Jones and Elliott claim Pirelli Superpole awards

Mike Jones (Australian Outdoor Living – Cube Racing Team) and Brayden Elliott (Hankook Tyres Australia) had another wonderful day out during qualifying at the fourth round of the 2015 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli.

In beautiful sunshine at Symmons Plains in Tasmania, Jones and Elliott each took out the Pirelli Superpole Awards in their respective Superbike and Supersport categories.

Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance Superbikes

Jones again showed he was going to be the rider to beat this weekend, when he clocked a fastest time of 54.314 in the opening qualifying session.

Jones posted the time on lap 19 of 25 to finish ahead of JD Racing’s Daniel Falzon.

Falzon piloted his Yamaha to the second quickest time with a 54.755, however he came unstuck towards the end of the session at the overhead bridge and while he managed to walk away unscathed, his bike was a little worse for wear.

Ryan Hampton (Next Gen Motorsports), Ben Henry (Australian Outdoor Living – Cube Racing Team) and local rider Brett Simmonds rounded out the top five.

The second session of Superbike qualifying was initially a short affair, as Henry had bike issues causing the red flag to be waved and ending his session.

At the restart, Falzon came out on his replacement bike and put 10 laps in, during which time he managed a 55.025 – less than three-tenths of a second behind his best first session time.

Having posted a great time in the opening session Jones made the decision not to go out in session two – saving himself and the bike for Superpole qualifying and racing.

Hampton came off the track with a few minutes to go in the session but it didn’t matter – the top-10 riders remained unchanged from session one and qualified for Superpole qualifying.

When the top-10 riders made their way out for the 10-minute Superpole qualifying session, it was Hampton who set the target to beat with a 55.909 on his second lap.

Jones responded almost immediately with a 55.072 on lap three, before taking it up another level with 54.272 on lap four.

It was enough to hand Jones yet another Pirelli Superpole award and front row on the grid on Sunday.

Falzon recorded a 54.522 to move into second before Jones registered the first sub 54-second lap for the weekend with a 53.972.

Falzon finished with the second fastest time (54.522), Hampton qualified in third (55.144) with Henry (55.359) and Simmonds (55.640) rounding out the top five.

Yamaha Supersport

The opening qualifying session in Supersport saw series leader Elliott come out for five laps in the half hour hit-out, clocking a scorching 56.667 to continue where he left off during practice.

It wasn’t one-way traffic however, with Kane Burns (GJ Gardner Homes) registering a 56.718 late in the session, and Sam Lambert (Sam Lambert Racing) putting a 56.862 on the board on lap 16.

Aaiden Coote (Yamaha YRD) and Chris Quinn (Coopers Pale Ale) powered their Yamaha machines to fourth and fifth fastest in the session – both registering sub 58.5 second laps.

In the second session of the day, times were significantly slower – with Elliott, Burns and Lambert all failing to register sub 57-second lap times.

With a couple of minutes to go Nicholas Liminton (JD Racing) crashed at turn one leading to the session being declared and the top five remaining as they finished in session one.

It handed Elliott the Pirelli Superpole Award for the round, with Burns and Lambert rounding out the front positions on the grid.

For a full list of results, head to the results section of the ASBK website (www.asbk.com.au).

IMAGE: TBGSPORT