Image: Keith Muir.

A fulltime Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) return of Josh Waters remains up in the air, as the privately-operated Apex Motorsport team works to lock in additional support for the 2017 season.

Waters, who turned 30 yesterday, debuted with Apex at Winton’s final round of last season and finished third overall, before going on to win the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix support races overall aboard a Yamaha.

However securing backing to campaign a full season in 2017 is yet to be finalised according to the 2009 and 2012 champion, who is eager to race-on with the Apex organisation operated by former national racer Jordan Coote.

“The plan has always been to race this year, but it’s gone a little bit quiet,” Waters told CycleOnline.com.au. “Hopefully we find more out really soon and yeah, try to keep racing. It’s great that almost all of the manufacturers are back involved. I wish a decision was made last week, because we are running out of days – there’s not long until the first round.

“If I was to do something at this stage it would still be with Jordan’s Apex Motorsport team. I definitely still want to race, which will be a little bit difficult because I haven’t really ridden since the GP, but we will see.”

With the opening round of the 2017 ASBK series one month out at Phillip Island alongside the World Superbikes on 24-26 February, Waters and the Apex Motorsport squad now face a race against time to lock in a manufacturer – still in possession of last year’s R1, but also linked to Suzuki as the brand looks to increase its involvement locally again.