Image: Foremost Media.

Motorcycling Australia (MA) has reversed its decision to place Next Gen Supersport within the Superbike category on debut at Queensland Raceway, instead shifting the newly-introduced class into the regular Supersport ranks midway through practice.

Next Gen Supersport – attracting just a single entry in DesmoSport Ducati with its Panigale V2 this weekend – is a mid-season addition to the Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), beginning at the Ipswich round.

While it was initially expected that the Next Gen Supersports would be placed in with the existing Australian Supersport Championship, series management opted to put them in with the Superbike premier class despite the obvious displacement differences.

The more sensible decision was later made by race direction on Friday afternoon to instead put Next Gen-equipped Kiwi Luca Durning in with the Supersport field, where he was 11th on combined times yesterday and produced a top speed in line with the class leaders.

“As per published information, Supersport Next Gen class was scheduled to run in the same sessions as Superbikes at this event,” a statement from ASBK organisers confirmed.

“”After review of lap times and the machine’s dynamics within Superbike practices one and two, race direction has made the decision to move the sole entry in that class to run with the Supersport class, where speeds are more compatible with the Next Gen machine.

“This change is effective from Supersport practice three for the remainder of the meeting, however may be reviewed again as necessary.”

Friday’s opening two practice sessions saw DesmoSport recruit Durning, who is the current New Zealand Supersport Championship number two, situated at the rear of the timesheets, over six seconds outside of P1 and with a deficit of near 40km/h through the speed trap – 243km/h vs Josh Waters’ 282km/h benchmark set on the Panigale V4 R in FP2.