Tom Toparis has underlined his domination of the Australian racing circuit with a second consecutive title in the ASBK Supersport category.
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Though Toparis initially intended to spend the year racing in the World Superbike Championship, those plans were curtailed by COVID-19.
After recovering from a broken wrist suffered in the early rounds of the British Championship, Toparis chose to return to Australia and made a short-notice decision to return for the ASBK grand finale at Wakefield Park.
Over the last three days, in front of his home crowd, Toparis produced the same kind of domination which saw him lose just one ASBK race in 2019.
After qualifying in pole position on Friday, December 4, Toparis said he had planned to go hard and try to set the pace early.
"We felt both the tyres and the track conditions would be at their best in the first session, so we banked a lap then and it turned out to be good enough," Toparis said.
On Saturday, he was once again the man to beat, and worked hard to hold off Broc Pearson in race one, while Max Stauffer nearly usurped his lead in race two with a last-minute charge. Despite their best efforts, the young pair could not stop Toparis from claiming wins in both.
"I can't applaud Max enough, he's going so well at the moment," Toparis said after the second race on Saturday.
"I was expecting if someone came through, I could turn into the apex and pass them back and fortunately that's how it played out."
Ahead in the placings, Toparis took a conservative approach on Sunday and was content to score some points, despite barely missing the podium in both of the final races.
His efforts were enough to secure his second consecutive title and produce a pleasing end to what had been a challenging year for the 20-year-old.
"I didn't even know if I was going to be doing this race meeting - I was in hotel quarantine when I found out it was on," Toparis said following his victory.
"I made a few phone calls, I got Ben Richards as my mechanic this weekend and I think that made the difference.
"It was a crazy weekend but it's so good to see the young guys going so well. Oli (Bayliss) and I are such good mates, we've had great racing this year and I think he and Max (Stauffer) are two of the brightest Australian stars of the future.
"We had a bit of drama in the races and I was happy just to limp home in the end and win back-to-back championships."
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