Budgen Dominates Rnd 3 ASC

SA Kawasaki BCperformance superbike pilot, Robbie Bugden reaped his first ASC round victory of the year and took the championship lead following an almost flawless performance aboard his Ninja ZX-10R.

Bugden started off the weekend with a flawless performance, taking out every Australian FX Superbike series race the day before. Sunday marked round 3 of the Australasian Superbike Championship where Bugden maintained his class leading finesse in the first race, until he began to drop back slightly to cross the line in 2nd place. Bugden came back swinging however and claimed the remaining two superbike races on the day to granting him the round overall and positioning him 11 points in front of his teammate, Ben Burke on the championship leaderboard.

“The SA Kawasaki BCperformance Ninja ZX-10R is working really well. In the first one I just made a couple of little mistakes in the middle of the race there and Michael got the gap, I tried to pull it back but he rode a pretty good race so it was a bit difficult,” commented Bugden.

“We are all working so hard and it’s great to get a victory here in front of my home crowd, friends and family. It doesn’t get any better than this. It’s pretty special. Full credit has to go to my team along with all of my sponsors.”

“Taking the championship lead is very important. I knew I had the pace here to win, I just had to go out there and give it my best, lap after lap, to leave with the lead!” Bugden said.

Ninja ZX-10R teammate, Ben Burke stood next to Bugden in second place on the overall round podium after an appearance on the podium for the first two races in 3rd and 2nd places respectively. Another podium in race three was a sure thing until Burke crashed, only to get going again and cross the line in 11th place.

“Overall it was a great weekend for us. In the first race we got caught in a battle early on. The two lead riders got away from us and I had to take third. It was a good race and we got good points in the championship. Race two was another good race, Robbie outrode us on that one. I lost the pace at the start but I’m happy with how I went. The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R is working really well and I can’t fault it!” commented Ben.

Remaining Kawasaki supported Ninja ZX-10R rider, Matthew Walters experienced a challenging weekend despite landing on the podium in 3rd position for the second race. A crash in the final race of the day resulted in a DNF and pushed Matt into 9th place overall for the round.

The Ninja ZX-6R mounted Supersport class leader, Kyle Buckley of SA Kawasaki BCperformance maintains a 12 point championship lead after closing the round in 2nd place overall following his 2-2-1 performance.

“I was pushing so hard all weekend. I was really happy with it and there isn’t much I would have changed, the Ninja ZX-6R is as good as it can be,” said the Queenslander.

Teammate, Ryan Masri is showing phenomenal progress in his first year of Supersport racing after having stepped up from the Kawasaki Insurances FX300 Ninja Cup. Two 4th place finishes were followed by cracking through to a podium in 3rd place for the final Supersport race. Ryan secured 4th overall for the round, which is where he also stands in the overall Supersport championship leaderboard, only 5 points way from 3rd place on 166 points.

“Early in the weekend we had a few challenges, but big thanks to the team mechanics and suspension specialist. It’s all starting to pay off!” Ryan said.

The next round of the Australasian Superbike Championship will take place on 10th September at Sydney Motorsport Park.