A jubilant Mason Coote (Mason Coote Racing YZF-R6) has claimed the first Motul Supersport Championship win of the 2017 season at Phillip Island after pole-setter Mark Chiodo (Repsol Gas Racing 675 R) crashed out of the lead.

Following more than a year on the sidelines, Coote has been one of the surprise packages of the opening Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship supported by Motul Pirelli (ASBK) weekend, capturing a career-first race podium and victory.
 
Coote shared his excitement; “I can’t believe it! It’s my first podium and first win! I haven’t raced since 2015. I was fortunate that Mark made a mistake and I was there to pick up the pieces. Most of the sponsorship for this round has come from my mates, they are the back bone of my operation and I can’t thank them enough.”

2017 Phillip Island ASBK Rnd 1 - Supersport - Mason Coote - Image: Andrew Gosling, TPG Photography.

2017 Phillip Island ASBK Rnd 1 – Supersport – Mason Coote – Image: Andrew Gosling, TPG Photography.

Coote crossed the line after 10 laps with a 3.795s advantage over a couple of fellow Victorians in Ted Collins (Next Gen Motorsports GSX-R600) and Ryan Taylor (Pablo’s Motorcycle Tyres YZF-R6), who was a further six seconds in arrears.

The Suzuki rider, Colins couldn’t contain himself on the podium, saying “I’m so happy to be on the podium with these guys. The bike is working so well and was just hooking up where it needed to. The guys have done an awesome job setting it up. I’m up here on the first race of ASBK 2017 and I’m pumped!”

Multitasker Taylor, who was also contesting the Supersport 300 race, commented on his conservative ride up the grid; “I dropped back off the pace a bit towards the end of the race and I knew I had back to back races, with the Supersport 300 immediately afterwards, so I had to conserve a lot of energy. I tried to keep up the pace, but these young kids are hard to catch!”

Fourth-placed Ben Burke (YZF-R6) marginally got the better of rookie talent Tom Toparis (Cube Racing ZX-6R), who in turn had Jordan Carlsson (Dynojet YZF-R6) and Sam Condon (Bikebiz YZF-R6) right on his tail – the quartet split by 0.893s across the finish.

Next came Nic Liminton (YRD YZF-R6), before Chiodo remounted to claim a hard-fought ninth, ahead of Callum Alderson (Aark Racing YZF-R6). Chiodo led the opening three laps and then lost the front at MG, dropping to 13th and then blasting back through the pack.

Qualifying favourite Chiodo shared his disappointment; “I had a good start to the race and had maintained good pace, however on the third lap I probably was going a bit too quick over at Lukey Heights and tried to make the corner but ran out of road and lost the front end at only about 60kph. Once you wash out like that you can’t make it back to the front. It’s pretty disappointing as we should be collecting all the points this weekend, but that’s racing and we still have two more tomorrow.”.

Two more Motul Australian Supersport races will take place on Sunday at 10:00am and 4:55pm local time, during the opening round of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship supported by Motul Pirelli at Phillip Island.

Live timing and results can be found here.

 

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