Anthony West has stormed to pre-season victory at Phillip Island

Anthony West has completed another strong ASBK pre-season by winning the prestigious Harvey Wiltshire Trophy feature race, held as part of the opening round of the Victorian Road Racing Championships at Phillip Island on January 25-26.

After having recently announced his return for the Addicted to Track outfit in 2025, West paid tribute to his team, saying, “Thanks for giving me a bike that could turn and grip and help me push for the win.”

This time last year Ant West won the NZSBK title, now he’s nabbed Australia’s oldest motorcycle trophy

The opening VRRC round is traditionally the last shakedown for ASBK teams in preparation for the upcoming season, and West had to battle with other leading riders for the trophy including Glenn Allerton (Superbike Advocates), Cam Dunker (MotoGO Yamaha) and Josh Brookes (DAO Honda). Allerton, the 2023 winner of the perpetual trophy, took victory in the opening two races of the four-race program before crashing out of the 12-lap feature race at Southern Loop on lap two. This left West, Brookes and Dunker to battle it out, with West pipping Brookes at the line by a mere 0.075 seconds.

Dunker, having made the switch to the MotoGO Yamaha team this year, was a tiny 0.091 seconds behind Brookes. Allerton, who was testing his new Superbike Advocates Ducati V4 R, won the first two races despite running the stock ECU. West was helping out teammates Ryan Yanko and Jack Favelle in the opening races before breaking through for the big one, with Dunker picking up the final race on offer. Brookes completed the weekend with three podiums and now has plenty of miles up on the Honda Fireblade (albeit in ASBK-style trim) before heading back to the UK for the BSB season with an official test at Navarra, Spain on April 6-7.

Marianos Nikolis leads the pack

In the Supersport class it was Europe-bound Marianos Nikolis who picked up the Hughie Hoare 10-lap feature race, although the victory didn’t come without plenty of drama. “On the first lap of practice on Thursday my bike caught fire and it burnt the entire electrical system. We needed a complete new wiring harness and ECU. Patrick Li at MotoGo found us parts and allowed us to work in his shop, which was so good of him. I lost the quick shifter, blipper, Power Commander and other things.

“The Hughie Hoare Trophy race turned out great. Halfway through the race I’d made it to the front, although I went way too hot into turn four at one point and ran really wide.”

Josh Brookes ran strong

Nikolis passed eventual second-place getter Tom Bramich (Apex – Carl Cox Motorsport) on lap six to build an impressive three-second gap at the line, with Hayden Nelson (Kawasaki) third.

Bramich took several solid podiums over the weekend, as did other ASBK competitors Jack Mahaffy (Stop and Seal) and Jake Farnsworth (Worth Race Developments).

Tara Morrison proved how important this event is as a pre-season hitout. She won all her Supersport 300 races then finished second to Tayla Relph in the Twin Sprints races on an R7 she had never raced before. “I was so stoked to achieve a PB,” she said.

Tayla Relph won the Twin Sprints

With ASBK riders scored separately to club riders, Brendan Wilson (Melbourne Balustrading – Yamaha) leads the Superbike class from Noel Mahon (MotoGo Yamaha) and Benjamin Gotch (Total Welding and Fabrication – Honda) while Race Center’s Harley Side leads John Quinn (Quinn Mechanical – Yamaha) and Jason Spencer (Honda Genuine Parts – Honda) in Supersport. Cam Donald leads Ben Lucchitti with two race wins in the Roaring Sporties.