Features 13 Aug 2013

Race Recap: Aaron Morris

We break down a winning weekend for the Maxima Yamaha pilot in his home state.

The Sydney Motorsport Park double-header produced four close Supersport races, and it was the Maxima Yamaha of New South Wales rider Aaron Morris who collected the lions share of wins.

We caught up with Aaron to discuss a busy yet successful weekend, and find out why he feels he is in the box seat to challenge for the title lead.

Aaron Morris took three of the four race wins on offer in Sydney on his Maxima Yamaha R6. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Aaron Morris took three of the four race wins on offer in Sydney on his Maxima Yamaha R6. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

The double-header weekend meant a change of format for riders, with the end result being a fair amount of track time in the lead-up to the races. This obviously works in favour of the rider?

Yeah, I was pretty happy with the format really. It worked out quite well. You got a lot more practice than normal, which was quite good. The fact that you get double the practice makes it a lot better to prepare for the races on Saturday and Sunday, so I thought it was good – any time we can get more time out on the track is a benefit.

You came away with fourth and first places on Saturday, and made some big ground between the morning and afternoon races? Talk us through them, and tell us if there was a particular turning point?

The first race wasn’t great. From about lap two I had no rear grip at all. I knew it was going to be a tough race from then on. We managed to make our way to second and it wasn’t looking too bad, but I was getting smacked down the straight without the rear grip, we couldn’t get that drive onto the straight and kept getting passed.

We made some changes and went the right way for race two. I managed to pull a pretty decent gap in the first few laps and from then on it was just about holding that advantage.

You came out firing from the beginning and managed to take maximum points on Sunday. How important was it to have that momentum from Saturday behind you when you lined up for the first race of round five?

As soon as I was comfortable with the bike and knew it was working well I was confident we could keep going. We basically didn’t make any changes from Saturday afternoon to Sunday.

The first race really went quite well, I didn’t have quite the lead I had on Saturday, which made it a bit harder as Aiden [Wagner] was pretty much pressuring me the whole way to the finish line. I managed to outride him and come out with the win there.

There was no hiding Morris' elation at wrapping up both Sunday races, and three on the trot. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

There was no hiding Morris’ elation at wrapping up both Sunday races, and three on the trot. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

In the second race I managed to get a reasonable start – not the greatest – and made my way up to first, and I think it was on about the fourth lap I hit neutral going into turn two, which put me from first back to fifth. I think [Callum] Spriggs it was that lost the front at turn two just after I ran wide and I lost about a second there. I managed to catch Aiden back up after passing Michael Blair and then Daniel [Falzon] so it was a pretty good weekend overall!

The class has been close all season but those last races, especially, saw yourself and Aiden Wagner make quite a bit of ground. Do you think you have an edge, and can you keep it?

It has been reasonably close but I think you’ll probably start to see it start to separate a bit more from now on. At Queensland I had a pretty serious issue with my forks up there. We actually went to a completely different set of forks on Sunday morning for the race and we went a lot better, but that was why we qualified so badly and didn’t go that well up there.

We turned up at the Sydney round with forks that worked properly and managed to pull off some wins. I think now I’m pretty confident that you’ll see me and Aiden clearing out for the rest of the year, just now I’ve got the setup working.

After the first round they went and changed tyres to the 2013 Pirellis, and, also at Queensland, as much as I didn’t have the forks working, I also didn’t have a setup for those tyres yet. So now we’ve got the bike working quite well I’m pretty confident it should be a good rest of the year.

You’re well and truly in the title fight, now just nine points behind Daniel Falzon. You’re obviously confident that you can make up this gap?

Yeah I’m pretty confident about it. The bike is working how we want it to. There’s a couple of little things to work on but I know I’ve got the pace. It’d be great if I could keep Aiden behind me as well.

Realistically, looking at points, we could almost come out of the next race almost leading it. The Dunlop boys up there can use a soft rear tyre, so the race might be a little bit more on, but other than that I just don’t think they’re going to have the pace.

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