Shared victories for Waters and Halliday

The sixth round of the 2023 Australian Superbikes season was held at the Philip Island Circuit over the weekend.

The penultimate round saw six categories compete in the sunshine across three days, with free practice Friday taking the honours of getting the weekend underway.

The Alpinestars Superbike Championship, Michelin Supersport’s, Supersport 300’s, Yamaha R3’s, Oceania Junior Cup and Superbike Masters all took to the tarmac and hit the gas in their respective categories.

With the season finale looming, every result and point mattered - rendering the competition fierce with tensions running high.

Alpinestars Superbike Championship

Friday’s free practice sessions saw Yamaha Racing’s Cru Halliday and Mike Jones dominate the timing charts.

Jones topped the charts in Practice 1 with a time of 1:32.885.

Halliday took timing honours during both the afternoon’s second and third sessions, with 1:32.801 and 1:32.651 respectively.

Saturday’s fourth and final practice session for the category saw Josh Waters pilot his Ducati to a clean 1:32.436, comfortably topping the charts.

Qualifying would continue to see Waters keep himself in good stead – going on to take second place on the grid for Sunday’s races.

Just one-tenth ahead of him however, would be DesmoSport Ducati’s, Broc Pearson, who went on to take his maiden pole position in the category, with an outstanding 1:32.156.

Following on after Pearson and Waters, in third place on the grid would be Mike Jones.

Sunday’s highly anticipated races saw the field pilot their way out of the heat haze and into their respective final standings for round six.

Race 1 saw Cru Halliday claim his first victory in six years, closely following behind was Josh Waters claiming second place on the podium, along with Max Stauffer in third.

Josh Waters took out first place in Race 2, followed by Cru Halliday and Mike Jones respectively.

This currently leaves the championship decider down to the wire, with points tied between Josh Waters and Troy Herfoss as the final round for the season approaches in early December. 

Michelin Supersport Championship

Olly Simpson topped the timing charts for the Supersport’s first practice session of the weekend on his Yamaha, clocking in at a best of 1:36.614.

The afternoon’s sessions were dominated by Tom Toparis claiming 1:35.632 during Practice 2 and 1:36.289 during Practice 3.

Toparis would reign supreme during both qualifying sessions, taking pole position on the grid ahead of Sunday’s races.

Following on in second would be Olly Simpson, along with Cameron Dunker in third.

Race 1 saw Toparis claim victory with just under a three-second gap emerging between himself and the remainder of the field.

Dunker would lay claim to second place on the podium, followed by Simpson in third.

Dunker would go on to continue his strong performance and place first in Race 2, tailed by Jonathan Nahlous – just under half a second behind, along with Jake Farnsworth in third.

This currently sets Cameron Dunker as championship leader ahead of the season finale in just under two weeks’ time.

Supersport 300 Championship

The 300’s practice sessions saw Cameron Swain top the timing charts during both the first and third sessions, with best times of 1:49.163 and 1:49.532 respectively.

Henry Snell would claim timing honours during the second session with 1:49.812.

Keeping his good pace, Swain would go on to claim pole position for Sunday’s races.

Brandon Demmery would follow on in second, along with Brodie Gawith in third to make up row one of the starting grid.

Snell would go on to pilot his Yamaha to two wins and one second place standing throughout the three races.

Following on in Race 1, second place was laid to claim by Brodie Gawith, with Ryan Larkin in third.

Race 2 saw Demmery cross the finish line six-tenths behind Snell in second place, following on with Swain in third.

Gawith claimed victory during Race 3, with Snell taking out second place just under six-tenths behind.

Following closely was Marcus Hamod who claimed third place on his Yamaha.

To keep up with Australian Superbikes and the weekend’s results on the Yamaha R3’s, Oceania Junior Cup and Superbike Masters go to www.asbk.com.au.