Last weekend’s opening round of the 2013 QBE Australian Superbike Championship, as is the case at many first rounds, amounted in more questions being raised than answered. But, I kind of expected it to be that way ahead of the weekend.

First up, the dominance of Glenn Allerton aboard the Pirelli-shod Next Gen Motorsports across the weekend was astounding. Was it attributed to the Pirelli rubber? Was it the brand new BMW HP4? Or was it simply the fact that the two-time champ is an absolute weapon around Symmons Plains? It was probably a combination of all three, however many were left scratching their heads on Sunday night.

Wayne Maxwell’s form was to be expected at Team Suzuki, even though it hasn’t been a completely smooth transition to the GSX-R1000, while five-time NZ champ Robbie Bugden was supremely impressive back with the factory team for the first time since 2006. What’s most important from their 2-3 results is that they beat Team Honda Racing fair and square, but as the defending champion team, they won’t be satisfied until they win races.

Jamie Stauffer improved as the weekend went on after a steady start at Symmons Plains. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

The form of Jamie Stauffer throughout the round was surprising. He struggled to match the top three from the outset pretty much, however his form in the final race to challenge Bugden for third was well improved. Jamie knows he needs a stronger start to the season than that, so we’ll see what he can do when the series resumes at his favourite circuit of Queensland Raceway in June.

The rookie participation this year is interesting in itself, including Stauffer’s teammate Josh Hook, Next Gen’s Linden Magee, InsureMyRide Racing’s Glenn Scott and Suzuki privateer Chas Hern. On top of that we have Beau Beaton in his first full season for Racers Edge Performance Suzuki – all five have what it takes to challenge for front row starting slots and potential podiums during the season.

Friday afternoon saw a lengthy riders-only meeting with International Entertainment Group managing director Yarrive Konsky take place, essentially allowing all to openly speak about the state of the sport. Much of what was covered was included in our frank interview with Yarrive last week (click here to view part one or click here to view part two). From that point, Konsky was also spotted deep in conversation with various team managers during the weekend.

Of course there is the ongoing battle of having two national championship series, as the FX-Superbike round took place at Winton over the weekend as well. Add to that there was also the New South Wales Road Race Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park and it’s no wonder grids are unreasonably small across the board.

The ASBK Superbikes had 16 bikes qualify (four of which were Prostock), while the FX-Superbikes also had 16 qualify for the championship round on Sunday. While both series feature quality riders and decent depth, how good would it be to have all of these riders combined for a 30+rider grid Superbike grid? Also noteworthy is that in the FX600 class at Winton there were just 14 entries, but Supersport didn’t compete at the 2+4 event.

For more interesting topics from Tassie, click here to view yesterday’s Top 10 feature compiled by Toby. Speaking of Tobes, he’ll be contributing to Cycle Central every week as well, so here he is with his first edition…

Firstly, it’s been great to have been welcomed aboard the CycleOnline.com.au team. I’ve been on board for just over a week and feel like I’m settling into the role well. Regular viewers of either this website or MotoOnline.com.au would know that Alex puts 110% into what he does so I’m really pleased to have been given this opportunity to develop the road bike site while also working alongside the dirt bike team.

Josh Waters was solid on debut for Milwaukee Yamaha at Brands Hatch. Credit: Action Images/MilwaukeeYamaha.com

My background in the sport stems from a number of years in the role of PR manager for the ASBK, firstly for a year in 2006, and then returning in 2010 when IEG began its first full season as promoter. I’m proud to have been able to work alongside some of our top riders that are now obviously doing big things overseas. For instance, it’s great to see Bryan Staring making his mark as our Aussie MotoGP representative and Josh Waters getting a top opportunity in the BSB ranks.

I’ll be working closely with riders across a range of classes and championships, both on a domestic level and overseas. The goal is to create an outlet to tell the riders’ stories and keep fans of the sport, as well as friends, family and industry, up to date with their progress. The internet is a fantastic publishing medium that makes it possible to deliver timely updates as they happen or present more detailed pieces including interviews and multimedia features, amongst others.

Alex was on the ground at the Symmons Plains ASBK round which gave me the opportunity to sit back and watch the telecast at home. It really is a big boost for the sport to have it featured with the V8 Supercars at this time of day. The teams are incredibly well-presented, from the factory squads through to the privateers – they should be proud of the effort they put into their presence on the grid. It was a quality telecast and the slow-motion cameras captured the riders wrestling their bikes onto the start-finish straight in incredible detail, that of which we really only get to see on the MotoGP telecasts. As an added bonus, Sunday’s race was sandwiched between the two feature V8 Supercar races, which will have resulted in even greater exposure.

There were some standout performances but the clear winner was Glenn Allerton and the Next Gen Motorsports team. I had the chance to chat with Glenn for a Race Recap feature and he couldn’t have been happier with the result in what must be considered close to a perfect weekend. He also revealed a deal to race the Laguna Seca WSBK round is almost complete, which will be good for the team who have the experience there from last year.

It was a busy weekend with a number of events on to keep track of. There were plenty of eyes on Bryan Staring as he made his MotoGP debut. After progressing solidly through practice and then setting a safe time in qualifying it was a shame to see him out of the running early in the race. I have no doubt he’ll have learnt from the experience and will bounce back for the next round. Ant West had a tough run in Moto2, though we had two solid finishes from our Moto3 boys with Arthur Sissis finishing in the top 10.

Australia is well represented in the BSB ranks right now and it was great to see Josh Brookes and Josh Waters take away solid performances from the weekend. Billy McConnell did a top job in the Supersport class and there was a solid spread of results from local riders in the Superstock 600 field as well.

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