There have been some exciting developments taking place recently, but at the top of the ladder has to be the news that seven-time American Superbike Champion Mat Mladin is scheduled to test the Next Gen Motorsports BMW HP4 of Glenn Allerton in June along with Wayne Maxwell’s Team Suzuki GSX-R1000.

The BMW test, revealed via his very own Facebook profile late last week, has been arranged directly through Allerton and the team from what we understand, as Mladin and the current ASBK series leader have developed a pretty neat friendship over the past couple of years – both from near Camden in NSW.

As for the Team Suzuki test, the team will have it on hand during the upcoming Rapid Bikes magazine Superbike comparison (production variants) at Sydney Motorsport Park later this month. Mladin will be there testing for the magazine, so he and Jeff Ware are also scheduled to post some laps aboard the race bike.

It’s going to be interesting for Mladin to ride the Australian-spec bikes after a three-year hiatus. Riding the Suzuki will be interesting for Mat, the brand that he’s had so much success with, however seeing him on a Pirelli-equipped BMW will be even more interesting. It’ll be great fun for everybody involved and I’m certain he’ll have some fun with his wealth of experience.

Mat Mladin will test Glenn Allerton’s BMW HP4, amongst others, next month. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Next week the Australian Superbikes will resume testing officially with a private test at Queensland Raceway on Tuesday from what we hear. With Dunlop introducing their latest UK-spec Ntec tyres, the test could be a real sign of things to come.

Will Allerton, BMW and Pirelli be able to inch away with the title further come race time in a month, or is the new rubber from Dunlop going to enable Team Suzuki and Team Honda Racing to narrow the advantage indicated at Symmons Plains?

Speaking of Symmons, a war of words ensued last week when Robbie Bugden said Allerton may have been a little “lucky” in his success in Tasmania, prompting Allerton to fire back a response that definitely got people talking. In fact, that story (click here to read) was the highest ranking of the year on CycleOnline, cementing our theory that fans love a racing rivalry. Bring it on!

Allerton’s been in the news a lot of late actually, with today’s Australian Motorcycle News revealing that he and the Next Gen team will ride the Laguna Seca round of the Superbike World Championship. It’ll be the team’s second wildcard of the WSBK season and could actually prove more beneficial for the team.

Is a mini rivalry brewing in ASBK between Allerton and Bugden? Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Remember Allerton raced the Laguna round of American Superbike last season, so he has experience at the Californian circuit, and he’s never particularly performed at his best during local rounds at Phillip Island. Perhaps the tighter aspect of Laguna will suit him, especially considering the power difference between his and the world specification bikes.

That’s it from me for today, here’s Toby!

Part of our focus on CycleOnline is to ensure the Australians competing overseas receive the recognition they deserve, and it’s been good to have spoken to a few of the guys competing in the World Superbikes and British Superbikes. This week we’ll be adding a couple more to the list, in exclusive chats with both Gareth Jones from the IDM German Superbike Championship, and Arthur Sissis from the Moto3 ranks.

Speaking with Gareth, who incidentally lives half way across the world but originates from my home town, really did open my eyes to just how well our Aussies are faring overseas.

Given the relatively small representation, it’s extremely impressive what these guys are achieving season in, season out. In the IDM standings, Damian Cudlin is leading and Gareth is third, while Jed Metcher is running competitively in the Supersport class.

Gareth Jones is looking like a legitimate title threat in the IDM German Superbike ranks.

We’re probably more familiar with what our guys are doing in BSB – Josh Brookes is a top three runner, all day, every day, and Glen Richards, Billy McConnell and Jason O’Halloran are all up there too. A number of young guys are coming through the Superstock ranks too, and showing they have what it takes to match it with the best.

We’ll see Australia capably represented in all three MotoGP classes this weekend – we’re podium chances in both Moto2 and Moto3, and Bryan Staring will very soon be matching it with the top CRT bikes. For a sport that has such a distinct European flavour, and the sheer numbers to boot, Australia must surely be one of the top producers of talent, per capita.

A topic that was raised this week actually questioned the sheer numbers of riders coming out of Spain and Italy. The question was put to Dorna if they would ever consider a quota of sorts to cap the ratio of nationalities taking part and they didn’t rule it out for future seasons. While it may make sense on some levels, is it really the fault of a certain country that they’re producing such top talent? Interesting times ahead for sure, and an issue that’s probably not going to go away any time soon as we will potentially have another all-Spanish podium in MotoGP this weekend.

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