Gobert Motorsports Yamaha’s Aaron Gobert raced through a spell of bad luck at Symmons Plains’ second round of the Australian Supersport Championship on 3-6 March to finish sixth overall and maintain third in the series.

After capturing victory at the opening round just one weekend prior, former American national champion Gobert experienced mechanical troubles during practice and was forced to revert to his lower-spec number two engine for the round.

Despite working around the clock to prepare his privateer YZF-R6 for Saturday’s qualifying, Gobert was able to qualify sixth and then went on to finish sixth overall with 6-7 results on Sunday.

The opening 20-lap Supersport stoush saw a determined Gobert recover from an opening lap incident that forced him to the rear of the field, slicing his way through the pack to claim sixth.

Later that afternoon it was another promising race for Gobert, scoring a consistent seventh after being forced to contest the race on a pre-used Dunlop control tyre that he’d already lapped on during qualifying.

“We tried really hard to be consistent after the tough time we had on Friday,” Gobert explained. “We had to run with our back-up motor, which isn’t quite as good as our primary engine that we usually race with obviously.

“It wasn’t a great result but we are still third in the championship and just six points off the lead even though we had experienced bad luck here in Tasmania. Hopefully that’s our bad luck out of the way for the series and we can keep moving forward and winning races to contend for the title from here.”

The series will now head to Hidden Valley for round three of six in the Northern Territory on 14-17 April, where Gobert will be looking to return to the winner’s circle for the second time this season.