IN
THE
WIND
P46
Wagner Starts 2019 ASBK
Championship in Style
F
ormer WorldSSP rider Aiden
Wagner (Yamaha) claimed
two race wins and a second
place to kick his quest for the
2019 Motul Pirelli Australian
Superbike Championship off in
style at Phillip Island over the
weekend.
Held as the supporting act to
the WorldSBK Championship
opener, the three ASBK races
were thrillers, with former cham-
pion Wayne Maxwell (Suzuki) tak-
ing the opening race win of the
program, just ahead of Wagner
and another former champion in
Bryan Staring (Kawasaki).
Wagner had his revenge in
race two, taking the win after
making contact with Maxwell in
the final corner run to the line.
The outcome saw Maxwell tum-
bling through the gravel trap, and
Yamaha's Cru Halliday and 2017
ASBK Champion Josh Waters
(Suzuki) picked up the pieces for
second and third.
After claiming the third race
win ahead of 2015 ASBK Cham-
pion Mike Jones (Kawasaki)
and Halliday, privateer Wagner
stated, "It's awesome to take the
round win on the Landbridge
Racing privateer Yamaha. It was
really good to battle out there
with Mike, another privateer and
a really experienced rider. Well
done to all the boys on the po-
dium, it's awesome to take this
win home and I'm going to sleep
really well tonight!"
Wagner leads the champion-
ship with 71 points from Halliday
(55), Waters (50), Mike Jones on
(49), and Bryan Staring at 48.
In the Supersport category,
Yamaha's Tom Toparis cruised
to three race victories as he
did double duty as a wildcard
in the WorldSSP race. The
Queenslander was all on his
own, and he leads the cham-
pionship with 76 points from
South Australian Yamaha rider
Nic Liminton at 60, who had his
first race meeting back since a
cancer scare last year. Third in
the series is Oli Bayliss (Yama-
ha), son of three-time WorldSBK
Champion Troy, with 52 points in
his debut season in Supersport.
Round two of the 2019 Motul
Pirelli Australian Superbike
Championship heads to Wake-
field Park in Goulburn, NSW on
March 22-24. CN
Wagner (28)
charges to the line
ahead of Halliday
(65), Waters (21),
Daniel Falzon
(25), Troy Herfoss
(1) and Wayne
Maxwell.
