In almost 10 years of doing media (yes, time flies!), this weekend would have to be the busiest in memory when it comes to world-class events. MotoGP, WorldSBK, WEC, BSB, MotoAmerica, All Japan, Asia Road Racing, plus a heap of off-road (which we cover on our partner site, MotoOnline.com.au) and it’s a massive one.

Of course, the major world and national championships are easiest to cover but for CycleOnline in 2015 we will aim to bring you at least post-race coverage from the Asian-based events. With the likes of Josh Hook and Troy Herfoss racing in Japan, plus Mark Aitchison, Aaron Morris, Michael Blair and co. competing in the ARRC, we will work to follow their progress this season.

On television we have WorldSBK from Assen tonight and I’m excited to watch that (the time-slot is just about perfect for a Sunday evening), and then in the early hours of the morning again we will see the Argentine MotoGP round.

Source: MotoGP.

Aussie Jack Miller hasn’t had an easy go of it so far this weekend, but he’s again right there shadowing Nicky Hayden on the timesheets and should get event stronger for the race as he usually does.

The impressive Eugene Laverty, starting out of 14th, will be where Miller is targeting over race distance, but what counts now moreso than anything is mileage in the heat of battle. That’s where you learn the real potential of a race bike, which is what Miller is there to do this year.

Yamaha Racing Team with Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance tested at Mallala last week and while times weren’t made official, it’s understood current champion Wayne Maxwell went faster than his benchmark 1m06.684s lap in race one on Sunday last year and the team made some positive progress across two days.

Russell Colvin penned a post-race test report for us that you can see here, which gives you an indication of development that YRT is making with the 2015 YZF-R1M, including in the wet during day two.

Lap times in testing historically don’t mean a whole lot, but it is almost certain that Yamaha will be improved come round two of the Australasian Superbike series in the fight against Team Honda Racing at the front on race day at Mallala.

With the second round still a month away it will be a quiet month for local racing aside from an open test hosted by Honda, which got me thinking – wouldn’t it be good to see both teams (and respective privateers) test together and supply real lap times at the conclusion?

Usually the factory teams host tests prior to each round if they require it (at circuits like Mallala that the series only visits once a year), so if they were together on the same day/s and with lap times made available, it would give us a bit more bench-racing ammo to work with between race weekends.

Right now the series is missing a type of rhythm that consistent events create – which is planned on purpose so the privateers can save or get time off work for each round, etc – so some kind of competitive data from tests would go a long way to fill the gaps in between.

Image: Steve Thibou (YRT).

The one major problem that springs to mind is on-track traffic if you were to combine the Yamaha and Honda-run tests, because both invite more than just their factory riders, but like I said, it’s just a thought, and there are ways to get around that.

As an example, last year’s official pre-season test was a massive part of the season’s build-up, albeit a touch controversial as some questioned to legitimacy of some times unofficially supplied by riders/teams.

And that’s essentially always the case whenever we post lap times from domestic team tests, however it adds to the interest along the way and becomes more engaging for everybody of interest. At the end of the day, if you’re fast, you’re fast so it’s not wise to fudge lap times during a test (and some even go the other way in supplying slower times!).

But the way it is, by the time we attempt to provide pre-race coverage for each event with very little concrete information from testing or otherwise, the events come, go and are then out of sight, out of mind (including testing) with a month or even more off between each round.

Information from testing and some kind of statistical information (which is a whole other discussion point in itself) could be the platform in which we are able to refer to a little more in-depth to truly showcase what the sport’s all about.

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