Michael Blair wins Australian Supersport R1

Michael Blair wins Australian Supersport opener
By Trevor Hedge

Michael Blair led the Australian Supersport field away in the first of their two 10-lap encounters of the weekend ahead of Callum Spriggs, Paul Young and Mitch Levy.

Young went under Spriggs for second place at turn one as they started lap two but Callum Spriggs was all over him for the next lap trying to find his way back through.

Spriggs managed to take second place back a lap later and closed down race leader Michael Blair.

Kane Burns had been running strongly in fifth but ran off the circuit a few laps into the race, likewise Brayden Elliott made a mistake with six laps to run. Burns was able to rejoin and eventually finish 12th but Elliott was a DNF.

Blair put in a 1m37.316 on lap five to eke out half-a-second over Spriggs, who likewise had half-a-second on Young as the race passed the halfway mark.

Spriggs continued to match Blair for pace as the race wore on but Young started to lose touch as the race wore on, with two laps to go the veteran Kawasaki rider was more than two-second behind the race leader but had a considerable 10-second gap over fourth placed Mitch Levy.

With two laps still to run the front runners were already encountering lapped traffic.

Michael Blair got the last lap board a full second ahead of Spriggs, who in turn now had 1.5-second on Young. The podium finishers the only riders to dip under the 1m38s barrier during the race.

Michael Blair taking the win by 1.15-seconds over Spriggs at the flag while Young lost a lot of time on the final lap to finish five-seconds down in third place. Mitch Levy got the better of Ryan Taylor for fourth place after the pair enjoyed a great battle for position over the final laps.