A selection of riders detail their day at Sydney Motorsport Park’s final round of the 2015 Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship. Team and privateer competitors can submit comments to [email protected] prior to the Wednesday after events for inclusion in the post-event Quotebook feature.

Superbike

Image: Russell Colvin.

Troy Herfoss (Team Honda Racing) – 3rd overall:
What an unreal feeling it is to claim my first ever Australasian Superbike Championship. That last race was the most stressful 12 laps I have had on a motorbike! It’s a great feeling to win this championship and something I have worked hard for. Of course there is no way I could have done this without a dedicated team behind me, in Team Honda Racing. They have been behind me since day one! I can’t thank Paul and Laura Free enough for bringing me on in 2014. Shaun, my mechanic is just a wizard at what he does and deserves a huge credit to this championship. To all the team sponsors, and my personal sponsors, a massive, massive thank you, as without your support this could not be possible. Finally, thanks to everyone for all the well wishes and great support you have given me throughout 2015, it means a hell of a lot. Thank you.

Jamie Stauffer (Team Honda Racing) – 2nd overall:
Congratulations to Troy on his two titles! He absolutely deserves them and has raced so well all year. It has been great to race alongside him on the Honda. Well done to the team and thank you for all the hard work put in during the season. We were behind the eight ball this year after my crash and it took a while to recover, but the team just kept giving it their all and we managed to finish in fifth place having not competed in one event early on. Obviously, I would have liked to have finished in the top three, but I come away from the final event with a race win and it was a really exciting event to finish the season. Thank you to all the team sponsors for the terrific support you have given all year. To Honda Australia, a huge thank you. To Paul, Jason Kain who was invaluable this season and to the whole team, well done and thank you for the hours of hard work.

Wayne Maxwell (YRT with YMI) – 4th overall:
I gave it my all. I only have myself to blame crashing on Friday and it was too much of an obstacle to overcome. I can’t make a mistake like that and expect that a rider as good as Troy isn’t going to take advantage of it. Congratulations to him. Overall, I’m happy with the 2015 season despite not winning the championship. I won two rounds and was on the podium several more times. We started the year on a brand new bike, on a new team and we proved to be as competitive as ever in a short period of time. Thank you to every member of the YRT crew and Yamaha Australia with a special mention to my mechanic Warren.

Glenn Allerton (YRT with YMI) – 5th overall:
It was tough day. I felt like I gave it my all, but it wasn’t enough. It was a disappointing way to finish the championship but to finish the championship in third is a pretty good result. This just fuels my motivation for next year and hopefully we can hit the ground running in 2016 and go after another championship. Thank you to the Yamaha Racing Team for all their efforts this year and my personal sponsors for sticking by me.

Cru Halliday (YRT with YMI) – 6th overall:
I didn’t feel as good today as what I did here at round three when I took the win. I had a terrible second race and just didn’t feel good on the bike at all but races one and three weren’t too bad. I learnt a lot over the weekend and it was great working with Kev Marshall. I knew that Wayne was in the championship hunt so I didn’t want to do something silly and be a major burden on the team. It’s been a big learning curve for me all year in adjusting to the new bike and I have really enjoyed working with the team. I would like to have finished higher than sixth overall in the championship, but I will be back next year and more determined to get a better result.

Ben Burke (SA Kawasaki BCperformance) – 10th overall:
The last meeting of the year was good for us. I proved that I can run the pace to win. I need to work on my consistency and we will be really in the pack fighting. I look forward to what next year could bring and will make sure I am more ready than ever to achieve the success that is deserved. Thanks for the effort that everyone has put in this year. Especially Ronnie and Kelvin who at times this year, have put their lives on hold to make sure that the bikes arrived and everyone got their chance to race. Thanks again.

Evan Byles (SA Kawasaki BCperformance) – 9th overall:
I am absolutely rapt with the whole year! I must say thanks to Kawasaki, Kelvin, Kirsty and my wife Cath for the opportunity. To finish third in the Pro-Am Superbike championship in my first year on a 1000cc machine is awesome and I am especially looking forward to 2016 on the new Ninja ZX-10R in Formula Oz.

Supersport

Image: Russell Colvin.

Brayden Elliott (Suzuki) – 1st overall:
First of all I want to say thank you to my family, Phil Tainton and Shawn Giles for making this year possible. They have all put in huge amounts of effort and I sincerely owe our improvements and achievements to everyone that has helped out behind the scenes. Also congratulations to Callum [Spriggs] and Michael [Blair], it’s been great battling all year with riders you can have confidence with out on track. Looking back on the championship, I think we have far exceeded all expectations. Entering round one starting my second year road racing, I don’t think many people considered me a serious championship contender and also disregarded the Suzuki as being competitive as it hadn’t been on the podium for a few years. To win round one and maintain that championship lead all year, being the only Suzuki rider was very satisfying and also rewarding to get results that showed the effort and determination put in. As we all know, the rule to drop a round worked heavily against me, but at the end of the day we knew the situation and it could have gone either way. I knew entering the final round eleven points down was a big ask but surrounded by a supportive family backed team we all had nothing but belief it could be done. I certainly have no regrets as I know I gave it 100 percent and to gain back all 11 points over three races is something to be proud of. When I finished the final race knowing I had come equal first for the championship, I thought I had won expecting the points to go back to the seven rounds we had raced, meaning a victory by eleven points. Unfortunately for myself that wasn’t the way it ended up and I was awarded with second position by count back. Winning the final round was a good way to finish 2015 with our heads held high knowing we never gave up and continued to fight back. Taking away the positives, I know these are the situations that will only make me a better and stronger rider in the future.