ASBK 2022 – Round Five
Morgan Park – Michelin Supersport
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The fourth round of the 2022 ASBK Michelin Supersport Championship for 2022 was a tale of heartbreak followed by redemption for championship leader John Lytras.
While Ty Lynch gave the 727Moto Team something to smile about, after what has been a somewhat tumultuous season thus far for the Queensland based squad, with a round win that dramatically increased his title chances.
Michelin Supersport Race One
Ty Lynch scored the holeshot ahead of pole-sitter John Lytras while Jake Farnsworth and Tom Bramich chased that duo throughout the opening lap of race one at Morgan Park on Sunday morning.
Lytras then took the lead into turn one as they started lap two, he immediately started to pull away from Lynch. That pair had already left the rest of the field behind them, Farnsworth and Bramich were already more than two-seconds behind them after only a single lap of the 14-lap race.
Lytras then ran into some mechanical gremlins!
His YZF-R6 coming to a stop, the youngster recycled the ignition, the old turn it off and turn it on again trick, before eventually rejoining the race at the back of the field, almost 20-seconds behind the new race leader, Ty Lynch, who then went on to a clear and untroubled victory over Bramich and Farnsworth.
It has been a tumultuous season so far for the 727Moto squad, thus the victory for Lynch will help buoy the whole team, they have had little to celebrate this year so it was good to see them finally smiling.
Heartbreak of course for Lytras, who limped home last, three laps down, after having to repeatedly pull over and cycle the ignition to reset the fly-by-wire throttle. Lytras had the pace to win and extend his handy championship lead, he was the only rider to dip into the 1m15s, but instead he saw his points lead almost completely disappear. His buffer over Lynch down to a single point… But those eight points he salvaged by sticking with it to finish, despite having to continually restart his bike, could be crucial to his championship hopes.
Jake Farnsworth and Tom Bramich battled hard over the final steps on the rostrum. Bramich had a little more outright pace but has been struggling all weekend with arm-pump issues, still, the Victorian eventually broke away from Farnsworth to claim that second place.
Michelin Supersport Race One Results
Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap | Speed |
1 | Ty LYNCH | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 17m54.855 | 206 |
2 | Tom BRAMICH | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +9.546 | 207 |
3 | Jake FARNSWORTH | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +14.307 | 207 |
4 | Scott NICHOLSON | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +20.424 | 207 |
5 | Mitch KUHNE | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +23.513 | 207 |
6 | Tom DRANE | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +23.728 | 212 |
7 | Luca DURNING | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +23.948 | 209 |
8 | Rhys BELLING | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +35.213 | 204 |
9 | Tarbon WALKER | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +47.783 | 201 |
10 | Troy GUENTHER | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +53.415 | 204 |
11 | Morgan McLAREN-WOOD | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +1m00.781 | 199 |
12 | Noel MAHON | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +1m10.045 | 201 |
13 | John LYTRAS | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 3 Laps | 208 |
Michelin Supersport Race Two
John Lytras looked to have the pace to pull away from the field in the opening Supersport bout only for technical gremlins rob him of that potential. He had to repeatedly pull off the circuit and re-start his machine to reset the fly-by-wire throttle, eventually finishing three laps down but still salvaging eight-points from his efforts.
Ty Lynch was the victor in that opening race by almost ten-seconds over Tom Bramich. Jake Farnsworth battled with Bramich for the first half of the race before losing ground and finishing in third place a further 4.8-seconds behind.
Ty Lynch and John Lytras almost banged bars heading towards turn one in the second stanza, but it was the 727Moto man with the advantage into turn one to take the lead from Lytras. Tom Bramich third, Rhys Belling fourth, Luca Durning fifth.
With those electronics issues hopefully behind him, Lytras set about trying to get the better of Lynch. He did exactly that early on lap two to take the race lead.
Jake Farnsworth then went down uninjured, but visibly gutted. Earlier Mitch Kuhne had pulled out of the race.
The leading pair were already four-seconds ahead of third placed Bramich only a couple of laps into the race. Lytras and Lynch running 1m15s, while the rest of the field were running 17s or slower.
Lynch was determined not to let Lytras get away. Both were on the edge running over the bumps. Lytras did manage to pull a few tenths out of Lynch after he got past, but the 727Moto rider then responded with a new fastest lap of the race to bring that gap back down to a couple of bike lengths.
As they started the second half of the race it looked as though Lytras had finally manage to break Lynch after undercutting his previous fastest lap of the race with a new marker, and then reeled off a few 1m15.4s in succession, that was a pace Lynch could not contend with.
Lytras then dropped into the 1m15.3s and with five laps to run now had more than five-seconds on Lynch. That pair were 16-seconds ahead of third placed Tom Bramich.
