We finally saw confirmation of the final factory Australian road racing teams for 2013 announced this week, including Team Suzuki and the Yamaha Racing with Yamalube team.

Firstly, Team Suzuki secured Wayne Maxwell in a single-rider team at this stage, and what this movement does is set up a huge and somewhat personal rivalry for the new Australian Superbike season.

After finishing second for Team Honda Racing in 2012 and then being dismissed by Paul Free in favour of Josh Hook, Maxwell would like nothing more than to upstage the boys in red.

Since Honda let him go, Maxwell has remained quietly confident he could secure a seat at Suzuki following Josh Waters’ departure to BSB, but it did take a long time to finalise.

Unfortunately, Suzuki is severely down-sizing its program for 2013 due to budget restrictions and unless additional money can be sourced, the Wayne Train will be the lone factory GSX-R1000 rider this year.

ASBK number two Wayne Maxwell will be at Suzuki in 2013.

Maxwell made his Suzuki debut at Phillip Island recently and he afterward he admitted it was a very, very different animal to the Fireblade he’d been accustomed to, however he’s certain he’ll adapt swiftly.

The bonus for Maxwell and Team Suzuki is that they will get to ride the support races at Phillip Island’s World Superbike event later this month, without the pressure of points on the line.

Another bonus will be the fact that Jamie Stauffer and Glenn Allerton will be in World Superbike that weekend, while Josh Hook will be in World Supersport. Maxwell will be the lone factory ASBK rider in that race, allowing him an extended test period of sorts.

Yamaha confirmed Broc Parkes alongside Cru Halliday in the Yamaha Racing with Yamalube team, which is essentially YRT’s second truck alongside the factory effort of Kevin Curtain and Rick Olson on Ipone.

The signing of Parkes was no real surprise in an FX-Superbike role, and if you were to analyse the situation, it would seem Yamaha has selected him as the rider to carry on the progress of Curtain as their experience veteran in years to come.

Aussie international Broc Parkes will join former teammate Kevin Curtain at YRT.

With Curtain and Parkes steering the ship alongside former supermoto standouts Olson and Halliday, that’s a strong combination for the FX-Superbike series in a variety of categories.

While the battle between Curtain and Parkes in FX-Superbike will be the premier one of the year if Broc can get on pace immediately (and I think he will), I too can’t wait to see Olson and Halliday go head-to-head in FX600.

The inner-battle for Curtain will be between himself on the FX-Superbike and Formula Oz racer, enabling us to see just how quick Yamaha can get the modified FO bike running (especially since Halliday set the benchmark at many tracks last year).

Factory seats are limited at this point in time on a domestic level and they are spread across two different series, however you have to acknowledge those teams putting all in to win titles and develop talent locally.

Without them we’d be facing a much less interesting season, even if the rider selection is probably becoming harder than ever before for teams with factory support.