Sunday Report #1 from ASBK Rnd 2 at QLD Raceway | SBK Race One Report/Results

ASBK 2022 Round Two – QLD Raceway
Sunday Report Part One

Superbike Warm Up

Morning warm-up this morning saw most of pit-lane seeking further tweaks to their front end set-ups.

Whatever DesmoSport Ducati had changed on Bryan Staring’s V4 R overnight must have been a move in the right direction as the Western Australian topped morning warm-up with a 67.827 early on, before then marginally improving a few laps later to 67.825.

Mike Jones was consistently fastest through the first sector of the track but had to settle for P3 in the warm-up session behind Wayne Maxwell, the Boost Mobile Ducati man finding a little something this morning that helped him into the 67s for the first time this weekend, a 67.98. 

Most of the field made the most of the warm-up session, the majority of riders putting in nine laps in the ten-minute session. 

Troy Herfoss made progress this morning after the Penrite Honda crew did plenty of work on the bikes last night. Herfoss was fifth in warm-up with a 68.466 and could have podium pace here if they keep moving in the right direction.

One rider not getting to enjoy the benefit of the morning warm-up session was Daniel Falzon. In fact the South Australian had also missed qualifying after flying from Brisbane to Adelaide on completion of Friday practice to get married in Adelaide on Saturday! Thus Falzon will have to start from the back of the grid, and even that depended on whether their flight back in from Adelaide this morning arrived on time…

Of course the track temperature for morning warm-up is quite a lot cooler than we can expect for the afternoon race, but still it seems that it was a session of vital importance for many to further refine their motorcycles ahead of today’s 2 x 16 lap races. 

SBK Warm Up

Alpinestars Superbike Race One

As riders formed up on the grid for the opening Superbike encounter the track temperature was ten-degrees warmer than it had been in warm-up, but at 42-degrees it should not pose much drama at this track and no teams really expect any problems here when it comes to tyre longevity. That of course is all relative, it will still matter, just a lot less than it normally does at most other tracks.

Daniel Falzon had indeed made it to the track in time to take his place at the back of the grid and the crowd had been steadily building in advance of the opening 16-lap Superbike contest getting underway just before 1100 on Sunday morning.

Bryan Staring scored the holeshot while Wayne Maxwell slipped up the inside of Mike Jones into turn one but it was the YRT man that exited the best to hold on to second position.  Jones immediately on the attack and looking up the inside of Staring at the end of the back straight but couldn’t find his way through. Allerton was up to fourth, Waters fifth, Sissis sixth, Halliday seventh and Herfoss eighth at this early juncture.

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Jones through to the lead with the rear Pirelli on that YRT bike squirming and winding up the shock under protest as he screwed the power down out of turn two.  He held on down the back straight and through turn three but a mistake into the double-left opened the door wide open for Staring and the DesmoSport Ducati rider duly walked straight through…

Jones then got back through to the lead and as they started lap three it was Jones, Staring, Maxwell, Allerton and Waters. Jones then put his head down with some clear air and started to eke away a little from Staring and Maxwell.  Jones has dominated every session with amazing runs of fast laps in every practice session, his strongest sectors the first and last, but the middle sector was where some of the field could chip a little chink in his armour.

Staring was not done though… A 67.885 on the following lap a new lap record, the only problem was that Jones had also put in a 67.886! A thousandth of a second the difference on that fourth lap and that pair had already started to leave the rest of the field behind.

Jones then lowered the benchmark again, a 67.871 to Staring’s 68-dead seeing the YRT man stretch away to the tune of a few bike lengths.

A second behind that duo was Wayne Maxwell, who in-turn had almost a second on fourth placed Glenn Allerton who had his Maxima Oils BMW team-mate to contend with.

Staring returned fire to Jones’ new lap record to lower it again to 67.861, that scorcher keeping Jones within three-tenths and striking distance with nine laps still to run.  The double-left in the inside of the circuit where Staring was making all his ground on Jones, and the Yamaha man then taking that advantage back at most other turns on the circuit.

Further back, after a poor start Cru Halliday was getting wound up and had reeled in the BMW pairing of Waters and Allerton to throw his hat in the ring for that fourth place.  Wayne Maxwell had 1.3-seconds over Waters in fourth, but was already more than two-seconds behind the leading duo with seven laps still to run. This would be a two-man contest for the win.