Four-seconds further behind Bramich there was a heady four-way battle for fourth place unfolding between Tom Drane, Scott Nicholson, Rhys Belling and Lucas Durning.
By the last lap board Lytras had five-seconds on Lynch, who in turn had an 18-second buffer over Bramich. And that was how they finished.
Clear redemption for Lytras which pushes his championship lead back out to six-points.
The only battle to the line was the tussle over fourth place which was eventually won by Tom Drane ahead of Scott Nicholson.
Ty Lynch the round winner ahead of Tom Bramich and John Lytras.
Q; Good points haul for the weekend, with a win and a second, but if not for some bad luck for John Lytras it may have been a different situation.
Ty Lynch: “The main aim is to finish every race, and Lytras still finished the first race but yeah that was a big hit in the points for him, but it’s a long season.”
Q; And in regards to race two.
Ty Lynch: “Its been one of our strong points this year, getting off the line, you know and that’s half your race really, so I got a good jump and then I just tried to run with Lytras the whole race. We got about eight laps in and I ran out of tyre and ran out of steam, and that was it.”
Q; Is Lytras generally a bit quicker at the minute, and you have to find something?
Ty Lynch: “History repeating itself. He was fast at Wakefield, I’m having to push pretty hard, but we are just trying to chip away at it, and find safe places to extract time out of each and every circuit.
“Phillip Island and the Bend are strong points for me, and we’ve done a lot of testing at the Bend over the last four or five months so it’ll be interesting to see how Lytras performs there. But he’s actually turned it up this part of the season, he struggled a little at the start so he’s really come on strong.”
Michelin Supersport Race Two Results
Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap | Speed |
1 | John LYTRAS | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 17m44.482 | 205 |
2 | Ty LYNCH | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +6.199 | 210 |
3 | Tom BRAMICH | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +24.935 | 208 |
4 | Tom DRANE | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +29.073 | 212 |
5 | Scott NICHOLSON | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +29.375 | 211 |
6 | Rhys BELLING | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +29.842 | 207 |
7 | Luca DURNING | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +30.099 | 209 |
8 | Troy GUENTHER | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +58.039 | 206 |
9 | Morgan McLAREN-WOOD | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +59.436 | 200 |
10 | Tarbon WALKER (NSW) | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +1m06.442 | 204 |
11 | Noel MAHON | Yamaha YZF-R6 | +1m13.593 | 203 |
DNF | Jake FARNSWORTH | Yamaha YZF-R6 | 12 Laps | / |
Michelin Supersport Championship Points
Pos | Name | Machine | Pole | R1 | R2 | Total |
1 | John LYTRAS | Yamaha | 1 | 8 | 25 | 151 |
2 | Ty LYNCH | Yamaha | 25 | 20 | 145 | |
3 | Scott NICHOLSON | Yamaha | 17 | 16 | 115 | |
4 | Tom BRAMICH | Yamaha | 20 | 18 | 109 | |
5 | Tom DRANE | Yamaha | 15 | 17 | 106 | |
6 | Rhys BELLING | Yamaha | 13 | 15 | 100 | |
7 | Mitch KUHNE | Yamaha | 16 | 97 | ||
8 | Olly SIMPSON | Yamaha | 72 | |||
9 | Tarbon WALKER | Kawasaki | 12 | 11 | 59 | |
10 | John QUINN | Yamaha | 52 | |||
11 | Troy GUENTHER | Yamaha | 11 | 13 | 51 | |
12 | Senna AGIUS | Honda | 51 | |||
13 | Noel MAHON | Yamaha | 9 | 10 | 47 | |
14 | Jake FARNSWORTH | Yamaha | 18 | 47 | ||
15 | Luke SANDERS | Yamaha | 10 | 12 | 41 | |
16 | Sean CONDON | Yamaha | 39 | |||
17 | Timothy LARGE | Yamaha | 37 | |||
18 | Luca DURNING | Yamaha | 14 | 14 | 28 | |
19 | Declan CARBERRY | Suzuki | 24 | |||
20 | Tom EDWARDS | Yamaha | 20 | |||
21 | Jack HYDE | Yamaha | 18 | |||
22 | Dallas SKEER | Yamaha | 15 | |||
23 | Chris QUINN | Yamaha | 13 | |||
24 | Brendan WILSON | Yamaha | 13 | |||
25 | Harley SIDE | Yamaha | 8 |
mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance
2022 ASBK Calendar
Round 6 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Cowes VIC 18 – 20 November |
SBK, SSPT, SS300 |
Round 7 The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend SA 25 – 27 November |
SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC |
ASBK Night of Champions Dinner – The Bend 27 November |