Features 30 Jul 2013

Catching Up: Aaron Gobert

We find out more about the WET4U Racing Gobert Motorsports venture.

It’s been an eventful break between Australian Superbike Championship rounds for Aaron Gobert.

The experienced campaigner has teamed up with WET4U Race Fairings to build a pair of Kawasaki ZX-6Rs under his own banner, and judging by the team’s impressive test form, they’ll be ones to watch in the Supersport class at Sydney Motorsport Park.

We asked Aaron about the recent changes…

Aaron Gobert will be on his own WET4U Racing Gobert Motorsports Kawasaki come this weekend. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Aaron Gobert will be on his own WET4U Racing Gobert Motorsports Kawasaki come this weekend. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

You’re gearing up for your local ASBK round this weekend where you’ll be racing a Kawasaki, however it’s a different team structure to the one we saw at Queensland Raceway. Can you bring us up to speed on this change?

Yeah, we have put together a new team for Sydney. I’ve joined up with Paul Grant-Mitchell of WET4U Racing Fairings and we’ve formed WET4U Racing Gobert Motorsports. Paul had a pair of Kawasaki ZX-6Rs at home and we decided to take one out to the test at Sydney Motorsport Park a few weeks back and see how it went. We were around fifth or sixth-quickest on a dead-standard motorcycle, on one set of tyres! So we decided we’d build up the bikes and have a go this weekend.

It’s good to be able to make this happen and good to have a solid bunch of sponsors – WET4U Fairings, Kawasaki, DynoJet, Motul, Arrow, JT, BMC, Dunlop, Bell and Alpinestars – come along for the ride.

The Aussie Supersport class is dominated by Yamaha machinery, which you raced as late as last year. You must have a lot of confidence in the ZX-6R if you’re pushing ahead with these new plans?

I raced a Yamaha for a few years so I know they’re a good bike. Actually in the AMA I think Yamaha is about 75 percent of the field. But in World Supersport the Kawasaki is up there and winning races, and I think with the right support and right crew here I have no doubt we can make it win. The competition is tough and we’ll have to be on our game, but I am certain the equipment is good enough. We believe in the program and with the support of WET4U and Kawasaki Australia I think we can have a good showing in Sydney.

You mentioned you were pleased with the test progress. Do you think you can roll a bike out on Thursday that will be competitive from the outset?

I’m hoping that the bike will roll out close to race setup and ready to go! We’re going to move some suspension and settings to the new race bike, and with a little bit more motor I think we’ll be more than competitive. If not, it’s a long event and we’ll have plenty of time to make the adjustments we need.

How do you rate the Supersport class competition you’re up against? It seems like one of the deepest talent pools the class has had for some time?

There are a lot of guys in there trying to make a name for themselves, so yeah, I’m sure there will be quite a bit of white-knuckle racing over the weekend. There are lots of quality guys in there, it should be a fun few races.

From what I can see the forecast is for some rain, which will make things interesting. I’ve always been good in the rain, so we’ll just wait and see how that pans out. Either way, I think we can have a good weekend there.

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