Features 20 Jun 2017

Catching Up: Daniel Falzon

ASBK championship leader on international debut in China.

Last weekend saw current Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli points leader Daniel Falzon make a surprise appearance in the Chinese Pan Delta Championship at the Zhuhai International Circuit with the ISR Superbike Team. Despite encountering all kinds of conditions that disrupted the race weekend, Falzon qualified third on the grid and finished in that same position for a Superbike (Open A) class podium in the one race that was run on Sunday. CycleOnline.com.au caught up with the South Australian for his take on his international debut.

Source: Supplied.

How did the Chinese Pan Delta Championship opportunity come about?

We were contacted on Facebook by a man called Kristopher [Wodejszo], a local in Zhuhai at the moment who had the aspirations of trying to start his own racing team and, because the Chinese championship is quite full of Australian riders with Broc [Parkes], Mark [Aitchison] and Alex [Cudlin] performing quite well, he thought he’d look at the ASBK championship and find out who’s leading that. Fortunately for us, we were the current leaders and got the call after round two this year.

And you were on your preferred option of the R1. It looks like you guys had to get the bike together pretty quickly on arrival…

Yeah, we did. Originally we were on a different manufacturer as Kristopher had purchased a bike prior to contacting us, but we really explained that if we were to go there and be building this bike from ground up, we needed to do it with a bike we were familiar with in the team. And for me, riding it, personally I think I’d be faster straight away on a bike I was familiar on. He understood that and we ended up going down the path of a Yamaha. It was a lot of work as, by the time we got there on the Saturday a week before the event, the bike had just arrived as a completely standard 2017 Yamaha R1 that we had to modify to being an ASBK-spec bike.

So pretty much what you’re accustomed to back home?

Pretty much identical. Even though the championship allows bikes to be of World Superbike-spec, we were only going to ever make this bike ASBK-spec before the weekend was to start.

Tell us about the race weekend. There were some mixed conditions and you did end up on the podium, so how was it from your perspective?

So, we had a week of testing before the race weekend, which was fantastic and we were able to try all kinds of conditions from full wet, to half wet, to dry, so that was a bonus for us. Come the race weekend there were torrential downpours for a lot of it, but qualifying was completely dry and then come racing we were at the mercy of the Gods. There was rain like I’d never seen before, the track was absolutely flooding and then there was a big oil spill, which unfortunately caused race one to be cancelled on the Saturday. They postponed it so we had two races for Sunday and we got in one half wet/half dry race, which was probably the hardest race I’d ever competed in. We made the decision to go a wet front and dry rear, whereas most of the others in the field went full wets or full slicks, otherwise the combination of a dry front and wet rear. It was very interesting to see how it panned out and by lap two it was ideal for full dries, but we had to work with what we had on the grid.

Source: Supplied.

Being established as one of the top guys here in Australia locally, does this make you want to go and race overseas if the right opportunity was to come about?

Yeah, look, I’ve been a firm believer from the start that I won’t pay to ride overseas. There are a few riders in Australia in a similar situation and I can’t see justification in it. In my current situation studying at university and having our own race team that’s funded by our sponsors, I’m not going to jeapordise that by going to compete overseas. When this offer came about and it was suitable to what I wanted and what our team wanted to race overseas, then I’ll jump at the opportunity. We’ll take it round by round and I’m actually on a two-round contract for this championship, so I’ll be competing there again in September. If the offer’s right I will go overseas for sure, but for me the offer has to be quite good because what I have in Australia is something I wouldn’t throw away for nothing.

Speaking of the Australian championship, Darwin’s ASBK round and the return to Hidden Valley is edging closer, so how is everything shaping up for that with the JD Racing team?

I’m really excited for Darwin and I had to keep that in the back of my mind when I was racing in China, because ASBK is my priority this year. We do have a new bike for this round with the 2017 Yamaha R1 and we’ve had it completely race-prepped for a few weeks now. I’m looking forward to getting back up to Hidden Valley, it’s a track that I’ve had some really good success at in the past with Supersport and Superstock lap records, so I can’t see why we can’t really be up there. As you’d mentioned in previous interviews, we really need to start winning races if we’re to maintain our lead in the championship, so that’s my goal. I’m going there with the though of winning or being as close to winning as possible.

Yeah, we’re definitely looking forward to it so thanks a lot for catching up.

No worries, Alex. Thank you.

Recent