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2002
Australian SuperBike Championship - Round 6 (Final) - Honda Report November 12th, 2002 - By, Honda |
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2002
Australian SuperBike Championship - Round 6 (Final) - Honda Report November 12th, 2002 - By, Honda |
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| Shannon
Johnson ended the 2002 Australian race season on the highest of notes by
wrapping up the Australian SuperSport Championship.
His domination of the final round was total. Pole position followed by a trio of race wins saw Johnson win the Championship by 98 points. Shannon's Championship win comes 20 years after his father's last Australian Championship win. Andrew 'AJ' Johnson won the Australian SuperBike Championship in 1982 on a Michelin shod Honda. Shannon's win was also on a Honda-Michelin combination. The Australian SuperSport Championship was Shannon's goal for the year and he went in to this weekend expecting nothing less than pole position and three race wins, which was exactly what the 22-year-old Victorian got. "The whole Advantage Honda Team has put in a huge effort all season and this is just rewards for those efforts. "We had the winning package and anything less than what we achieved this weekend was just not going to be good enough. "My sponsors and team deserved this win and I am pleased to bring it to them." While Shannon was busy dominating the SuperSport competition his compatriot Josh Brookes was proving nearly as dominant in the SuperBike class. Josh took two spectacular and hard fought wins in the initial SuperBike races before Shawn Giles took the final race win for the day. Nevertheless Brookes was the round winner and an excellent second overall in the 2002 Australian SuperBike Championship. "It was great to get the first two wins but I just couldn't hold on to Gilesy in the last race as he had saved his new set for the final race of the day and he just had too much grip. "I am happy with the way the weekend turned out, three wins would have been good but two out of three ain't bad, as they say. "We came away with the round win which is a huge boost looking forward to next year. "I would really like to thank Garry (House) and Robert (Hook) for all their help this year, I couldn't have done it without them." "After this weekend I want to start getting ready for next year tomorrow!" concluded the Sydney teenager. Honda's General Manager, Ian Juster, was beaming after his company's success at Eastern Creek. "This is a great day for Honda, our first major four-stroke Australian Championship since 1997, when Shawn Giles won the SuperSport crown for us. In a great bonus for next year's competition it is expected that the 2003 Championship will be aired on Channel 9 the week after each event. A new V-Twin class will be incorporated in to the SuperBike races in 2003, which should add more to the show in Australia's premier road race series. A tentative 2003 race
calendar has also been announced. The 2003 Championship is scheduled to
kick off at Mallala in April before moving to Phillip Island for round two
in May. Round three will be at Winton in June and Wanneroo has been
provisionally pencilled in for round four in July. Queensland Raceway will
host the penultimate round in early August before the Championship
concludes at Eastern Creek later that month. |
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