2016

FIM Oceania battle will go to the wire at round 6 ASBK

News

The 2016 FIM Oceania Road Racing Championship is set to go down to the wire as a hard fought battle as Round 5 of the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli saw Team New Zealand walk away in the lead with only five points separating them from second placed Team Australia.

Across two races on Sunday 7^th of August, Team New Zealand pilots Sloan Frost and Ryan Hampton proved that consistency was key over the weekend, as they walked away from the championship with a combined 39 FIM Oceania Superbike Championship points on the board.

Team Australia’s Jon Daniels Racing’s Daniel Falzon’s stella performance put him third on the grid in the Superbike race for the first time this season but unfortunately the 34 points he collected wasn’t enough to overtake Team New Zealand’s forming lead.

Unfortunately for Falzon’s Team Australia teammate DesmoSport Ducati’s Mike Jones, mechanical issues throughout the whole weekend forced him to resign from both races.

Jon Daniel’s Racings Daniel Falzon shared that it wasn’t all “smooth Sailing” for the Team Australia, and that anything can happen so they will be looking for consistency at Round 6.

“Round 1 of the Oceania Championship certainly wasn’t smooth sailing for team Australia, Mike and his team were plagued by bike problems and after I saw him enter the pits prior to the start of both races, I knew I had my work cut out for me!” Falzon said.

“It was great that we were able to secure our best result to keep us in the running for the Oceania title, however this is motorcycle racing and as we saw anything can happen next round!

“We head in to Winton five points down on the Kiwi boys, I think Mike and I both have the pace over Sloan and Ryan we just need to be consistent and ensure we have no issues come race day. We don’t want the final result to be ‘a Steven Bradbury!’ *laughs*.

“I feel confident coming in to the last round on my side of team Australia, we have a double test with Yamaha Racing Team at Winton next week. It is a track I’ve only ridden a handful of times and that was many years ago, but I’m hoping to get up to pace quickly and push for consistent top five results again and ultimately retain the Oceania Championship trophy for the second year running!” Falzon concluded.

With the FIM Oceania Road Racing Championship now boiling down to the final dash across the line, all four riders have their work cut out at Winton Raceway in Victoria this 30^th of September until October 2^nd in conjunction with the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli.

For more information leading up to the final round of the ASBK, or to keep up to speed with everything happening right now head to www.asbk.com.au, like the ASBK on Facebook and follow @asbk on Instagram.

Image – Andrew Gosling/tbgsport (from the left – Mike Jones (AUS), Ryan Hampton (NZ), Daniel Falzon (AUS), Sloan Frost (NZ))

FIM Oceania Road Racing Championship Points standings:

Individual standings: