What they said – Supersport

We spoke to the top three riders in the Supersport category at the opening round of the 2015 ASBK Championship, and here is what they had to say about their weekends.

Michael Blair – 1st overall (1st, 1st)

“The races went perfectly to our plan; just get the start and put our head down.

“We didn’t have to battle with anyone really, I could just focus on my own race and it was perfect.

“In the last race I could kind of get a few glimpses on the screens in front of me that Callum (Spriggs) was right there, so on that last lap I really had to put the hammer down and I think I broke him in that last lap and came away with the win.

“I just focus on doing the perfect race, mistake-free and just push as hard as I can and it definitely worked out.

“I’m looking forward to round two at Morgan Park, so we’ll see how it goes. We’ve got a lot of time in between so we’ll just keep pushing hard, keep improving and see how I go.”

Callum Sprigs – 2nd overall (2nd, 2nd)

“It was good to get the pole position. It’s the best position for the start of the races and (Michael) Blair is good off the start so it sort of makes it a bit hard.

“He is riding really fast so it is kind of hard to get around him, so I was pretty happy to get second.

“I just couldn’t find a way past him. I was breaking that little bit too late and I was trying to get him down slipstream but it wasn’t enough.

“I can’t wait for round two – it is one of my home tracks so I’m looking forward to doing well there.”

Ryan Taylor – 3rd (5th, 4th)

“It’s been great. We started off the weekend with a lot of troubles and not a lot of time to work on the bike because we’re doing double duties in with Aiden Wagner prepping his bike as well.

“It’s been a busy weekend. The result yesterday wasn’t ideal, but today we had consistency and it has worked.

“The Yamaha R6, the Pirelli’s; they have been working awesome at Phillip Island again.

“It was a lot easier to go a bit faster. The tailwind got me by surprise in a few of the first laps and I wasn’t used to that.

“It was so fast heading into turn one, it was like ‘wow, we are on it here’.

“I didn’t get the best start as you probably saw and I was a long way back for the first couple of laps, and each lap I just kept pegging them back one-by-one, and fourth with third overall for the weekend is great.”