With round one of the 2014 Swann Australasian Superbike Championship in the books, we spoke to a number of riders and team figureheads about their opinions on the racing and the event as a whole.

Image: Keith Muir.

Wayne Maxwell – Team Honda Racing rider
The first round was, no doubt, super-tight, with 10 or more guys capable of winning the race. That’s what the crowd wants to see. It’s going to be interesting when we get to the other tracks, hopefully the tight racing can continue throughout the year.

The diversity in the format is good, because the rider has to adapt. In that sense it’s good, but if they’re used to that format, then go and race overseas, I don’t think that’s a positive step. The bikes are very different to ride, with less power, so it makes it easy for anyone to ride. Again that makes the overseas factor that little bit harder, because you only get one shot over there.

Paul Free – Team Honda Racing principal
It was interesting to compete in Terry’s [O’Neill] series, and to see how it’s all run and how it all works. The level of competition was pretty special, I thought, it was definitely the toughest competition we’ve seen for some time. When you look at the times and see 17 riders within a second, well I can’t remember when we’ve seen those sorts of numbers. But I suppose that’s just indicative of everyone competing on one series. Whether that’s going to be consistent for the other circuits as well, I don’t know, but the level of competition at Wakefield was pretty damn good.

I was extremely happy to see not too many accidents. I did anticipate there would be more, but luckily enough, I don’t think anyone got really seriously hurt. There’s a few things that I thought could be picked up, and I’ll speak to Terry in the near future. The response of the medical could be sped up, I don’t know if that’s the normal practice, having that kind of response time. And probably the response of the Clerk of the Course, when the guys ask his staff to look at simple requests in the sense of rider safety, like trying to prevent the bikes from getting so damaged when they crash, I thought the response was kind of ordinary. There’s some positives, and a few things that could be easily rectified in the future, with no cost.

I was pretty surprised at our results, to be honest. The whole team was very focused, if you like. There was only one goal, and that was the result we got, and I hadn’t really expected that. I suppose that comes from having a good team, well-handling motorcycle and a group of guys wanting it pretty bad.

Glenn Allerton – Next Gen Motorsports rider
I think the racing itself was really good. To have everybody in one place, at one time, was good. I think it was one of those race meetings where there were a few teething problems for quite a few people. Yamaha didn’t show how competitive they really are, because they obviously had some issues out of their control. It was good to go in and battle against everyone, but at the same time I feel like format could be revised. It’s early stages, so easy to say that things are wrong, but I feel lots of things are right about it and I had a great time.

We can probably just get away with two races on the day for the big class, and just make them longer, that’s something maybe we’ll look at for the future. You’ve got to get through the one day on the one tyre, so you’re already in conservation mode, and every race you put the tyre through another heat cycle. I don’t think the track at Wakefield is itself dangerous, but when you’ve got 30 of the fastest guys in Australia all battling for the one piece of tar on a one line track, if we did have an accident early on, I think it could turn into a big one. There’s no room for error, and no room for anyone to go to avoid an accident if a bike and a rider ends up on the track.

That’s why I think we only need the two races. The most dangerous part of any race is the start, and the less starts we do, the better. That big rush of adrenaline into the same small space could be dangerous. But everyone kept a level head there, and it did work out pretty good.

John Redding – Yamaha Racing Team manager
The level of competition was good, obviously with a lot of riders there, and certainly the racing was very close. Obviously YRT itself had a disastrous weekend with the tyre issue, which has already been covered. We can only try and pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and fight our way back into some sort of contention in the remaining rounds. It’s extremely competitive, for sure, and you can’t have anything against you.

Everything has to be working for you. In our case we had a substantial part of our whole program working against us, so we’ve just got to put that behind us. The field is going to be tough and I think I think it will be different at the other circuits, whether that is the shorter or the faster circuits, things may change.

Image: Keith Muir.

Chris Seaton – Aprilia Trinder Racing rider
To be honest, I was really impressed with the field. I knew looking at it that it in the weeks before that it was going to be a tough gig, and I wasn’t wrong. I knew it’d be close, especially with Wakefield being such a tight circuit. I think the top 17 riders were within a second in qualifying – I qualified ninth and I was only 0.4 off pole. It’s unheard of, that sort of field, and competition in Australia for a long time, since I was probably on 600s when Krusty Fergusson and Josh Brookes and Curtain were in there.

In the race such a tight field and circuit meant the start and your position into the first corner was everything. I was struggling to get the Aprilia off the line at the best of times, so when I’m starting 15th and have got to try and pass as many people as I can it makes it hard. I enjoyed it though, and managed to pull a few positions in each race. I came away in 10th, which wasn’t where I wanted to be, but definitely wasn’t the worst it could have been, when you see guys like Robbie Bugden and Kev Curtain back as far as they were.

As far as the weekend’s structure, with the progressive grid on Saturday and the fastest time cementing the grid for Sunday, I did see a few of the riders up front, especially Jamie Stauffer, not even trying on Saturday in the races, and just putting in the fast laps. I think that will definitely be a tactic I will be looking to use in the later rounds, because it wasn’t worth throwing it away on Saturday. It’s all about Sunday now.

As far as development of the championship, there’s some room for improvement I think, maybe looking back to the old days of Friday practice, Saturday qualifying and Sunday races, and maybe a couple of longer distance races would be better. But in saying that, keeping the race short made for some really good action. It will be a bit of try and see I guess, to work out for next year.

Dustin Goldsmith – Goldy’s Trailers and Towbars team owner/rider
It was a good start I thought. Obviously having everyone there and battling is what everyone wants and it’s going to be very close all year long. There were lots of positives there, there were were maybe a few things that could be worked on as well. In the second race there it started raining and the top guys all had their hands out but they put out a lack of adhesion flag and let it go. Also the runoff areas need to be improved I think. When bikes were running off the track they were hitting what were kind of motocross ruts from erosion and it was wrecking bikes. It becomes costly in that sense.

The racing was super close. It was competitive and so hard to pass, like a snake weaving its away around. You’d come into the cauldron there and if even left you room the pass it was hard to slot into the train. It was like riding 125GP bikes! But it was good. The calibre of the field is high and you know you’re not going to get trashed or taken out – no one’s going to do anything too silly. I enjoyed the weekend and I think it will only get better over the next rounds.