Image: Foremost Media.

A crash in the challenging race two conditions proved costly for Supersport race one winner Sean Condon when it came to the overall results in Sydney, but the Yamaha-mounted rider still believes the championship is within sight if he can put his best foot forward.

Condon topped practice on Friday and later fired his DigBiz R6 to pole position with a 1m32.509s, sitting out the night session altogether after posting that time in the afternoon.

Despite being shuffled back in the early stages of race one, the number 26 was able to progress to the front and the field, delivering pace when needed to open and then maintain a margin to Jake Farnsworth (Yamaha) in P2.

Condon ultimately captured his first national Supersport win of the season in that encounter by 1.053s, but a fall in race two under lights saw him drop to seventh overall for round two with the DNF.

“Definitely started out positive, felt good coming into the round,” Condon said to CycleOnline.com.au. ” I knew I would have good pace there and I sort of showed that in qualifying and race one.

“In race two I made the wrong tyre choice, went out on slicks and yeah ended up crashing between turns four and five on the actual dry part of the track, which was just a freak crash. I was upright and as soon as I grabbed the brake it threw me down the road.”

As Condon outlined, he chose slick tyres for the race, but the wet front and rear option was the eventual race-winning combination used by Cameron Dunker (Yamaha). That said, Scott Nicholson (Yamaha) was able to finish third using slicks, with the patchy conditions under the lights seeing different options and combinations used throughout the grid.

“It was a pure last minute… I had both bikes sitting there and I just had no idea what it was doing,” Condon added. “The straight looked dry, up turn 12 looked dry but apparently it was wet around the back.

“I just went with my gut feeling and jumped on my dry bike but after doing the sighting and warm-up lap, I probably should have jumped on my wet bike. It was just a pure gut feeling, and last minute, it was a flick of the coin really.

“In hindsight, I probably should have been on the wets, but if I finished like Scott Nicholson did on drys on the podium, then the drys would have been a good choice.”

Amidst some misfortune at the opening round, Condon finished 20th overall at Phillip Island and after his DNF in race two at Sydney Motorsport Park, he is 12th in the championship standings, 41 points from championship leader Ty Lynch ahead of the next round at Queensland Raceway between 28-30 April.

“I don’t think the championship is lost, by any means, but I do have to focus on doing the best that I can at every round,” he added. “If I can focus on doing the best I can at each round, then the championship will be… it’s still in reach, I just can’t afford to have the misfortune like I did at Phillip Island, and race two.

“I’ve proven in the dry that I can be the fastest guy out there, I did that there [Sydney]. I went up and did a test at a Queensland Raceway meeting the other week with [John] Lytras there and I managed to win up there and set some good pace.”