Features 1 Mar 2017

Quotebook: 2017 ASBK Rd1 Phillip Island

Racer comments from Phillip Island's first round of the year.

A selection of riders detail their day at Phillip Island’s opening round of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli. Team and privateer competitors can submit comments to [email protected] prior to the Wednesday after events for inclusion in the post-event Quotebook feature.

Superbike

Image: Keith Muir.

Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team) – fifth overall:
This weekend has been an up-and-down weekend as there was just no rewards for the effort that the team put in. They all put in a massive amount of effort, which I’m very grateful for with Kevin Marshall, Jeff Dillion and all the guys at the Yamaha workshop putting in tireless hours and we just didn’t get the results we deserved today. We are just not getting the reward for effort. So we need to get a little bit smarter, I believe. In saying that, we are not too far away as it’s a start of a long season. I do get along with Wakefield Park at times. In saying that the circuit is a bit of a love-hate. It seems like every second time I go there I go well. We are going to have to try and make round two a winner.

Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) – eighth overall:
I was a bit disappointed with the overall result. Even in the last race, the second half of the race I came from a long, long way behind and managed to get myself pretty much up to the head of the field. I was coming on strong at the end there. I feel like if I had one more lap and I would have been in the lead of the race but it was a two- part race, so I got done in there. The position is not ideal. We have some work to do. In saying that, we are going to Wakefield Park next and I am really confident there and I do ride well at the track. So I am looking forward to going there and trying to gain some points and catch up in the championship. I’m not worried, as lots of other riders had problems this weekend, apart from Daniel Falzon, as he had a really good weekend, so hats off to him. For sure, Daniel is going to be hard to beat, but there are a lot of us which had issues this weekend. So this weekend has not been too bad. It would have been a lot worse if I was the only one who were to have a DNF. But the likes of Wayne, Bryan [Staring] and I all had a DNF. So it’s not all that bad.

Daniel Falzon (Caterpillar JD Racing Yamaha) – first overall:
We have worked so hard to get this result. I have so many people who help and support my racing and it’s so good to be able to reward them with this win, especially at such a high profile round with the WSBK riders. This is the best result that we could ever ask for. We didn’t just win by a little bit, I felt that we could win every race quite comfortably. We proved in that last race that we were strong and I didn’t need to push it and I knew that we were going to get the three wins overall if I just kept a level head and stayed on the bike. My goal was to have a good weekend and just get myself in contention but I felt great on the bike all weekend and the Yamaha was working so good. Thank you to everyone in my team, my family or anyone who assisted me to get this result, I’m stoked and it’s an amazing feeling to stand on top of the podium at Phillip Island. I can’t wait to get to round two.

Callum Spriggs (DesmoSport Ducati) – 22nd overall:
It was a good weekend and I learned a lot. It was a good experience and, although so much was happening, I feel like I was riding pretty good. DesmoSport Ducati worked hard all weekend and I really appreciate those guys for all the effort. Even though it wasn’t to be my weekend, I had a strong last race and battled with some of the rookies from back there on the grid, so that’s what I wanted to do. I definitely got more comfortable on the Ducati in the races, got into a rhythm and I’m happy to finish the round like that.

Robbie Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance) – second overall:
What a great way to kick off our 2017 title-chase! The first race wasn’t ideal, getting caught up in someone else’s mistake and having to recover from that, but from then on we showed the pace of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R to finish third and second. Most importantly it showed we have the speed and determination within the team to be a real title threat. I cannot thank the whole team enough for the effort over the weekend and for giving me a great motorcycle every time. Team manager, Kelvin, was spot on with settings. Technicians, Adam and Jake were faultless. We have a great team environment and results shows just how strong we are going to be this year.

Kyle Buckley (Kawasaki BCperformance) – 11th overall:
It was an awesome debut race in the Superbike class, I learned a whole lot and came away with some results that I was aiming for. With a good test schedule before round two I think I’ll be able to come back faster and ready to race a bit further up in the pack. Massive thanks to mechanics, Vaughan and Duncan, and our manager, Kelvin, for their hard work over the weekend.

Matt Walters (Swann Insurance/Repsol/Kawasaki Connection) – 13th overall:
We tried a few different setting with the bike. We tried to get as comfortable as possible to be competitive at a good pace, but the first meeting was very much trial and error. I came onto the straight and got a punctured radiator, throwing me off at turn four, which was unfortunate for the first race of the season. For the following rounds we are definitely going to up the pace in practice and qualifying, which will give us the best chances. Wakefield is next and I’ve got a good history there, I know the track well so we just need to get there and knuckle down for round two.

Supersport

Image: Keith Muir.

Tom Toparis (Cube Racing) – eighth overall:
It was a frustrating end to the weekend, not being my fault, and it’s just annoying for that to happen. I can’t do anything about it now, so we have to move on, and aside from that I had a decent weekend. I really want to keep getting good results, so I’m going to set my sights on Wakefield now and see what we can do there! Thanks to everybody at Cube Racing for their help and all the support.

Luke Mitchell (DPH Motorsport Yamaha) – ninth overall:
After qualifying in P4 for the weekend, I was in position to gain some great points for the championship, so I’m really disappointed but these things happen in racing. We’re already looking towards the next round at Wakefield to bounce back.

Sam Muldoon (Proworx Racing Kawasaki) – 11th overall:
It’s not really the result we were looking for. We just found ourselves with a lot of adversity, but I feel we handled it all pretty well. For the last two races I was riding a spare bike which had a lack of focus on its set up, so I wasn’t comfortable on it. In the last race I was stuck with a group but I managed to work my way through it for a good result, so that was a positive. We had an unforeseen issue during qualifying and that’s what put me back in 14th. That made it hard for the rest of the weekend. There were a few challenges but we accept it as being part of racing, but it’s all behind us now and we will definitely make up for it in the next round!

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