Halliday sixth on Friday in DesmoSport Ducati debut at Phillip Island

A rain-soaked Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit saw DesmoSport Ducati’s new recruit Cru Halliday finish a conservative sixth position in race one of the national Superbike category at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix today.

Halliday was called in this week to replace team regular Mike Jones as he competes in MotoGP with Avintia Racing Ducati and made his first laps aboard the 1299 Panigale S on Friday morning, setting the seventh-fastest lap in practice before the more difficult conditions arrived.

The lone qualifying session this morning was held in increasingly wet conditions as Halliday worked his way to eighth on the grid. He went on to improve to sixth in the fully-wet first 10-lap encounter of the weekend this afternoon. Deteriorating weather resulted in race two being abandoned for Friday.

“Practice was damp at the beginning, but ended up being dry, which was good for my first time out,” Halliday said. “We made some changes for qualifying, but it ended up basically being rained out after a few laps, so I didn’t really get any decent laps and that put me eighth on the grid.

“The race was my first time in the wet and also the Pirelli tyres, so I just wanted to stay on it, improve my times lap after lap and bring it home for the DesmoSport Ducati team. That’s what I did, so I think we did a decent job, and with race two being cancelled we will hope for a better day in terms of the conditions tomorrow.”

It was also a positive start to the weekend for 22-year-old Queenslander Jones in his first home grand prix appearance, ending Friday’s running in 13th overall. This is just his second round riding with the Avintia Racing Ducati squad.