Yamaha Racing kicked off the 2023 Australian Superbike Championship in fine style, posting class wins in the 600cc and 300cc Supersport divisions as well as a strong showing in the premier Superbike class.
The new season came to life over the weekend as the Phillip Island circuit hosted the opening round of the Australian Superbike Championship in conjunction with the season opener for the WorldSBK Championship. A good sized crowd turned up over the three day event and in typical Phillip Island fashion, the elements provided plenty of challenges.
Superbike 1000cc
The YRT duo of Mike Jones and Cru Halliday lead the charge in the Superbike class on their R1’s, but they were well supported by Arthur Sissis and Bryan Staring who finished sixth and eighth. Sissis overcame some technical issues during the weekend to finish with 11-5-7 results on his Unitech Yamaha machine. The final two races saw Sissis in the thick of the action as positions four through eighth engaged in race long duals.
For Staring it was his first competitive hit out on his new MotoGo Yamaha R1 and the weekend showed there is still plenty of potential to be unpacked from the Staring / MotoGo combination. His qualifying pace was sensational, and his only major blemish of the weekend came when he elected to go for the wet tyres on a drying track in race one. He finished with 12-7-6 results and believes there is plenty of room for improvement as he adjusts to his new ride.
Supersport 600cc
If there was one class that provide more than its fair share of action over the weekend, it was the Supersport 600cc category. There were crashes, near misses, rain, sun, animals, more near misses and off-track excursions and that was just race two.
Through it all, Ty Lynch on his Yamaha R6 proved the most consistent taking the round win with 8-1-5 results. Lynch kept a cool head across the three races, proving consistency was the key ingredient to his success on the weekend.
Behind Lynch was Harrison Voight who was clearly the fastest rider in the class racking up pole position and two race wins, but a fall in race two in the treacherous conditions meant he was unable to finish and had to settle for second place on the day. Third was Jack Passfield, another rider who put together three solid races who finished just ahead of the 2022 champ, John Lytras. The top ten riders were all mounted on the Yamaha R6.
Supersport 300cc
The points were tight at the top of the 300cc division with eight points separating the top six riders. Jai Russo did just enough to scrape through for the round win with 58 points, just ahead of Brendon Demmery on 57. Henry Snell slotted into third with 53 points showing consistency in a variety of conditions. The Yamaha R3 filled the top six positions and were nine of the top ten bikes in class.
The ASBK now moves to Sydney Motorsport Park on March 25-26.
