The Phillip Island Championship (ASBK) in photos

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The Australian riders were in action to support the World SBK Championship at Phillip Island.  A special trophy – the The Phillip Island Championship was established for Australian riders, taking into account the World SBK and MotoGP support races.  Here we take a look at what happened.

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The weather made the track slippery, with many coming to grief – including Wayne Maxwell and Josh Hook.  Here Braith Pejovic comes off in the background

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Though the racing was tight all weekend, it was also clean

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The Hondas dominated all weekend and were much faster than anyone else.  They would have taken podium sweeps if not for errors

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Mike Jones’ return to Australia was rewarded with podiums for him and his Kawasaki

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Next Gen lost Glenn Allerton to WSBK duties and Sloan Frost jumped on the machine, scoring top 10s

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Adam Senior’s Suzuki wasn’t fast but the gloomy conditions meant that he, along with others ran a clear visor

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Phil Cjaz would come 7th in the Prostock class in race 2 on his Aprilia

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Josh Hook won race 1 after a fall from Wayne Maxwell.  Race 2, while contending for the lead fell injuring ribs and vertebra

Race 1

A last lap blunder by Honda teammate Wayne Maxwell cleared the way for Josh Hook to claim an easy victory in the inaugural Phillip Island Championship battle at the Victorian seaside circuit.

Hook and Maxwell were locked in a tight battle on the final lap of the superbike race when Hook, the leader, went slightly wide at turn nine (Lukey Heights), allowing Maxwell to slip underneath – but his ascendancy was short-lived after he lost the front end and speared off the circuit.

Hook then only had to canter to the finish line to claim his first superbike win at Phillip Island at a national level, with the third member of the Team Honda triumvirate, Jamie Stauffer, a lonely second from Queenslander Michael Jones (Kawasaki) making his debut in the superbike ranks.

Prostock riders Dean Condon (Kawasaki) and Chris Trounson (Honda) were fourth and fifth, followed by New Zealander Sloan Frost on a BMW.

Twenty-nine of the 34 starters made to the finish of the 12-lapper, and Hook set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:33.166.

Earlier, in the opening supersport race, Aussie champion Daniel Falzon edged out Callum Spriggs and Aaron Morris, while Matt Davies got the better of Samuel Lambert in the battle for fourth. The top four were on Yamahas, while Lambert was Triumph mounted.

Supersports will be back on track at 10:10am tomorrow, and the superbike/prostock brigade at 3:50pm.

Phillip Island Motor Sports and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation have joined forces to launch the Phillip Island Championship at the world superbike meeting this weekend. The championship will conclude at the MotoGP round from October 17-19 – a total of four races for each category across the two meetings

Race 2

Jamie Stauffer has cruised to victory in the second national superbike race at Phillip Island after his Honda teammates Wayne Maxwell and Josh Hook hit the deck in jarring – and bone-crunching — circumstances.

It all happened on lap one when Hook crashed at turn 11, which left the trailing Maxwell with nowhere to go except cannon into his teammate’s stricken machine.

Both were injured: race one winner Hook broke a collarbone and wrist, and Maxwell dislocated his shoulder. It made for an unceremonious return to Honda for Maxwell, who also went down in race one. Maxwell won the Australian 2013 Aussie superbike title in Suzuki colours.

With his main dangers out of the picture, Stauffer was unruffled in claiming a 2.802-second victory over Mike Jones in the 12-lapper, with Sean Condon third from Ben Henry and Dustin Goldsmith – all Kawasaki mounted. Condon was also the first prostock rider home.

Stauffer leads the Phillip Island Championship standings on 45pts, from Jones (38) and Adam Christie (BMW, 34), while Condon leads prostock on 50pts ahead of Henry (37) and Honda’s Chris Trounson (37).

The supersport race saw Aaron Morris pip Daniel Falzon by 0.011 seconds, with Callum Spriggs and Matthew Davies whistling across the line close behind. All were aboard the Yamaha YZF-R6.

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By Sam Tickell, with media releases March  2014

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