Halliday Extends Championship Lead at Darwin
There was plenty of pressure on the rest of the field to take the fight to Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team, YZF-R6) but the Yamaha rider was simply too unstoppable in the Kawasaki Supersport class. Halliday managed to take both wins to extend his championship lead for the Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship pretended by Motul Pirelli (ASBK).
Kawasaki Supersport Race One
Halliday has demolished the competition once again and is in an excellent vein of form. Despite not leading into turn one Halliday quickly managed to regain the lead from the fast-starting Max Croker (Mat Mladin Racing, Suzuki GSX-R600).
The race then settled into a typical affair for this class with Halliday leading from Tom Toparis (Cube Racing, Kawasaki ZX-6R) and Croker. Damon Rees (Carl Cox M-sports, Honda CBR600) was also impressing in fourth position.
Toparis and Croker in particular were duking it out. There was a moment with Croker getting the back end of his bike out, which had spectators on the edge of their seats.
Lachlan Epis (ResponseRE, Kawasaki ZX-10R) was also impressing towards the front in the first two laps but crashed as he put too much load on the front tyre. A devastating result for his return to ASBK competition.
Meanwhile at the front, Halliday was pumping fastest laps on a constant basis and quickly broke the competition. He would go on to win by over four seconds to his rival Toparis. Croker managed yet another third place on the Mat Mladin backed Suzuki.
Rees and the ever-impressing Zac Johnson (Rebuilder, Yamaha YZF-R6) completed the top five. With a short turnaround till the next Kawasaki Supersport race at 12:55pm. The pressure was on the rest of the field to take the fight to Halliday.
Kawasaki Supersport Race One Provisional Results
1. Cru HALLIDAY (Yamaha Racing Team, YZF-R6)
2. Tom TOPARIS (Cube Racing, Kawasaki ZX-6R)
3. Max CROKER (Mat Mladin Racing, Suzuki GSX-R600)
4. Damon REES (Carl Cox M-sports, Honda CBR600)
5. Zac JOHNSON (Rebuilder, Yamaha YZF-R6)
6. Giuseppe SCARCELLA (Kawasaki BCperformance, Kawasaki ZX-6R)
7. Ty LYNCH (Adelaide Motorcycle Recovery, Yamaha YZF-R6)
8. Rhys BELLING (LXI Racing, Yamaha YZF-R6)
9. Dallas SKEER (Barry Francis M-cycles, Suzuki GSX-R600)
10. Graeme SMITH (NT Hydraulics, Kawasaki ZX-6R)
Kawasaki Supersport Race Two
Race two was another highlights reel for the almost unstoppable Halliday on the R6. Once again Halliday would not lead into the first corner, that honour would go to Croker. It wouldn’t take long however to make a quick pass on Croker on the main straight during lap two.
Halliday would then proceed to break the competition and build a significant gap. The highlight of the race was the awesome battle between Toparis and Croker which would rage for the entire duration of the race. The duel showcased chopping and changing of positions on a consistent basis.
Disaster would strike again for Epis as he had another shocker, crashing on lap 11. Another blow for the former WorldSSP rider.
With Halliday taking a commanding victory by three seconds, Croker would take second and Toparis third. Only two tenths of a second would separate Croker and Toparis. Rees and Johnson would complete the top five.
Cru Halliday; “This is a phenomenal result and I really wanted to win the past three rounds in a row. We struggled a bit here on the 1000 last year so to come away with the round win is a great result. I love Morgan Park and I love Winton so confidence is high. So happy to be leading the championship.”
Max Croker; “We are over the moon to achieve second place in this race. The team are progressing all the time and I’m adapting well to the Suzuki. To have Mat Mladin behind me is awesome. Well done to the entire team.”
Tom Toparis “The warm conditions were a big shock considering we have come from Goulburn but we got used to it as the weekend progressed. The last race was very tricky and Max rode very well to beat us to second. We have work to do before we arrive at Morgan Park. We are still in reach of the championship but we have to start winning some races like we did at the start of the year.”
Halliday would take the overall round, followed by Croker and Toparis. As a result, Halliday leads the championship with 238 points, followed by Toparis with 213 and Rees with 143.
Kawasaki Supersport Race Two Provisional Race Results
1. Cru HALLIDAY (Yamaha Racing Team, YZF-R6)
2. Max CROKER (Mat Mladin Mladin Racing, Suzuki GSX-R600)
3. Tom TOPARIS (Cube Racing. Kawasaki ZX-6R)
4. Damon REES (Carl Cox M-sports, Honda CBR600RR)
5. Zac JOHNSON (Rebuilder, Yamaha YZF-R6)
6. Mick HEFFERAN (Quack Pest Control, Kawasaki ZX-6R)
7. Scott NICHOLSON (NextGen Motorsports, GSX-R600
8. Dallas SKEER (Barry Francis M-cycles, Suzuki GSX-R600)
9. Rhys BELLING (LXI Racing, Yamaha YZF-R6)
10. Ty LYNCH (Adelaide Motorcycle Recovery, Yamaha YZF-R6)
The next time the Kawasaki Supersport class is back in action will be for Round 5 of ASBK at Morgan Park Raceway, QLD on 17-19 August.
2018 ASBK Calendar
Round 5- Morgan Park Raceway, Warwick QLD August 17 – 19
Round 6- Winton Motor Raceway, Benalla, VIC September 7 – 9
Round 7- Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC October 12 – 14
Follow Us:
To stay up to date with everything ASBK, head to www.asbk.com.au, like ASBK on Facebook, or follow on Instagram via ‘ASBK’.
Photos courtesy of Andrew Gosling tbg sport
