Battye wins Round 2's closing Supersport 300 race

Race 2 & 3 of the hotly contested Australian Supersport 300 Championship at Round Two of the 2017 Australian Superbike Championship at Wakefield Park Raceway, again saw Reid Battye (DB Racing, Ninja 300) winning outright.

Race Two of the Supersport 300s saw a near capacity grid leave the start line in treacherous conditions, the field quickly funnelling away in the first few corners into familiar single file race format.

The next few laps were marred with incidents, including Laura Brown (WNR, Kawasaki, Ninja 300) being penalised 10 seconds for jumping the start and Drew Sells (Race Centre, Kawasaki, Ninja 300) crashing out after lap two.

In aggressive overtaking manoeuvres by Zac Levy (Puma RV’s, Yamaha YZF-R3), the race had a new leader. Levy commented afterwards, “I thought I’d stick with the boys for a little bit, I didn’t want to jump away too quick. I picked my moments to get away from them and when I looked back, I had a little time on them. Crashing out of Saturday’s Race One, and then bouncing back to win Race Two today is definitely good for our championship!”

Last year’s YMF R3 Cup winner, Levy finished a full three seconds in front of of Billy Van Eerde (KTM Aust, KTM RC-390) Van Eerde stated on the podium; “It was better than yesterday’s race were I was left behind. That race I had the Pirelli front tyre on and the bike felt really awesome.”

Reid Battye (DB Racing, Ninja 300) following close behind in third added; “That was a fabulous race in tricky conditions where we started out dry went to semi wet. The battles were endless and there were many knees and elbows given, but I managed to stay up and fight through. Well done to the other boys for their racing too- bring on Race Three!”

2017 ASBK Round 2 – Supersport 300 Start – Image: TBG Photography

The HI-TEC Batteries Australian Supersport 300 Championship Race Three was the second last race of the day in the deteriorating conditions. 34 bikes lined up on the start grid for the eight lap race of attrition.

Reid Battye (DB Racing, Ninja 300) got down to work, recording the fastest lap in class at Wakefield Park Raceway at 1:08.556, an incredibly hard earned result in trying weather and track conditions. The class record set in 2014 by Brandon Demmery, also on a Kawasaki Ninja 300 with 1:08.097 still stands.

Reid Battye commented; “There was a bit of carnage out there today, in Race Three. It started dry but then the sky opened up and started bucketing down. After that, I tried to run the race conservatively and stay consistent then we got a red flag ending the race and the weekend, so I was pretty happy to finish it up with points, no injury and no damage! There was a few knees and elbows given but it’s all a part of racing and it’s all a bit of fun.”

Laura Brown (WNR, Kawasaki, Ninja 300) unfortunately suffered a heavy fall on lap five injuring her arm and was disqualified for causing a red flag, which in turn impacted Billy Van Eerde (KTM Aust, KTM RC-390) as he too was disqualified by the Clerk of Course when the KTM rider crashed as the red flag came out. Van Eerde finished eighth overall.

Zac Levy (Puma RV’s, Yamaha YZF-R3) shared his Race Three views; “It wasn’t the ideal way to end a race on a red flag and rolling it back a lap, but that’s racing. I am happy with the overall result of the weekend because I had a DNF in the first race and then to win third overall is great That’s good for our championship and we’ll keep plugging away.”

With the stage once again set for a hard-fought season ahead, boasting a host of emerging rising stars, round two of the Australian Supersport 300 Championship will take place at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria between 28 -30 April.