2002 Australian SuperBike Championship - Round 3

SuperBike riders lined up on the grid for race 1 at Mallala leaving the front row vacant as a mark of respect for 19-year-old Liam Magee who sadly passed away during qualifying yesterday. Liam was well liked by all in the paddock and the whole Australian racing family is really feeling the loss of this young man who had blown us all away with some incredible performances this year. He will be sadly missed.

Giles and Brookes got away to good starts with Brookes looking aggressive and out to take the race to Giles today.

Both Brookes and Alistair Maxwell moved past Giles on lap 1. Stephen Tozer 4th and Jay Taylor, making his debut on the new 954 Fireblade, 5th.

Brookes stretched his lead on lap 2 and in the process recorded a 1m08.7 on his first flying lap. Josh looks good but the Fireblade seems to be rearing up on him everywhere with Josh struggling to try and keep the front wheel somewhere near the track. Giles moved past Maxwell in to 2nd on lap 3.

Giles regained some ground on Brookes on lap 4, the gap down to 7-tenths.

Brookes still holding on to the lead but being stalked by Giles now who is right on his tail with 5 laps to run. But on lap 10 they started to encounter back-markers with Brookes gaining an advantage over Giles while negotiating their way through on the slower riders and stretching his gap back out to over 2 seconds after setting a fastest lap that time around.

Brookesy takes Honda's first Australian SuperBike win since Adam Fergusson won at Mallala in the 2000 championship season. Josh took the win by 5 seconds over Shawn Giles.

1    Joshua Brookes (NSW)     Honda CBR       16:11.9670  10 1:08.7593*
2    Shawn Giles (NSW)        Suzuki GSXR     16:17.6468   7 1:08.8661 
3    Alistair Maxwell (NSW)   Suzuki GSXR     16:27.2787   2 1:09.1014 
4    Stephen Tozer (VIC)      Yamaha R1       16:33.6285   2 1:09.6038 
5    Steven Cutting (NSW)     Suzuki GSXR     16:37.9595   3 1:10.1572 
6    Michael Clunie (VIC)     Yamaha R1       16:44.4018   6 1:10.6101 
7    Jay Taylor (NSW)         Honda CBR       16:44.5880   6 1:10.9396 
8    Jay Normoyle (VIC)       Suzuki GSXR     16:51.1143   3 1:11.1423 
9    Robert Bugden (QLD)      Suzuki GSXR     17:09.9160   3 1:11.1821 
10   John Gazard (SA)         Yamaha R1       17:16.4001   6 1:12.1435 
11   Andrew Tootell (VIC)     Yamaha R1       17:20.7983   3 1:13.4265 
12   David Wilkinson (SA)     Honda CBR       17:21.3162  12 1:12.9723 
13   Ben Lucchitti (NSW)      Yamaha R1       16:30.5677   4 1:14.8721 
14   Ian Roberts (SA)         Suzuki GSXR     16:54.4581   6 1:16.9486 
15   Rob Vikuckis (SA)        Yamaha R1       16:54.6811   6 1:16.5826