Australian Superbike racing has a number of interesting rivalries building at the moment, not least the fresh new tyre war that we’ve witnessed between former control supplier Dunlop and incoming Italian brand Pirelli, which holds the rights as World Superbike tyre supplier.

As you’ll read in our news this morning (click here to read), Dunlop has a new tyre on the way before June’s ‘third’ round of the ASBK season at Queensland Raceway in a bid to halt the early advantage of the Glenn Allerton/BMW/Pirelli combination.

Robbie Bugden is one of the frontrunners who will likely benefit from a new Dunlop Superbike tyre. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

It indicates just how serious Dunlop is about retaining its title in the ASBK, but of course there are more elements than tyres that resulted in Allerton’s sweep at Symmons Plains. Dunlop will test its new rubber at an upcoming test and then decide what exact compounds to homologate.

But what Pirelli has on its side is the confidence of two-time ASBK champion Allerton in the brand, along with his potent HP4 and the expertise of the Next Gen Motorsports team, making for a strong assault that will continue in 2013. Plus, of course Pirelli works closely with the Italian development team, that in turn also works with the WSBK teams.

It’s an interesting battle and we plan to further cover it as the upcoming round approaches.

What we are seeing is these brands really stepping up and leveraging their local success in their marketing campaigns – just pick up the latest AMCN and you’ll see Allerton on the outside cover page in a Pirelli ad aboard his ASBK contender.

It’s a trend that we’re continuing to see rise, especially in 2013 so far. Yamaha has used its local team reasonably consistently in the past as have some other brands, however now we’re really seeing some local momentum as Honda and more use the domestic riders instead of internationals. It makes sense and is a huge bonus for the sport domestically.

Last weekend we should have had the Hidden Valley round of ASBK in Darwin, which was later rescheduled to September alongside the Australian Supercross opener. That’s what has effectively made for such a long gap between rounds, but there’s still plenty of local racing to monitor between FX and the state events.

Next weekend will see the FX-Superbike series soldier on at Wakefield Park, which could well attract some ASBK regulars. If they’re to contest the FX-500 later this year they need to compete in at least two FX rounds, so this would be an ideal opportunity to gain part of that qualification.

And then after next weekend’s round of FX there will be a mammoth break of over three months in the schedule (with one Club event in between)!

Another event we’re likely to see some of the national regulars in action is the Motul Victorian Road Racing Championship, which is hosted by ASBK promoter International Entertainment Group. That race will be held on 18-19 May at Phillip Island.

For now though, here’s Toby…

Australia is capably represented overseas on most weekends but the lull in local, national-level racing is noticeable. Next weekend is the Wakefield Formula Xtreme event but then there is still a fair gap until the Queensland Raceway round of the ASBK.

Any momentum that was built in Tasmania is slowly but surely waning. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be an easy fix. Reducing the gap between rounds does keep the momentum going, but turns up the pressure on riders and teams to be prepared. With privateers forming the backbone of the sport, it’s not realistic for them to be taking off every few weeks to different parts of the country.

There’s the expense in doing so, and the fact that for some small operations, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to prepare a competitive bike in the space of a week or two. Is it helpful or harmful for the sport, though, to have a break of over two months between rounds?

If the gap could be reduced, even by a few weeks, I feel it could be a good thing. The gap could be bridged by the television broadcasts, for example, which would hold that all-important level of interest. There’s no exact formula, but a general aim for consistent breaks could be the way forward.

Bryan Staring was able to finish his second race on the Gresini Honda CRT machine in 20th.

It’s not as if there is not enough results coming from our international stars, however. On what was a relatively level playing-field, Australians did a tremendous job at the new Circuit of the Americas. Personally I’m not a fan of any of the other Hermann Tilke-designed airstrips, but COTA is really quite interesting.

Unlike the others, which have elevation changes seemingly for the sake of it, this track begins with that enormous climb into turn one, and a really open apex, before the slight decline as the tricky corner complexes begin. Regardless of the layout, what we did have for the first MotoGP event was a level playing-field.

In the MotoGP class Bryan Staring was able to achieve his goal of a race finish, despite Karel Abraham’s best attempts to remove him from the grid in qualifying. In Moto2 Ant West was supremely competitive, only left to rue a few front-end issues as the reason for missing out on a top five finish.

The Moto3 boys were consistent, too, with Jack Miller the best placed and showing he is ready to give this season his all. Taking a detour from the European tour, and more significantly, to a brand-new track, is a really good way for these guys to show just how much talent they do have.

This weekend we’ve got World Supers at Assen, and as you may have read in our Catching Up feature, our own Mark Aitchison will be out to make some solid gains after a tough first round with his new Effenbert Liberty team. In speaking with him he seems quite satisfied in his current position, and has said the team has sought his direction and opinion on a lot of their decisions moving forward.

They made some really big changes in their staff and general structure after Aragon, and he seems quite positive that by mid-year they can deliver some decent results on the Ducati 1098R which has obviously been successful in seasons past. Best of luck to him this weekend, and to the other guys racing in World Supers, the Superstock classes and the European Junior Cup.

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