Staring goes down! Bryan Staring fell at the final corner. He got the bike up again and attempted to rejoin the circuit only for him to fall yet again while pushing his bike around. A terrible blow for the DesmoSport Ducati squad but they will bounce back again this afternoon no doubt.

Jed Metcher then went down on some of the kitty litter that Staring had dragged onto the circuit at turn six while battling Anthony West for eighth position.

And then there was one… With Staring out of the contest Jones now had a clear 3.5-second lead over Maxwell.  The Boost Mobile Ducati rider though could not take it easy as he was now being stalked by Waters, Allerton and Halliday. He had five more laps to try and hold them off…

Troy Herfoss was in sixth ahead of Arthur Sissis but that pair were more than ten-seconds behind the race leader with three laps to run.

Cru Halliday started challenging Allerton for for fourth over the final laps as Waters started stalking Maxwell from behind…  With two laps to run Jones led Maxwell by more than five-seconds.

At the last lap board Waters was right behind Maxwell, while Allerton and Halliday were also within striking distance… Any mistake and three riders would pounce and pass Maxwell….  There were no mistakes though and Maxwell picked up his pace to secure that second place and stave off any challenge.  Josh Waters third, Glenn Allerton fourth, Cru Halliday fifth.  Seven-seconds further back from Halliday was Troy Herfoss in sixth, who in-turn had four-seconds over Arthur Sissis.

Anthony West eighth with a significant buffer over ninth placed Aiden Wagner, while Mark Chiodo rounded out the top ten. Daniel Falzon claimed some decent points with an 11th place finish after starting from the back of the grid and not riding here at all yesterday.

Mike Jones dominated on Friday, he dominated on Saturday and now he has dominated here on Sunday morning.  Will the trend continue this afternoon…?   Bryan Staring was right behind him and set the fastest lap of the race before falling, so he won’t have it all his own way….

Jones now leads the Australian Superbike Championship by seven-points over fellow YRT rider Cru Halliday. Josh Waters third, only three-points behind Halliday, and with two-points over round one victor Bryan Staring.

Despite a DNF in the opening race of the season Wayne Maxwell is now up to equal fifth place with Glenn Allerton, and 15-points behind championship leader Mike Jones.

Alpinestars Superbike Race One Results

ASBK Championship Standings

Michelin Supersport Race One

Tom Edwards launched well from pole but it was Johnny Lytras that had the bumpy inside line through turn one to take the early race lead, then Olly Simpson pushed Edwards further back to third.

The start was under investigation though so it seemed likely that somebody might be getting a jump-start penalty…

Lytras did an incredible 66.425 from a standing start to jump out to an early lead. The youngster had half-a-second on Simpson and Edwards by the end of lap one and actually managed to extend that out to almost a full second by the end of lap two.   We then got word that Simpson had been given a jump-start penalty for a slight creep before the lights went out, so he would have ten-seconds added to his race time which would push him off the podium no matter how well he rode.

Scott Nicholson was the fastest rider on lap two to close in on third placed Tom Edwards.  But with ten laps to go very little now separated Lytras, Simpson, Edwards and Nicholson, that quartet closing up.

Championship leader Tom Bramich then lost the front while chasing that leading group and would take no points from the contest.

Tom Edwards took the race lead with eight laps to run and Scott Nicholson managed to squeeze past Olly Simpson to take third place, after also upsetting Lytras on the way through which was what had allowed Edwards to move past Lytras.  Some ‘creative’ lines were being taken by Nicholson which were tripping up Lytras but he obviously had the speed to run with them.

Dallas Skeer then crashed out at turn two at the halfway point of the race.

The ongoing tussle over second place between John Lytras and Scott Nicholson allowed Tom Edwards the breathing space he needed to break away. A new lap record of 71.110 with five laps to run extended Edwards’ lead out to 1.5-seconds and he could now run his own race.

At the last lap board Edwards led Nicholson by more than 2.5-seconds, the latter of that pair managed to get away from Lytras on the final lap to secure second place while Lytras rounded out the podium after losing grip late in the race. Some great stand-up wheelies on the cool down lap from Edwards to celebrate his victory.

