It’s quite a different feeling to have the Hidden Valley round at the tail end of the Australian Superbike Championship. We’ve become used to seeing it mid-April and the switch to September, and the penultimate event, will make it a super-important factor in determining the 2013 champions across the board.

Regardless of the timing, the weather in the Top End will still be very hot and humid, as it is year-round. We’ve seen Hidden Valley events get some rain in the past and despite the long-range prediction telling us otherwise, updates have some showers crossing the region on Sunday afternoon.

That could be a telling factor in what is set to be an exciting weekend.

In seasons gone by, Josh Waters has been the dominant man at Darwin. He just seemed to have an affinity with the circuit, and the locals loved him. He won the inaugural event in 2010, and went on to string together three in a row up until last season.

This year, the round win will go to a new name. Without forgetting our privateers, the top contenders for the win, based upon form, with come from Team Suzuki, Next Gen Motorsports, and Team Honda.

Team Suzuki has the momentum behind them after their sweep of all four races at Sydney Motorsport Park, led by Wayne Maxwell.

A classic capture from last year’s visit to Hidden Valley. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Maxwell’s not won here in the past. He’s had some solid results and a few shockers, but there is that extra motivation there for him to break through and tick Hidden Valley off the list of tracks he’s won at.

Teammate Robbie Bugden will be strong also. Bugden is enjoying possibly career-best form on the back of his strong round win at Queensland, and front-running performances in Sydney.

He’s clearly confident in the GSX-R in both qualifying and race trim, and given a sniff of a win, will go for it, no holds-barred.

Next Gen’s Glenn Allerton will challenge for race wins – that’s a given. Allerton has been strong all season and loves the layout at Hidden Valley. He’s had his share of problems over the last few rounds and to be still running equal second is a solid effort.

Team Honda Racing are due for a race win too. Jamie Stauffer has been left a little deflated by his injury problems and we can only hope those are well and truly behind him and he is able to challenge come Sunday.

In the same stable, Josh Hook is another who is a realistic shot at a race win. With Hook’s measured and mature approach this season it’s easy to forget he’s still a rookie in this class, and for him to be a consistent podium threat is a credit to himself, as well as the work that Paul Free and the team have done.

The battle of the privateer racers is equally as engaging. It will be great to see Glenn Scott, Linden Magee and Ben Henry, amongst others, go at it once more.

Josh Hook goes through his pre-race ritual at Sydney Motorsport Park. Image: Toby Lynch.

At present, I can only count 11 Superbikes on the garage allocation list, with CM Racing’s Chas Hern not listed. There’s no point delving into grid numbers again but this does detract from the spectacle. Let’s hope the racing makes up for it!

The Supersport battle continues here too and that’s going to be super-close.

There has been a lot of variety in terms of riders challenging for fast laps in qualifying, and vying for wins and podiums, and it looks certain to continue this weekend.

The ASBK will be running alongside the opening two rounds of the Australian Supercross Championship this weekend, and it has been a huge effort from Yarrive Konsky and IEG to pull together this event.

There are some who love the concept, and others who believe it somewhat dilutes the road racing aspect. Regardless of the opinion, IEG has experience running SX alongside the road racing on somewhat of a different scale, with the Phillip Island MotoGP event last year.

Looking at the bigger picture, I certainly think it will mean more people through the gates at the event, which is a positive.

I won’t be in Darwin this weekend but am looking forward to seeing how the live streaming facility runs. This is certainly a big step forward for the ASBK, and is a good way to generate timely interest in the racing without necessarily having to wait for a post-produced package.

There are lots of talking points concerning road racing at this time, and we hope to continue to provide a platform for discussion. We do welcome input and in the past few days we’ve seen comment provided to articles from the likes of ARTRP’s Terry O’Neill and Yamaha Motor Australia’s Steve Cotterell.

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