Image: Russell Colvin.

It was back to work for the Yamaha Racing Team with Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance (YRT with YMI) team and a handful of YRD (Yamaha Racing Development) riders as they completed a one day test yesterday at Winton Motor Raceway, for the upcoming penultimate round of this year’s Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship (ASC).

For the reigning FX-Superbikes and ASC champion Wayne Maxwell, the day was all about trying to fine the front-end feel that he has been missing, along with an improved throttle feel upon acceleration. He completed around 90 laps in total.

“We are trying to get the bike to turn into the corner and then steer up on the throttle on the exit,” explained Maxwell, who finished third last Sunday at Wakefield Park. “We tried a heap of stuff today and I think we got there in the end. The lap times are okay, I’m happy with where we are there. All in all, it was a positive day for us.”

Teammate Glenn Allerton, who trails Maxwell by 10 points in the Sunday series, completed around 60-70 laps throughout the day and said it was “a stiff learning process today, but we made a lot of changes and made good headway. I’m really happy where the Yamaha R1M is at the moment.”

Although times weren’t officially disclosed, it’s understood Allerton’s times were not as fast Maxwell or Cru Halliday’s, but the three-time Australian Superbike Champion wasn’t focusing on outright pace, instead just concentrating on making the bike work over a long distance.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Halliday completed 80 laps in total and also put in three 14-lap race runs. The two at the very start of the day were “not the best”, as he was running old Dunlop tyres and didn’t really have a refined set-up, however his last race run towards the end of the day was confidence inspiring after a difficult Wakefield Park round.

“My last lap was my second fastest lap of the day,” said Halliday. “This sure does help heading into the next round. Best thing about today is we have come away from the test with an unreal race distance set-up. I can’t say enough about [the team] – they have all worked so hard today, which is paying off.”

Four R6-mounted Supersport riders were also cutting their teeth around the rural Victorian circuit, which included JNL Racing’s Luke Mitchell, Race Center’s Callum Alderson and Jay Presepio and 19-year-old Justin Di Giandomenico, who has not been on a bike since last year’s ASC round at Winton. He will contest round six and the grand finale at Sydney Motorsport Park in December.

Also in attendance was Kenny Redding, Brad Conder and Jake Drew, who had his first test day as a YRD-supported rider. Drew, 26, who has mainly only done a few Hartwell and other club meetings will line up on the grid at Winton in the Formula Xtreme class when the event takes place on 23-25 October.