Former world champion Andrew Pitt won a close Supersport race at Phillip Island as countryman Josh Brookes passed two men on the last lap to finish second.
The race for the lead was nose-to-tail between a closely-matched group of riders for most of the race, although one pre-race favourite was out early on, as first round winner Broc Parkes lost the front end of his Yamaha at MG corner. Although he remounted, he went straight to his pit and no further.
That left Pitt in the lead on the Ten Kate Honda, but under pressure Stiggy Motorsport Honda duo Robbin Harms and Josh Brookes, with Parkes' Yamaha team-mate Fabien Foret, no doubt hoping to have enough fuel in the tank this time round, chasing hard to make it a leading quartet.
The front four had pulled away from the next group, with Pitt and Harms doing most of the front running, swapping places with regularity, as Foret looked to play a stalking role in fourth behind a similarly cool-looking Brookes.
But, what was that three cylinder wail catching the group from half distance? Why it's good old Garry McCoy.
The former 500cc GP winner, racing on home ground on the Caracchi Triumph 675, was flying round his favourite circuit and gradually catching the group in front after a slow start.
With Pitt and Harms still slowing each other up front, the leading pack's pace allowed McCoy and Brit Jonathan Rea - on the sister Ten Kate Honda to Pitt – to close in.
Foret was completely flummoxed by McCoy and needed three of his infamous ‘looks over the shoulder' to realise who it was pursuing him. Not needing a second chance, the flyweight Aussie was through like a shot on the nimble British triple, as Rea, too, inexorably closed on the Yamaha.
Pitt and Harms continued to lead as Foret then played his trump card, straightline speed, to force his way into contention and, with two laps left it was every man for himself, the group running two, three even four abreast at times.
