News 10 Oct 2017

Walters rounds out 2017 ASBK campaign at Phillip Island

Swann Insurance Kawasaki press release:

Swann Insurance Kawasaki’s Matt Walters finished out his 2017 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) campaign inside the top 10 during race two of the premier Superbike category at Phillip Island’s season finale.

Walters kicked off his weekend in Victoria with a successful pair of qualifying sessions that saw him start out of eighth position on the grid for Sunday’s two-race format thanks to a fast lap of 1m33.957s.

“We had good practice sessions and qualifying this weekend,” Walters said. “We’ve made improvements to our qualifying and we’ve moved up onto the third row a couple of times now, which has been good.”

Although a turn one mistake would prove costly during race one on Sunday, the multi-time national champion returned with strong form in race two finishing in eighth position to secure 11th overall for the round.

“We didn’t have a great race in the first one this weekend,” he explained. “I had a bit of a run off at turn one, which is kind if my fault as we ran the corner a bit hot and a bit wide. The second race was good, we made sure the bike had the right tyres on it, so it was pretty good.

“We had a couple of good battles there and just moved forward at the end of the race. We came good and got inside the top 10 again, which is a pretty good way to finish off the year.”

Finishing out the season ranked 15th overall in the championship standings, Walters will begin his 2018 preparations promptly as he looks towards an improved season for the new year.

“I would have like to have been further up this year, but we had a couple of struggles and a couple of moments there,” he added. “We just need to try and capitalise on these next three months and really push super hard. I’m fairly capable of doing some winning, I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind and physical form to do it.”

Like Matt Walters Racing on Facebook and visit www.asbk.com.au for further information on the series.

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