Glenn Allerton is confident the move to Pirelli was the right one. Image: Toby Lynch.

Dual Australian Superbike Champion Glenn Allerton remains confident in Next Gen Motorsport’s decision to switch to Pirelli tyres in the 2013 Australian Superbike Championship.

The high-profile BMW team clinched a deal with the Italian tyre brand Pirelli, distributed in Australia by Link International, for 2013 following the abbolishment of control tyre regulations at the end of last season.

Following a number of tests late in 2012 and throughout the pre-season, Allerton made a seamless switch to Pirelli aboard the brand new HP4, clinching two Superpoles and three race wins in succession to open the season in Tasmania and Queensland.

A mechanical fault ahead of race two at Queensland Raceway forced Allerton to start from the rear of the field aboard his spare bike, in which he still climbed to fourth and sealed second overall for the weekend in a points tie with Team Suzuki’s Robbie Bugden.

The recent Sydney Motorsport Park round was a frustrating one for Allerton however, finishing third in race one and crashing during the second in Saturday’s fourth round despite again starting from pole. Sunday’s fifth round saw him struggle to sixth in race one, before a gritty ride to second in race two netted him third overall.

Despite Team Suzuki’s Wayne Maxwell winning all four races to seize the series lead aboard his GSX-R1000 equipped with the latest specification Dunlops introduced for Sydney (click here for details), Allerton is upbeat that he, Next Gen and Pirelli can rise to the challenge as the season draws to a close.

“Eastern Creek was a hiccup for us, which was magnified because it was a double-header round,” Allerton explained. “Because of that the points sort of stacked up against us, but I’m confident that my BMW on Pirelli tyres is still the package to beat.

“Pirelli is a great fit for Next Gen and it’s more than just the tyres, you know? You have to work closely with the technicians and Pirelli have been very supportive. They give us a lot of information from each weekend, as well as information found through World Superbike racing and testing.

“I’m totally happy with the relationship we have with Pirelli and to me it’s refreshing to work with new people who are enthusiastic and want to see you get results – I feel like we’re all part of a family.”

Following the Sydney round and a major point swing, Maxwell now holds a handy 24-point lead with two rounds remaining at Hidden Valley and Phillip Island respectively. Allerton’s objective at Hidden Valley is to narrow that margin via Superpole and two race wins.

“If anything, that takes a little bit of the pressure off me,” Allerton added. “Not that I felt any pressure at the beginning, but it is always different when you have a lead to defend. I’m not really thinking of Robbie, [Jamie] Stauffer, Maxwell or anybody else.

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure the bike’s the best it can be, plus I’m focusing on being physically prepared for the heat in Darwin. It’s a strong track for me, we had a good debrief following Eastern Creek and have identified some issues we had with the set-up.

“I just have to put together the best performance we can and the goal has to be pole position and two race wins so we’re right in the title hunt heading into Phillip Island.”

It’s been a successful return to national level competition to date for Pirelli, also currently celebrating both Supersport round wins at Sydney Motorsport Park with Yamaha support pilot Aaron Morris alongside Allerton’s success.

“Pirelli through Link International is really enjoying being back at national level racing in Australia,” Pirelli Moto national manager Don Nicholas told CycleOnline.com.au. “In our first year back at national level with Pirelli we have already broken lap records, had race and round wins in the Superbike and Supersport 600 classes.

“We’ve seen a large number of riders chose to run Pirelli in the ASBK this year and we are really enjoying working closely with these riders – all of them private riders too – to help them enjoy going racing at the premier level in Australia.

“We’ve had a saying for few years now and it reflects Pirelli’s philosophy pretty accurately when it comes to racing from club level to national competition in road racing, Motocross and more – we race what we sell, we sell what we race.”

Click here to read a complete Industry Insight interview with Nicholas posted yesterday on CycleOnline.com.au.