Image: Foremost Media.

A second-straight win to commence the 2024 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) was earned by Josh Waters at the Sydney night race after splitting the premier class race wins with Cru Halliday in largely different conditions.

The afternoon’s opening race saw Yamaha Racing Team’s Cru Halliday pick up his first win of the season after overcoming pole-setter Josh Waters (McMartin Racing Ducati) by just 0.526s, with his teammate Harrison Voight P3.

Rain affected tonight’s final encounter, which was quickly restarted as a result of the conditions, before Waters took off to a controlled 3.678s victory ahead of Broc Pearson (DesmoSport Ducati) and Max Stauffer (Penrite Racing Yamaha).

Overall it was Waters who made it two from two to open the new year, beating Halliday – who rode to fourth in race two under lights in the tricky conditions – to the top of the podium, as Pearson finished third overall in his return to the top three.

Fourth overall was Voight, while Stauffer managed fifth, and positions six through 10 were filled by Bryan Staring (MotoGo Yamaha), Cameron Dunker (Penrite Racing Yamaha), Mike Jones (Yamaha Racing Team), Arthur Sissis (Francrane Yamaha) and Anthony West (Addicted to Track Yamaha).

After missing the opening race due to an untimely crash in warm-up, defending champion Troy Herfoss (DesmoSport Ducati) led race two until crashing out early, with fellow three-time champion Glenn Allerton (GT Racing BMW) also going down while challenging toward the front in the middle stages.

Waters has extended his early points lead to 25.5 points, as Halliday has climbed to second position and Voight is currently third, but won’t be contesting the entire season due to his Moto2 European Championship grand prix commitments.

Round three of the 2024 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) will be held at Queensland Raceway between 26-28 April, marking the first Queensland stop of the season in one month’s time.

Detailed results