Shop Yamaha R3 Cup decided at The Bend as wildcard Swain dominates

ASBK 2024
Round Seven – The Bend
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Most of the R3 Cup field lined up on the grid only half an hour after contesting the opening Supersport 300 race of the weekend and the leading protagonists were much the same in this category.

Cam Swain, Will Nassif, Jordan Simpson, Mitch Simpson and Rikki Henry immediately breaking away from the rest of the field.

Leading the second group was Valentino Knezovic in sixth who had Ryder Gilbert in close company.

By lap two the leading group had shrunk to four combatants; Cam Swain, Will Nassif, Jordy Simpson and Rikki Henry.

The leading group then become a solo affair as Cam Swain sprinted away from the field to a clear lead.

On lap four Rikki Henry tumbled out of podium contention after being unintentionally hung out wide by Jordy Simpson. That left Will Nassif and Jordy Simpson to tussle over second place all the way to the flag.

It was Nassif that got that second place and with it closed the gap in the championship chase to series leader Valentino Knezovic to only nine-points after Tino finished fifth in that bout.

With third place Jordy Simpson also closed to within 11-points of Nassif, setting up a three-way battle on Sunday that would decide who would take the crown.

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Shop Yamaha R3 Cup Race Two

Will Nassif, Cam Swain, Valentino Knezovic and the Simpson brothers formed a five-rider early breakaway in the second Yamaha R3 Cup contest that kicked off the Sunday schedule at The Bend.  Ryder Gilbert and Rikki Henry joined that party on lap two to turn it into a seven-way affair up front.

Once Swain got some clear air he could run his own sweeping lines that saw him stretch away from his pursuers a little. Some of the other riders had been trying to pick up a few things from following and racing with Swain who had picked up a lot of experience racing in Europe this year.

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Will Nassif and Mitch Simpson sneaked past Swain on the penultimate lap, and as they got the last lap board it was Nassif, Swain, Mitch and Jordy Simpson.

Jordy got in a little too deep at turn one which put him at the rear of that group but then it all shuffled again in turn five, with all four taking four different lines, emerging out the other side in front was Swain, then it was the Simpson brothers to the fore…

Swain into the lead despite a determined charge from Nassif to hold him out…

Swain leads through the final turns but Nassif right on his pipe, the quartet nose to tail down the chute, Nassif pulls out as they cross the stripe at the chequered flag in what was a dead heat to the eye but Swain got the gong by three-hundredths of a second.

Less than half-a-second covered the top four, Swain the victor from Nassif with Jordy Simpson rounding out the podium ahead of his brother Mitch.

Ryder Gilbert the best of the rest, two-seconds further back in fifth, with a few bike lengths over championship leader Valentino Knezovic.

Rikki Henry in seventh with almost 20-seconds over the eighth-place finishing Nixon Frost at the end of the six-lap contest.

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Shop Yamaha R3 Cup Race Three

Valentino Knezovic started this final race of the season with a slender four-point margin over Will Nassif but had not been able to match Nassif’s speed in the previous races here in South Australia over the weekend. Jordan Simpson only four-points further behind and showing great speed on home soil. The pressure was on…

Will Nassif swept into the lead at turn one with Cam Swain, Jordy Simpson and Valentino Knezovic close behind.  Swain wasted little time forcing his way to the front and led them across the stripe for the first time by half-a-second.  Meanwhile, Nassif, Knezovic and the Simpson brothers were cutting each other up at almost every turn while fighting over second place.

Knezovic eventually lost touch with that group and a mistake from Nassif at turn one as they started lap four saw him pushed back to fourth by the Simpson brothers.

At the last lap board Swain led Jordy Simpson by 1.7-seconds as Will Nassif and Mitch Simpson tussled hard over third place all the way to the flag.

Swain the winner to complete a clean sweep of proceedings this weekend.

Jordy Simpson second and Will Nassif rounded out the podium ahead of Mitch Simpson.

Valentino Knezovic crossed the line in fifth place, more than nine-seconds behind the winner, but with enough points to secure the outright ShopYamaha R3 Cup title for 2024.

Will Nassif took second place for the round to finish two-points behind Knezovic in the championship chase.

Jordy Simpson another two-points in arrears to secure third place for the round, and third place for the season.

Rikki Henry crossed the line in sixth but was later disqualified after technical checks found that his machine had a lithium battery fitted, which is against the regulations. Presumably it was there for all the Supersport 300 and R3 bouts across the weekend but it was only found after the third R3 Cup race, thus that it is the only race Henry is disqualified from. Henry had flown in from a recent Asia Talent Cup round and was no doubt not aware of any issue with the battery in his machinie.

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