The season-opening 2020 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship exploded to life at Phillip Island’s Yamaha Finance round over the weekend.
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| | | | | | | SPECTACULAR RACING AT PHILLIP ISLAND WORLD SUPERBIKES TO CELEBRATE 30 YEARS!
The season-opening 2020 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship exploded to life at Phillip Island’s Yamaha Finance round over the weekend.
Celebrating 30 years of World Superbikes at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, fans were treated to spectacular racing across all classes, heat-stopping battles and some of the closest finishes witnessed at the 4.445km circuit.
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| In This Edition | » Three WorldSBK Races with Three different Winners | | » Locatelli launched WorldSSP career with decisive Win | | » Oli Bayliss gains valuable experience on International Debut | | » Ducati Domination in Australian Superbikes | » Jonathan Rea's Helmet raises almost $30,000 for Australian Bushfire Relief
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| | | | Three WorldSBK Races with Three different Winners |
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Turkey’s Toprak Razgatlioglu won a superb opening race on Saturday outlasting Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes by just 0.007 seconds – the fifth closest finish in the history of the production series. In a brilliant conclusion to the opening race of 2020, the 22-lapper boiled down to a four-way battle between 23-year-old Razgatlioglu, Lowes, Scott Redding (Ducati) and Michael van der Mark (Yamaha).
After a high-speed crash in Race 1, world champion Jonathan Rea bounced back to win a nail-biting Tissot Superpole Sprint race on Sunday. The Kawasaki top gun responded like a true champion to win a thriller ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) and Scott Redding (Ducati). Just 0.072 seconds separated the trio after the frenetic 10-lapper, with Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) right on the tail of the top three.
The third and final race on Sunday saw Alex Lowes defeat his factory Kawasaki teammate Jonathan Rea in an electrifying race to leave Australia with the world superbike championship lead after his win and 2nd place on Saturday. The superb race had 10 riders running line astern during the middle stages, but it eventually boiled down to an intra-Kawasaki battle as Rea and Lowes turned the screws on their opposition. |
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| | | | | | Locatelli launched WorldSSP Career with decisive Win |
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Italian rookie Andrea Locatelli produced a World Supersport masterclass in the opening race for 2020. The Yamaha rider was in total control from the get-go, launching off the line from pole position and continuing is dominance for the balance of the 16-lap race.
Locatelli’s final winning margin was 5.817 seconds over Raffaele de Rosa (MV Agusta), with Jules Cluzel completing the podium on his Yamaha – a strong result for the Frenchman after a massive crash on Saturday. |
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| | | | | | Oli Bayliss Gains Valuable Experience on International Debut |
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Australian World Supersport wildcard, Oli Bayliss qualified on the seventh row in 20th position for the first race of 2020 however had to withdraw from the 16-lap race due to loss of compression in one cylinder aboard his world-spec Yamaha YZF R6.
The sixteen-year-old who was on double duties for the weekend came out firing in the Australian Supersport Championship. The Cube Racing rider secured two firsts and a second across the three races, and claimed the overall round win by 6-points over best mate Benro Racing’s Tom Toparis. |
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| | | | | | Ducati Domination in Australian Superbikes |
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It was a clean sweep at the opening round of the 2020 mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, presented by Motul for Boost Mobile’s Wayne Maxwell. Aboard the Ducati V4R, Maxwell took the overall round win for his new team.
Yamaha Racing Team’s Cru Halliday came in second with JW Racing Josh Waters finishing in third. |
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| | | | | | Jonathan Rea's Helmet raises almost $30,000 for Australian Bushfire Relief |
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Five-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea unveiled a specially designed Arai helmet at ahead of Saturday’s Tissot Superpole, to raise money for the Australian bushfire relief.
Auctioned off alongside other signed rider and team memorabilia as well as some awesome fan experiences, the helmet designed by legendary Italian designer Aldo Drudi raised an incredible $29,735.70 for BlazeAid, a volunteer-based set-up working alongside rural families and individuals impacted by the fires and floods.
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