This year’s Superbike World Championship opener is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated events of the year, featuring a true Aussie flavour on the world stage for the first time in many, many years. Finally, wild cards are back!

This week has seen a hive of activity down at Phillip Island including our pair of World Superbike wild cards Glenn Allerton and Jamie Stauffer. Combined, they have four Australian Superbike titles to their name and deserve this shot at the world’s best on home soil.

Depending on the level of their equipment, they could surprise come the race weekend later this month, but we’ve seen in recent years when the likes of Josh Waters, Bryan Staring and even Josh Brookes got guest rides in WSBK at this Island, it’s no easy task whatsoever.

World Supersport will be just as interesting, because alongside our wild card riders of Kevin Curtain and Josh Hook, we’ll see Australian Supersport Champion Mitchell Carr and rising star Matt Davies on the grid in a real mix of new and experienced talent.

Josh Hook is gearing up for his World Supersport debut this month. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

I for one will be sure to take it all in on that weekend, because in the post-Casey Stoner era of international racing, Australia faces a quiet couple of years ahead unless one of our quality talents can land competitive equipment in a world championship full time.

It was refreshing then to see that Waters and Broc Parkes will contest the World Endurance Championship with Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team this year, giving them a real shot at success (although we’re not yet certain how many rounds they’ll actually contest apart from Suzuka).

The national racing season is just weeks away at Phillip Island’s WSBK weekend as well, kicking off the Australian Prostock and Supersport championships, while the Superbike class will be a non-championship round in order to give guys like Allerton and Stauffer a chance to race the world championship event.

By the way, Team Honda Racing will launch its Australian Superbike team in Melbourne’s Docklands tomorrow, featuring Stauffer, Hook, team manager Paul Free and Honda’s Tony Hinton.

Speaking of the national support class, Wayne Maxwell has been spending more time aboard his Team Suzuki GSX-R1000 and already he is right on pace according to sources at Suzuki. The word is he’s already gone quicker than Waters did last year, however of course we need to note that the surface has been repaved recently.

Australian Supercross will join the ASBK in Darwin later this year. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

While on the topic of the Waters brothers, Brodie and Nicholas are still struggling to find funding to race in 2013, which is a substantial shame for the sport locally. But it’s not just these young talents who are suffering, because I’m sure there are many in the same boat with the desire and skills to race, but no real backers to get them on the grid.

Yesterday International Entertainment Group announced that the Australian Supercross series will join the ASBK at Darwin in September, launching what will be an all-star two-wheel event on a national level. Will it work? Are supercross teams stoked? So far the reception has been pretty mixed, because their final outdoor round is just two weeks prior at Coolum.

Either way, it should be an interesting events for domestic motorcycle fans and I hope it’s a success. I’m a believer that it’s a good thing to combine disciplines when the opportunity is there, and it will also happen at the MotoGP round in October if that’s finalised.

That’s it for this week, thank you as always for stopping by!