Image: Russell Colvin.

Yamaha Racing Team (YRT) could reverse its decision to contest the 2016 Australasian Superbike Championship (FX-ASC) following recent uncertainty surrounding the Australian Road & Track Rider Promotions (ARTRP)-operated series.

ARTRP announced a revised calendar on Wednesday that sees Winton and Wakefield Park removed from the schedule to solidify its future, which will instead see the series visit Sydney Motorsport Park three times, Queensland Raceway twice and Mallala once.

YRT’s recent decision at the 11th hour to race the opening round of the Motorcycling Australia (MA)-sanctioned Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) on the Yamaha Financial Services-supported World Superbike weekend effectively opens the door for the team to switch to the ASBK fulltime.

An original team announcement from Yamaha stated that YRT would be remaining in the FX-ASC series for a seventh-straight season since 2010, but that decision will be revisited when discussions take place on the Phillip Island WorldSBK/ASBK race weekend between Yamaha Motor Australia management and the team.

“We’ve definitely had a lot of serious discussions and thought about this year,” Redding told CycleOnline.com.au. “Obviously even racing the WorldSBK supports was very much a late decision and we have several times been discussing where we go from there. “The plan is to meet at Phillip Island with Ray [Howard], Steven [Cotterell] and Kev [Marshall] to discuss it further and try to make a decision at the event where we’ll go from here.”

However the decision for YRT to join fellow powerhouse factory operation Crankt Protein Honda Racing in the ASBK next year – subtly confirmed earlier this week – isn’t a straightforward one, with technical regulations, control tyre policies, travel expenses and additional influences to be evaluated, according to Redding.

Yamaha has signed returning trio, former Australian and Australasian Superbike Champion Wayne Maxwell, triple Australian Superbike Champion Glenn Allerton and multiple national Superstock/Formula Oz champion Cru Halliday to its program for 2016.