’s fifth round of the 2019 Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), snatching the top spot in the dying minutes of the session from Wayne Maxwell (Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia).

Q1 was topped by Alex Phillis, the Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia rider advancing through to Q2 alongside Aaron Morris (Maxima BMW) and Matt Walters (Kawasaki Connection).

Jones demoted Maxwell from P1 with a 1m19.994s time in Q2, breaking the existing lap record by going beneath the 1m20s mark, as Maxwell completed the session with a 1m20.353s lap to finish ahead of Yamaha Racing Team’s Cru Halliday, who set a time of 1m20.501s.

Daniel Falzon (Yamaha Racing Team) was a fraction behind in fourth, lodging a 1m20.785s lap, as Penrite Honda Racing’s Mark Chiodo put in a strong 1m20.920s time late in the session to secure fifth.

Josh Waters (Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia) was sixth ahead of Arthur Sissis (Suzuki), Bryan Staring (Kawasaki BCperformance), Phillis and Walters. Defending champion Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) qualified 12th after a crash on lap one, the incident marking his second tumble of the day.

Image: Russell Colvin.

In the Supersport category, points leader Tom Toparis (Landbridge Yamaha) continued his dominance of the weekend so far, claiming pole position with a stunning 1m23.588s time, comfortably earning the top spot by half a second over Nic Liminton (Yamaha), who set a time of 1m24.093s.

Reid Battye (Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia) locked out the top three with a 1m24.257s time, as Broc Pearson (Yamaha) and Oli Bayliss (Cube Racing) were fourth and fifth respectively.

Yannis Shaw (Kawasaki) stormed to victory in the opening Supersport 300 encounter, narrowly defeating KTM-mounted Seth Crump by just 0.060s, as Max Stauffer (Yamaha) was a close third.

Branden Demmery (Yamaha) won the Yamaha R3 Cup opener over Locky Taylor (Yamaha) and Luke Jhonston (Yamaha), as Angus Grenfell (Yamaha) captured victory in race one of the Oceania Junior Cup, beating Archie McDonald (Yamaha) and Tom Drane (Yamaha).

Detailed results