Staring peerless at The Bend

Kawasaki rider Bryan Staring dominated round three of the 2019 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia from April 26-28, winning all three races on his Dunlop-shod ZX-10RR.

In the process, Staring also catapulted himself up five spots in the ASBK standings to take over the leadership from Yamaha’s Cru Halliday.

With four rounds to go, Staring is now on 150pts, 1pt ahead of Halliday (149) followed by The Bend polesitter and new lap record holder Mike Jones (Kawasaki/Ducati, 140), defending ASBK champion Troy Herfoss (Honda, 132) and Suzuki pair Josh Waters (126) and Wayne Maxwell (113).

FULL RESULTS HERE

With Staring, the 2010 ASBK champion, working his way to the front in all three races – and then finding clear air – the battles for the minor placings was intense, with Jones (2-2-5), Maxwell (DNF-3-2), Halliday (3-4-3) the major protagonists.

Jones set the new lap record of 1:52.875 in race one.

Maxwell crashed out of the opener after coming into contact with Daniel Falzon (Yamaha), while another spill in race one involving Alex Phillis (Suzuki) and Glenn Allerton (BMW) initially brought out a red flag. Allerton fractured his wrist in the incident.

Yamaha dominated the support classes. In Supersport, Tom Toparis (Yamaha, 1-1-2), Nic Liminton (Yamaha 2-2-1) and Broc Pearson (3-4-4) claimed the top three for the round, and in Supersport 300 Harry Khouri (2-4-3), Olly Simpson (1-1-DNF) and Brandon Demmery (4-7-2) took the major points. Hunter Ford was the other Supersport 300 winner.

The 2019 Australian Superbike Championship will continue with Morgan Park Raceway in Warwick (Qld) from July 5-7.