Coming off of a great 2016 season in the YMF/YMI R3 Cup and Over 300 Production categories in which he finished third and second respectively, Callum Alderson will move up to the Supersport category within the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) for 2017. Collaborating with the highly-respected AARK Racing outfit to enter a Yamaha Racing Development (YRD)-supported YZF-R6, CycleOnline.com.au contacted the 19-year-old to see how things are shaping up ahead of Phillip Island’s opening round on 24-26 February.

Image: Keith Muir.

Plans for 2017…

We’ll be running two of the previous year’s R6s. We were going to get the new model because of the front-end, but by the time they got here we would’ve had no time to develop them and it would have been another wasted half-year developing a bike that everyone’s going to get on the next year. One of the bikes is Andy Offer’s from AARK Racing and the other is coming from sponsorship money and my parents. We’re going to stick in Australia for the entire year and depending how we go, that’s the decider for next year. We will be doing ASBK with a lot of testing between rounds and really hope Barbagallo is back on the calendar – it’s Andy’s home track and also one that I went really well at last year.

Decision not to race WorldSSP 300 as originally planned…

When we looked into my future, not just my racing career, but jobs in Australia and living… I got offered an apprenticeship here that was paying well and that was a deciding factor. If I didn’t take it then, I was going to come back home with almost no money and have to start all over again from scratch. When we thought about it and did the budget, planned it all out, it was going to be a very expensive year. It would’ve been a great experience for sure, but I feel like the talent in Australia is there, it’s just a matter of getting everyone into one series and all working together. We’ve had people come out of Australia and go overseas, not to be rude, but they’ve done nothing – just run around at the back of the pack. It’s unfortunate for them, but we need to bring the level up in Australia. It’s all good and proper to win here, but I’ve been overseas before and they’re very fast [laughs]… a lot faster than a lot of us.

Returning to Supersport in ASBK…

I rode Supersport in 2015 and that was an alright year, a big learning curve and a lot happened. Then I made the decision to go back to the 300 class with Yamaha for 2016 and, really, we saw that I have the potential to run up the front with all of those riders. I did a test with Andy at Phillip Island in the middle of the year on his AARK Racing Supersport bike and straight away I was beating PBs from the year before, which was good to see. I did learn a lot on the 300, as much as it didn’t feel like I was, and it really helped me develop as a rider with race-craft, cornering and whatnot. It will be good to get back on the R6 and beat all my times from before.

Image: Russell Colvin (YRD).

Teaming up with AARK Racing…

At Barbagallo for ASBK, Andy was there and watching me ride. I had a crash in the first race, I think, and he saw me come back in the next two races to absolutely dominate the field. It was definitely a good weekend for me and he called me a couple of weeks later to ask if I wanted to test his Supersport bike at Phillip Island, so of course I said yes. From there it progressed, Andy was happy with how I went and the person I am, so it’s a privilege to have him consider me as a good enough rider to ride on his team.

YRD’s support program…

I’ve ridden Yamahas in every class since 125s, which has been great because I’m very loyal to Yamaha and they’ve done a lot for me. I’ve had a lot of big crashes and they’ve helped me get back on my feet with parts and that kind of help – John Redding and Ian Irving do a lot for me and are always looking for ways to help a bit more. I can’t fault Yamaha, not yet, and I don’t think I will be able to because they keep coming out with new material, new bikes and everything’s just getting faster and faster. With the help of Link International jumping on board, I’ve got a good Pirelli tyre budget and budget for Motul oils, so I can’t wait to see how the bike runs.