Image: Russell Colvin.

DesmoSport Ducati’s Mike Jones went quickest in this morning’s timed practice session at Sydney Motorsport Park’s seventh round of the 2019 Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).

Jones will lead the Kawasaki Superbike class into qualifying this afternoon, the top nine from practice transferring directly through to Q2. The rest will head to Q1.

Jones was the first rider of the weekend to dip beneath the 1m30s bracket with a 1m29.893s, firing a certain warning shot to his rivals ahead of qualifying this afternoon, where he is targeting a fifth-straight pole position.

Behind him was yesterday’s pace-setter Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team), 0.294s back, and he was in turn ahead of Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team), Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing), his teammate Mark Chiodo and Daniel Falzon (Yamaha Racing Team) – all in the 1m30s.

Positions seven through nine included Josh Waters (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Matt Walters (Kawasaki) and Bryan Staring (Kawasaki BCperformance), with Lachlan Epis (Kawasaki) just missing out on going straight into Q2.

Image: Russell Colvin.

The opening Motorsports TV Australian Supersport Championship qualifying session was led by Tom Toparis (Yamaha), his 1m32.739s a couple of tenths clear of Tom Edwards (Yamaha) and Jack Passfield (Yamaha).

While the top three replicated Friday’s time-sheets, in fourth was Callum Spriggs (Yamaha) ahead of Aidan Hayes (Yamaha), Nic Liminton (Yamaha), Broc Pearson (Yamaha), Jack Hyde (Yamaha), Oli Bayliss (Yamaha) and Rhys Belling (Yamaha).

Leading the way in the YMI Supersport 300 field this morning was Max Stauffer (Yamaha), as Hunter Ford (Yamaha) proved quickest in the YMF R3 Cup and Marianos Nikolis (Yamaha) topped this morning’s bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup session.

Detailed results