CycleOnline.com.au recently caught up with South Australian ace Daniel Falzon to see what has been up to him since the grand finale of the Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike (ASBK) Championship presented by Motul Pirelli at Winton Motor Raceway, which took place at the beginning of October.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Daniel, it’s been a while since we have seen you. Last time out was at Winton Motor Raceway for the last round of ASBK. Tell us what’s been happening since then.

Not a lot in terms of racing. Since the final round of ASBK we have competed in the Adelaide three-hour race at the end of November at Mallala Motorsport Park. We planned on doing the annual Adelaide three-hour race all year, as we like to do it every year, and this year I teamed up with my good mate Liam Wilkinson under the team name of We_R1. We managed to take pole position and the race win, which was fantastic. We also broke the most amount of laps completed in three hours, even with twelve laps being run behind the safety car. It was a big credit to the team and everyone involved – we we’re very happy with the overall outcome.

Liam and yourself won the event with a total time of 3h01m59.290s, completing 152 laps and were three laps ahead of second place. Add into the mix it was quite a hot that day over in South Australia, am I correct?

Yes, it was very hot, which certainly took its toll on a few of the other riders. Honestly for us, we were very prepared – even more than any other year to tell you the truth. Liam and I spent a lot of time running, cycling and just working on our cardio fitness which helped a lot towards the end of the three hours. The event was also good to race because I’ve had a bit of time off the JD Racing Yamaha R1 machine, as we opted to sit out of competing in this year’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix support class events, which was the second round of the Phillip Island Superbike Championship. So it was nice to get back on the bike, that’s for sure.

Any reason why you and the team decided to sit of this year’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix support events?

We sat out the MotoGP support event so we could put our funds towards next year’s ASBK series and compete in some of the local South Australian rounds. Obviously our main target is ASBK, so we have to make sure our funds cover that series first to be able to make sure we get to all of the rounds in 2017. We just couldn’t really justify competing at this year’s AGP.

That’s a fair call. Last weekend you competed in a club championship round at Mallala. Care to tell us more about that and a particular person you raced against.

Last weekend the Cafe Racer Club held a club meeting at Mallala. [To] tell you the truth, we were not even planning on entering the event until we saw BSB regular Billy Mcconnell entering the race meeting aboard one of the BCperformance race machines. We thought it would be a great opportunity to get to Mallala on a superbike machine and have some stiff competition, as we have not had the national racing championship come back here since I started racing in the Superbike class.

Image: Russell Colvin.

How did you end up going?

Very well, [I] managed to win three races from three starts against McConnell and other tough riders who put up a good fight. We had some really close racing and I even learnt some new passing manoeuvres that I never knew existed at Mallala. We were very happy with coming away with three race wins. Sunday was unfortunately a washout and Billy didn’t enter the round anyway.

So apart from the racing side of things, what else has Daniel Falzon been up to?

We are currently working on the 2017 ASBK season in regards to getting sponsors sorted. We are still trying to sort out some new sponsorship, but it is more about increasing our support with the current partners we have. We have managed to get increased support from Yamaha Motor Australia, Yamaha Motor Insurance (YMI), William Adams and Energy Power Systems Australia, Caterpillar and Mainline Dynolog Dynamometers. I’m trying to sort out my deal with Ficeda Motorcycle Accessories as well. I’ll more than likely still be wearing the Shark and Berik outfit, but we’ll soon find out if that is the case.

Let’s have a quick chat about next year’s ASBK series – the championship will go from a six-round championship to seven rounds. Are you looking forward to slugging it out over seven rounds?

I’m always excited to race more often! Another round is another round we can prove how fast we can be in our privateer outfit. It’s going to be difficult for our JD Racing team to get to every round, [especially] being from South Australia as we don’t have a home round over here. In saying that, it has been the way for my nine years of national racing. I’m looking forward to going to the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit two times next year as it’s a track which is very special to me, so that is a bonus.

In terms of this year’s ASBK championship. You finished seventh overall in the ASBK fight with 151 points to your name, and took out the Brembo Superbike Challenge (privateers championship) with 233 points to Brayden Elliott’s 212. Overall, are you happy with your performance?

The 2016 season was a roller coaster ride – we had some of the highest of highs and some of the lowest of lows. We started the year off quite rocky with a mechanical problem at Phillip Island, then we got taken out at Wakefield Park and I crashed out on my own at Sydney Motorsport Park in the wet. At the halfway point of the championship, I decided to really put my head down and get some points on the board as it was coming down to ‘crunch’ time in the championship. We had some great results at Barbagallo Raceway and Morgan Park Raceway. The lap record at Barbagallo was amazing, and my first podium finish in race one [while] in the mix with the factory Yamaha and Honda teams was unreal to get at Morgan Park. Winton was also a good round for us – we were fast all weekend, but unfortunately had a fall in race two which did take quite a big toll on our overall championship finish. We fell from fourth to seventh in the title fight – I don’t think seventh is a true indication on where we were this season.

What are your goals and predictions for next year?

As 2016 was a learning year for us, we are planning on scoring more consistent points and want to be up the front more often for the 2017 season. I really am looking forward to next year – the championship has come leaps and bounds since I have been competing in it, especially in 2016 with the addition of the factory teams. I may not have a privateer championship all to myself next year, I believe we are going to have to fight very hard for it. I’m anticipating a good season in 2017. I am just hearing whispers at the moment. If Josh [Waters] and his team enter the championship, they will more than likely be the ones we will be challenging to beat. Other than that, there is also Brayden Elliott and his team who were strong this year. Once we start to hear who is doing what, that is when we will start to take a closer look [at the competition]. But mainly Josh, as he is a proven rider in a very good team. I try to not think about the competition so much and just make sure that I perform to the best of my ability.