Image: Andrew Gosling (tbgsport).

The FIM Oceania Road Racing Championship will expand to four riders and feature at two rounds of the 2016 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli this year.

Representing Australia will be last year’s title winner Daniel Falzon alongside reigning ASBK champion Mike Jones, while New Zealand features Sloan Frost and Ryan Hampton.

Round one will take place at Morgan Park in Queensland on 5-7 August, before the decider is scheduled for Winton Motor Raceway, Victoria, on 30 September-2 October.

Falzon last year represented Team Australia against New Zealand’s Hampton and managed to claim victory for his country. Today Falzon spoke about the honour of representing Australia for the second consecutive year.

“It’s a great honour to be once again representing Australia in the FIM Oceania Challenge,” he said. “I think this year especially is going to be bigger than last year, being over two rounds and two riders from each country representing.

“I am really looking forward to racing these next two rounds, and obviously I am just going to go about my normal thing and try not to add too much stress on myself and just try to get some great results.

“I am feeling pretty confident heading in to the two rounds, Morgan Park is a track I rode last year and did quite well at, and after testing last week I feel quite confident to back it up.”

Frost, who is also currently racing full time in the ASBK series, described his feelings of being selected to represent his home country and his excitement to race at Morgan Park for the first time in his career.

“I am pretty excited to be a part of the FIM Oceania Championship, I have always wanted to push to race against the class of riders there are in Australia and to do that representing my country is a bonus,” Frost shared.

“In the future it would be great to be able to get the Australian representatives back on to our tracks in New Zealand, I think the Australian guys would be a little bit surprised by the pace of our boys on our own tracks.

“With both Daniel and Mike doing well in the ASBK Championship so far this season we are definitely going to have our work cut out for us over the next two rounds, but hopefully we can make gain to close the gap.

“Morgan Park seems to suit my Suzuki well, and at the test last weekend we had reasonable times, so I am really looking forward to competing and it’s just up to us to take that next step and try and challenge Daniel and Mike.”

FIM Oceania president Tania Lawrence said that she is pleased about the selection of the representative riders and spoke about her excitement in seeing the championship continue to grow and the bond between countries to strengthen.

“What an outstanding way to finish the last two rounds of the ASBK championship, with the integrated FIM Oceania Championship also to be won over those two weekends,” Lawrence said.

“It is great to be able to bring the countries a little closer together and to be hosting some of our New Zealand relatives right here in Australia. We are very proud of how the championship is progressing and to be able to offer this opportunity to our competitors.

“The FIM Oceania Road Racing Championship will certainly contribute to the growth of the sport in both Australia and New Zealand, and we look forward to seeing how it all progresses onwards in the future.”