Luke Mitchell leads Yamaha Supersport charge as Demmery take control in R3 Cup
It was a solid second position outright for YRD supported rider Luke Mitchell in the Motul Supersport championship at the fourth round of the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia.
Mitchell guided the JNL Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 machine to a second place in race and a third place in race two, which saw the young gun pocket thirty-eight championship points to consolidate his fourth place in this year’s championship.
Race one saw Mitchell leading the pack into the first corner and held his ground for half a lap before getting taken over. Mitchell went on to finish second, 2.131 second behind the race winner, while Graffiti Alley Yamaha’s Troy Guenther finished third to Mitchell, 2.231 second behind.
Mitchell and fellow YRD supported rider Guenther were involved in a frantic four-way fight in the second and final Supersport race of the weekend. Mitchell ended up in third place, just .363 second behind second place with Guenther in fourth place.
“Overall it was a good weekend,” said Mitchell. “Second outright is a good result after round three when I crashed out in the wet. We’ll try and keep this momentum rolling for Morgan Park.”
Mitchell is no stranger to Queensland’s Morgan Park, as he did most of his junior racing there.
“I know the Morgan Park layout very well so I expect it to be a good round for me,” concluded Mitchell.
With a 3-4 finish, Guenther wrapped up fourth place for the round, collecting thirty-five points for the round. The Queensland based rider will now be playing the ‘hunter’ heading into his home round at the start of August, as he has dropped to second place in the title fight, ten points behind the championship leader.
“Overall I’m happy with the pace that we were able to achieve,” said Guenther. “I had crack and felt we had the pace to win the second race, however I left the door right open in the last few laps which cost me my chance to fight for the win.”
Rounding out the top five was South Australian’s Nic Liminton aboard the Race Center entered Yamaha YZF-R6 machine.
Taking back-to-back round wins in the Over 300 Production class with a 1-2-2 result was Brandon Demmery (2 Thugs Customs/GreenteaX50/Erebus Academy) aboard the Yamaha YZF-R3.
Demmery, who now leads the championship with a healthy thirty-five point margin over fellow YRD rider, Callum Alderson, has said it’s now his championship to lose with a total of six races to go in the 2016 season.
Demmery took out race one in what was nothing short of a ‘bell ringer’, snaring the race win by a mere .001 second.
Race two he gave Alderson a good run for his money, only to be denied the race win by .054 second, while in race three it was a it was 5.590 second deficit to Alderson who simply just ride away from the field.
“A win and two seconds is nothing to be too sad about,” said Demmery. “It’s awesome to go into this part of the season with such a big championship lead, as I haven’t had this privilege in such a long time. We will keep working and try and win a few more races and try and take this championship away early.”
In third place was JDR’s Jack Dawes who strung together a 4-3-3 result to finish with a total of fifty-three points.
Round four results – Barbagallo Raceway
ASBK – Supersport
1st Sam Clarke – 51
2nd Luke Mitchell – 38 (Yamaha R6)
3rd Callum Spriggs – 37
4th Troy Guenther – 35 (Yamaha R6)
5th Nic Liminton – 31 (Yamaha R6)
6th Matt Price – 26
7th Thomas Bryden – 25 (Yamaha R6)
8th Ben Blyth -24 (Yamaha R6)
9th Rhys Clay – 21
10th Joshua Mathers – 21
Over 300cc
1st Brandon Demmery – 65
2nd Paul Young – 54
3rd Jack Dawes – 53
Championship standings – After round four
Supersport
1st Sam Clarke – 162
2nd Troy Guenther – 152
3rd Callum Spriggs – 143.5
4th Luke Mitchell – 137
5th Ben Blyth – 114.5
6th Chris Quinn – 92
7th Nic Liminton – 89.5
8th Ted Collins – 83.5
9th Robbie Menzies – 70
10th Mark Chiodo – 53.5
Over 300cc
1st Brandon Demmery – 208
2nd Callum Anderson – 173
3rd – Aiden Hayes – 151