Olly Simpson crossed the line in fourth place but that leading quartet were that far ahead of the rest of the field that despite his ten-second jump-start penalty he still hung on to that fourth place as fifth placed Ty Lynch finished 18-seconds behind race winner Edwards, and 13.4-seconds behind fourth placed Simpson.

Scott Nicholson’s pace seemed to surprise even himself this morning, his fastest race lap more than a second quicker than he had managed in qualifying.

Michelin Supersport Race One Results

Dunlop Supersport 300 Race Two

The opening laps of Sunday morning’s Supersport 300 race was as crazy as ever but once things started to settle a little Glenn Nelson emerged as the early race leader.

Sam Pezzetta crashed out at turn three on lap three. A lap later two other riders also went down, Liam Waters and Taiyo Aksu down and in a dangerous part of the circuit which saw official put the red flag out to ensure that if anyone else went down they wouldn’t collect the stranded riders. Both Waters and Aksu went down independent of each other but both suffered identical front end loses at almost the same point of turn two.

There was a lengthy delay until the race got underway again and it was again Glenn Nelson the early leader from Cameron Dunker.

This time around though that pair had already managed to gap the rest of the field only a couple of laps into the race.  That pair then continued to battle each other rather than be content to follow each other in partnership to extend their break further. That allowed those chasing to start reeling them in…

Eventually it seemed as though Nelson twigged that it might be smarter to follow Dunker for a while to break away from their pursuers again.

Glenn Nelson the eventual winner from Dunker while Jonathan Nahlous rounded out the podium. Henry Snell was the best of the rest in fourth.

Dunlop Supersport 300 Race Two Results

Yamaha OJC Race Two

Hudson Thompson had won Saturday’s opening race, but was then subsequently relegated to P9 for what officials deemed to be ‘reckless riding causing danger’.  That didn’t prevent Thompson from shooting straight into second place behind Harrison Watts when the six-lap contest that was Race Two got underway just after 0900 on Sunday morning after sending the front wheel of the YZF-R15 skyward off the line.

Ryan Larkin moved through to the race lead on lap two but nothing separated the top eight riders and the lead then started to change at almost every braking point. Cameron Rende took his turn up front as Harrison Watts was shuffled back to sixth. Then it was larkin from Thompson again as Teering Fleming joined the fray.

Hunter Corney was in that front group but was forced wide halfway through the bout which cost him a lot of time. Teering Fleming also lost a lot of ground through some mistake at that point of the race.  The leading group was now down to six led by Larkin from Rende, Watts, Thompson, Hamod and Russo as they started the penultimate lap. Sam Drane then joined the party just before they started the last lap.

Larkin led them at the start of the last lap from Thompson, but Thompson went up the inside at turn three to move back into the lead. It then got next level crazy into the double-left.. Watts emerged with the lead… Then at the final turn Levi Russo and Marcus Hamod got caught up together and both went down.

A frightening clash between Ryan Larkin and Harrison Watts just before the line pulled the hearts out of spectators chests to place them firmly in their mouth but somehow, somehow, they both remained upright and crossed the line in second and third, but if it stayed that way was yet to be confirmed as the incident was under race investigation.

Just far enough away to not get caught up in that incident was Cameron Rende who took a hard fought victory.  As for the other riders we saw climb on to the podium, it was yet to be decided if they would keep those places after race direction had completed their investigation. There was also still investigations going on about yesterday’s race…

Later on Race Direction handed a one-second penalty to both Larkin and Watts, which relegated them to sixth and seventh respectively The results below show how they crossed the line before penalties were applied.

Yamaha OJC Race One Results

Yamaha Finance R3 Cup Race Two

Glenn Nelson and Cameron Dunker returned to battle just before 1130 this morning after their earlier brutal tussle in the Supersport 300 contest. Henry Snell was right behind that pair throughout while am Pezzetta and Hayden Nelson then also joined the party in the final laps.

At the flag though it was Nelson from Dunker by a tenth. Sam Pezzetta rounded out the podium ahead of Henry Snell, Hayden Nelson and Mitch Simpson, who despite finishing sixth put in the fastest lap of the race at 1m22.412s.

Yamaha Finance R3 Cup Race Two Results