ASBK 2015 – Round Three – Australian Superbike Race One – Wanneroo Raceway
Words and Images by Trevor Hedge
Dark clouds had started to gather above Wanneroo Raceway as riders prepared for the opening 16-lap Superbike bout at 1245 this afternoon. Tyre life over that distance a critical component for the set-up this weekend, and with the top two qualifiers racing at this circuit for the first time, and the extremely abrasive Wanneroo surface, this first race was sure to be a learning experience. Poleman Mike Jones, always very smooth, was confident enough in the set-up of his Cube Racing ZX-10R that he had chose the soft option Pirelli.
Daniel Falzon fired the JD Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 off the line brilliantly to lead the 18-rider field around the 2.41km for the first time today. Jones right behind him as New Zealand’s Ryan Hampton and local riders gave chase.
Cameron Stronach got the better of Hampton late on the opening lap to move up to third place, the Bridgestone rider has done plenty of laps around here and should have his tyre choice and management much more sorted than the eastern state visitors, Stronach also the fastest rider on the first flying lap with a 56.682. Local based races however are more often half the distance of this ASBK encounter.
Mike Jones snuck ahead of Falzon for the first time with 13.5 laps to run. Falzon came back at Jones from a mile back into turn seven in a move that looked as though it would end in tears, but to their credit the riders never bashed fairings and both made it successfully through turn seven. Both the leading duo dipping into the 55.9s on lap five and really started to pull away from the rest of the field. Falzon unbelievably strong under brakes into turn seven throughout the early parts of this race, his YZF-R1 running a set of higher-spec YZF-R1M forks this weekend.
By half race distance Jones had managed to sneak away to the tune of a couple of bike lengths, the gap 0.419 after eight laps. Cameron Stronach was managing to stave off the advances of Ryan Hampton, Anthony McFadden and Ben Henry in a fairly tight battle over third place that was unfolding eight-seconds behind the leading duo. Four laps later Ben Henry had moved up to third place but then ran wide at turn one and threw all that hard work away in the process, rejoining the circuit in ninth place but out of the battle for a podium position.
At the front of the field Mike Jones had stretched his gap to Falzon out to 1.2-seconds with two laps to run, Falzon’s only chance for the win was if Jones made a mistake or got tripped up by lapped traffic.
The battle for third place though was far from over with Anthony McFadden and Cameron Stronach the lead protagonists in that tussle as Ryan Hampton had lost touch and had started to come under attack from Ben Stronach for that fifth place.
Mike Jones the winner by 1.5-seconds over Falzon at the chequered flag while McFadden managed to hold out Cameron Stronach for that final step on the podium.
The rear Pirelli of Jones, and the rear Dunlop of Falzon, actually did not look too bad at the end of the 16-lap bout. Perhaps the Wanneroo surface now not quite as abrasive as it once was. And, of course, the huge steps forward in tyre technology itself since we last witnessed top level racing at the circuit. Still, the 55.941 fastest lap of the race by Daniel Falzon, nearly half-a-second off the 55.533 race lap record set by Glenn Allerton on a BMW back in 2011. Will Falzon or Jones be able to lower that benchmark this afternoon…?
ASBK 2015 – Round Three – Australian Supersport Race One – Wanneroo Raceway
While there were a few coulds in the Perth sky above Barbagallo Raceway as riders formed up on the grid for their opening bout of the weekend’s third round of the Yamaha sponsored Australian Supersport Championship.
Missing from the front row of the grid was Italian born local Livio Zampieri. A hefty fall at turn seven on Saturday ruled the Kawasaki out of further proceedings.
Tumut’s Brayden Elliott fired his Suzuki GSX-R600 off pole position and immediately started to pull away from Aaiden Coote (Yamah), Sam Lambert (Triumph), Thyron Van Vuuren (Kawasaki) and Alex Phillis (Kawasaki).
Aaiden Coote and Thyron Van Vuuren tripped each other up at turn four, the left-hander, with 14.5 laps tp run in the 16-lap encounter. They managed to rejoin the circuit but only after losing more than ten places, crossing the line next time around in 14th and 15th places. Thanks to that tussle and subsequenet relegation Sam Lambert inherited second position with Alex Phillis right with him and Ryan Taylor (Yamaha) and Kane Burns (Suzuki) gave chase.
While Elliott had a handy 2.2-second lead at half race distance, the Suzuki rider most likely leaving a little in reserve and just managing his lead, was circulating in consistent 58.1-second laps it was Alex Phillis who became the fastest man on the circuit, a 57.908 just before half-distance stretching him away from fourth-placed Ryan Taylor, but still with almost a full second to make up before he could challenge Lambert for second place.
With five laps to run Aaiden Coote and Thyron Van Vuuren had clawed their way back up to 10th and 11th place respectively.
As they commenced the last lap Alex Phillis was all over Sam Lambert and the pair traded places at almost every turn on the final circuit but Lambert had the bigger set of picks into turn seven and kept the lead down the straight to take that second place by a whisker, the official margin one-hundredth of a second!
Brayden Elliott had crossed the line 3.7-seconds earlier than that pair after riding to a clear and dominant win.
Brayden Elliott – “I put my head down on the opening lap, had a huge moment at turn seven, thought I was going to throw it away but managed to get it together and put my head down. My pit crew were great with the board to let me know the big picture and the whole package is just working so well.”
