After a year of utter dominance of the on the track, Tom Toparis claimed the 2019 Australian Supersport Championship over the weekend of October 5 and 6.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The statistics from the 19-year-old's season only serve to underline exactly how ascendant he has been. From 14 starts, Toparis has 13 first-place finishes and five out of six pole positions.
Toparis secured his first ASBK Championship win with another pair of first-place finishes at Phillip Island, and he said he was "glad" with the result.
"It's so good to finally win an Australian championship," he said.
"It's the perfect way for me to leave here as the national champion in 600."
With a Supersport Championship now under his belt, Toparis intends to look towards Europe next year and hopefully earn a place in the European championship.
"The goal for next year is to end up racing in Europe most of the time," he said.
"It's a big ask to race in two continents and the traveling makes it quite hard. I need to try and find myself a good seat in either the British Supersport Championship or the European Supersport Championship."
Having spent a significant portion of this year racing in Germany, Toparis learnt invaluable lessons which he hopes to put to use in 2020.
"This year was [about] learning about European racing and European tracks, [I'm] stoked to have a great season over here and also in Europe," Toparis said.
His dominant form in Australia, while remarkable, did not entirely surprise Toparis, as he has been working towards these results for some time.
"I think for sure [the championship win] was a possibility because the last couple of years I've been in this class," he said.
"I won a couple of races in both of those years, and then this year I moved onto one of the best teams with the best bikes. After the first and second round, we just kept extending the points lead and I think the main thing was we never crashed. Couldn't really have done too much better."
Toparis' team wrapped up his win in impressive style. Once victory was assured at Phillip Island, they brought out a gold helmet and team shirt for the young star to wear during his victory lap.
While you're with us...
Did you know the Goulburn Post is now offering breaking news alerts and a weekly email newsletter? Keep up-to-date with all the local news: sign up here.
