Image: Russell Colvin.

The potential displayed by Oli Bayliss at Phillip Island was greater than his end results, with the Australian concluding the 2023 Supersport World Championship (WorldSSP) opener with P10 in the second race despite having to take evasive action.

Bayliss started the week at Phillip Island strong by posting the third-fastest time on day one of the pre-season test at the venue, improving to a 1m34.005s the following day to finish P7.

Come free practice on Friday, some set-up changes didn’t go in the right direction for the number 32 and he later qualified 13th with a 1m34.659s. A wrong tyre choice in race one on Saturday meant Bayliss limped to P16 in the wet conditions.

In the second race Sunday he was battling for a strong position inside the top 10 when he was forced to run off the track to avoid the slowing Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing Team), rejoining to finish 10th when the race was red-flagged shortly after due to geese on the circuit.

“Tenth place finish in race two today, which was ok,” Bayliss recalled. “It’s a pity for how the weekend went results-wise, because I felt good on the bike and we had the potential to do much better. The D34G Racing team and I worked well together and showed good speed, but unfortunately the two races were quite eventful and surely not favourable to us.

“I was able to make up several places and things were looking good, but unfortunately during the penultimate lap before the red flag I got caught behind another rider who was riding slowly due to a technical problem and had to go off the track to avoid him. When I got back on the track and re-joined, the race was stopped.

“Too bad, because we were very competitive towards the end. We have to keep working hard in the same direction and try to capitalise in Indonesia next weekend.”

The Supersport World Championship resumes this weekend, 3-5 March, at Mandalika, Indonesia for what will be the second round of the 2023 season.