Since joining the Australian Supersport series mid-season, Team Yoshimura Suzuki's Craig Shirriffs piloted the GSX-R600 to its first top-ten result in round six at Winton Raceway in Victoria, today.

A strong qualifying performance aboard the new GSX-R600 delivered Shirriffs his best starting position of sixth on the grid for the weekend's two races.

Holding an old elbow injury at bay throughout practice and qualifying, Shirriffs' injury flared up under the duress of competition in the first 17-lap race leaving the New Zealander struggling to the finish line in 13th place.

A stronger showing in race two saw Shirriffs in more competitive position to claim seventh place before the race was red-flagged, delivering Team Yoshimura Suzuki ninth overall for the round.

Phil Tainton - Team Manager:

"Firstly, congratulations to Jamie Stauffer on taking out the Supersport title."

"The Australian Supersport series is a very exciting, competitive class and Team Yoshimura Suzuki has made steady progress in only a few rounds in the category."

"Craig achieved his best result so far and we know there is still more speed to be gained from the GSX-R600."

Craiag Shirriffs:

"Overall I'm pretty pleased with the weekend - I equalled my best race result with Team Yoshimura Suzuki and was within the top ten for the round."

"I had a tough time with my elbow in race one, but fortunately it was less painful in the second race and I was able to push a bit harder throughout the race."

"On top of that, we tried some different suspension settings for race two which gave us even more speed from the GSX-R600 and I was having some great battles before the red flag came out."