Levy dominates YMF R3 Cup

Queensland’s Zac Levy has charged into the lead of the Yamaha Motorcycle Finance R3 Cup championship after taking three wins from three starts at the penultimate round of the series at Victoria’s Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

Levy came into the fourth round of the championship 18points behind Callum Alderson, however, the major turnaround in this year’s championship battle for Alderson came in the opening race when the 18year old high-sided his Yamaha R3 at Lukey Heights.

Alderson, who started from pole position after lapping the 4.445km seaside circuit with a 1min52.716 explained that he trusted himself a bit too much in race one.

“I went in at 100% throttle like I was doing any other lap and I just turned in a bit too early and the foot peg dug in and it threw me over me over the bars,” said Alderson after race one on Saturday.

In contrasts to Alderson’s up-and-down weekend, it was Levy who kept it all together by stringing three race wins together. In a two part race one, Levy managed to hold onto the win by 4.873, beating New South Welshman, Hunter Ford, while Michael King came home in third place.

The second race saw Levy and Alderson going at it once again. Levy, who led from flag to flag held Alderson at bay by just .060 seconds, with Ford picking up third place, 6.887 seconds behind Alderson.

Race three’s finishing order was slightly closer with Levy, Ford and Alderson covered by .493 seconds.

With Levy scoring 75-points to Alderson’s 38, which saw him finish in eighth place overall, Levy now heads into the grand finale at Winton Motor Raceway at the start of October with a 19point championship lead over Alderson.

“It has been a positive weekend,” said Levy, who in fact didn’t get to practice because he had to pour a house slab on Friday for work. “We got down to Phillip Island on Friday night and went straight in to qualifying one on Saturday, with the gearing still from Morgan Park so we were very unprepared.

“In qualifying two I was still down two seconds on Callum but overall I was happy to get on the front row still.”

Levy simply knew that he had to run his own pace and what ever happened, happened.

“Unfortunately for Callum, he came under me and lost the backend in race one and I ended up winning the first race. The next two were much the same, winning both races, which has helped us big time in the overall championship,” concluded Levy.

Levy can now head to Winton Motor Raceway confident despite not ridden at the 3.0km rural circuit since 2012 but he still expects to get the job done.

Second to Levy for the round was Ford, who scored 58-points for the round.

The weekend was pretty good,” said Ford. “All weekend we managed to get quicker and quicker in every session and we had some good battles on track with Zac and Callum, which was a lot of fun,” explained Ford.

Ford, who trails Alderson by 16points in the championship is now keen to get back to Winton Motor Raceway to see what it’s like since it’s been resurfaced.

Picking up his first podium finish for the year in third place was Western Australia’s Michael King, who came home with a 3-4-5 result.

“It’s a great way to turn the results around since Morgan Park,” said King. “I felt quite comfy on the track straight away and after a few sessions I realised I was keeping pace with the top guys, so I was pretty happy with that.”

Rounding out the top five was Aidan Hayes and Jack Passfield.

The Yamaha Motorcycle Finance R3 Cup championship concludes at Winton Motor Raceway, which takes from 30th September through to 2 October.

Round four Results – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit

1st Zac Levy – 75
2nd Hunter Ford – 58
3rd Michael King- 51
4th Aidan Hayes- 48
5th Jack Passfield – 45
6th Tayla Relph – 44
7th Ty Lynch – 42
8th Callum Alderson – 38
9th Daniel Moore – 35
10th Aaron Wade – 34

Championship Standings after Round four

1st Zac Levy – 255
2nd Callum Alderson – 236
3rd Hunter Ford – 220
4th Aidan Hayes – 179
5th Michael King – 173
6th Ty Lynch – 173
7th Steven Mason – 126
8th James Boyle – 112
9th Arkadiusz Depczynski – 105
10th Daniel Moore 104

Credits: Russell Colvin