MITCH PIROTTA:

On Two Wheels Motorsports rider Mitch Pirotta remains in contention for the 2009 Australian Superstock 600 Championship after finishing a solid fourth overall at Mallala in South Australia on Sunday.

The New South Welshman qualified fourth for the round with a 1:11.939sec lap time to secure a front row starting position for the three races, before going on to score 4-6-3 results in an action packed weekend of Superstock racing at the fifth round of the Australian Superbike Championship.

A wet opening race of the weekend saw Pirotta lead the field away from his inside starting position on the grid, settling into fourth place and remaining there for the entire eight lap duration to kick off the weekend on Saturday afternoon.

The second outing was held in dry conditions on Sunday morning with Pirotta again featuring amongst the front runners in the early laps, but his race was spoiled into the Turn Five hairpin on lap three when he was hit from behind and run off the circuit.

Pirotta bounced back from outside of the top 10 to slice through the field to finish the race in sixth, salvaging a good haul of points despite the incident that could have forced him out of the race and the title chase.

The final race of the weekend was the best for Yamaha YZF-R6 mounted Pirotta, battling for the lead throughout the race to eventually cross the finish stripe in third position, securing him fourth overall after narrowly missing out on the overall podium.

One round remains in the Superstock 600 title, to be held at Phillip Island in Victoria on 27-29 November, where Pirotta will enter the round with a legitimate shot of the championship in just his second full season of road racing.

Mitch Pirotta – Superstock 600 #19
I’m pretty happy with the weekend and we came out of the round with good points, it could have been a lot worse after a few of the race incidents. It was the first time I’d ridden in the wet in the first race, but I still felt pretty comfortable, and then in the dry races on Sunday I felt like we put together some good races too – I managed to go a second quicker than last year. In race two on Sunday I was running in the top three before I got run off the track in the hairpin, which moved me back to outside of the top 10, but I was able to salvage some points and finish in sixth. After that I was pretty confident heading into the final race of the weekend and I felt as though I rode like I should have at the beginning of the weekend. I thought I was able to win, but I was struggling a bit in the hairpin, so I ended up third for the race and fourth overall. Heading into the final round I’m looking forward to it, we have a good set-up for Phillip Island so I’m looking forward to getting out there come race time.