2015

Mahaffy sweeps junior class

News

Victorian rider Jack Mahaffy (ASAP Austo Electronics) has claimed opening round honours of the Australian Junior Championship at the opening round of the ASBK Championship at Phillip Island.

Mahaffy claimed a clean sweep of all three races on offer to finish the 80cc / 2-stroke class ahead of Dallas Skeer (Ron Angel Classic Racing) and Scott Nicholson.

Race 2 (Saturday)

Skeer got the second race of the Junior class off to a flier, coming off the line with great speed to move past Mahaffy and into the lead by turn one.

Nicholson kept third position of the grid, while a whole bunch of riders jostled for position throughout the rest of the opening lap.

Mahaffy, who dominated qualifying and the opening race on Friday, was determined to assert his authority on race two, and it wasn’t long before he took his Honda into the lead – early on lap one.

Once he made the pass, Mahaffy never looked back and by the halfway point of the six-lap race, had already established a 20-second lead from Skeer.

Skeer himself had opened a fair gap to Nicholson, while Jack Cousens, Adam Haines and Dylan Whiteside were all at least a further 20-seconds behind Nicholson.

By the time the chequered flag was raised, the only change to the top three was in the distance between each rider.

Cousens, Whiteside and Haines rounded out the top-five.

Race 3

In the end, the quest for Mahaffy to win race three and make a clean sweep of the round was an easy one.

Mahaffy lead the race from start to finish, and ended up a massive 29 seconds clear of Skeer who again had to settle for second.

The battle for second was much more intense this time around, with Skeer and Nicholson tussling closely throughout the six-lap race.

But it was Skeer who had the final say – finishing .612 of a second in front of Nicholson and taking second for the race and for the round.

150cc / 4-stroke class

In the 150cc / 4-stroke class, it was Whiteside who claimed the round win with three class wins from three races.

Whiteside finished ahead of fellow Victorian Ben Bramich (Ron Angel Classic Racing) who had a consistent weekend across the three races to finish 19 points behind (second, second and fourth from three races).

Hunter and Zane Ford both finished the day ties on 52 points, with Hunter landing on the podium on a countback after he finished third in the final race.

AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP – 80cc/2-stroke – ROUND 1

1 Jack MAHAFFY (VIC) (25, 25, 25) 75

2 Dallas SKEER (SA) (20, 20, 20) 60

3 Scott NICHOLSON (VIC) (18, 18, 18) 54

4 Jack COUSENS (VIC) (16, 17, 17) 50

5 Adam HAINES (WA) (17, 16, 16) 49

AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP – 150cc/4-stroke – ROUND 1

1 Dylan WHITESIDE (VIC) (25, 25, 25) 75

2 Ben BRAMICH (VIC) (20, 20, 16) 56

3 Hunter FORD (NSW) (16, 18, 18) 52

4 Zane FORD (NSW) (18, 17, 17) 52

5 Reid BATTYE (NSW) (15, 15, 15) 45