Phillip Island World Superbike week is upon us, an epic way to open both the international and domestic superbike seasons. Judging by testing completed, the pace this weekend is going to be really, really fast.

The late addition to Bryan Staring on the World Supersport grid for not only this weekend, but the entire season, at Rivamoto Honda. Fresh from a season in MotoGP it would have been a strange feeling back on a 600 this week, but he acquitted himself reasonably well.

Alongside Staring on the WSS grid at least for the Australian round will be British-based South Australian Billy McConnell, as well as Australian Supersport privateer Ryan Taylor as part of the newly-formed Oz Wildcard Racing program.

No Aussies were in the field during this week’s World Superbike testing at Phillip Island, but the late mail is that multiple world teams have been in contact with Australian locals to potentially replace their regular riders after a number of injuries took place during a bruising two-day test.

That will be an ongoing story over the next 24 hours, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one Australian ride World Superbike come Friday morning’s opening practice session.

Image: Andrew Gosling.

What I’m also looking forward to this weekend is the comparison between the Australians in the Phillip Island Championship and the WSBK EVO entries, which make their debut this weekend in preparation for a full overhaul of the regulations in 2015.

It’s shaping up to be a cracker and for the majority of us, this weekend will be the beginning of a mammoth season ahead following road racing action globally.

Last week we saw Team Honda Racing announce it will be going Australasian Superbike Championship (ASC) Racing in 2014, not yet committing to the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), which positions all of Australia’s top riders in the one series.

Speaking of Honda, check out a first look at their CBR1000RR SP models in race trim below – Wayne Maxwell’s third entry in the background with increased Motul backing compared to the bikes of Josh Hook and Jamie Stauffer.

One rider many are particularly looking forward to seeing back in action is Troy Herfoss in ASC, who has confirmed he’ll be back and it looks to be aboard yet another Honda in the series. He’s been on track at Wakefield and Sydney recently, so considering he’s from Goulburn he’ll be a major asset to the series.

Next Tuesday will mark the official ASC test at Wakefield Park and CycleOnline plans to be on the ground to monitor the action as it happens. Hopefully a rider list surfaces before the event so we can get a real feel for who’s going to be on track.

One rider that won’t be at the test even if Honda does attend (and we’re not sure if they are) is Maxwell, who will fly out of Melbourne on Sunday evening for his first test with Monster Energy Yamaha Austria Racing Team in Europe. We’re also uncertain if Rick Olson will be at the ASC test or in Europe either, but both are topics we plan to chase up this week.

Meanwhile, International Entertainment Group’s (IEG) three-round ASBK series has re-attracted the likes of supersport champion Daniel Falzon, as well as the Next Gen Motorsports team, which has finally confirmed Glenn Allerton and Ben Nicolson.

Falzon will pull double-duty for a nine-round season when it comes to national championships, and after some confusion initially, Next Gen confirmed it will do the Queensland ASBK opener before deciding if they’ll do the rest.

Will IEG’s series live up to expectations/promises as Next Gen and some others hope? Only time will tell, but past the inconsistency of structure and constant confusion doesn’t bode well for the pairing of IEG and Motorcycling Australia (MA).

Apart from their association with the V8 Supercars (albeit all the way up in Darwin), in my opinion the series has very little appeal for 2014 being just three rounds for the main categories and even less for the supporting acts.

The series is on a lifeline only supported by the fact that it has history behind it, but then again, with champions such as Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes headlining the ASC honour roll, that series’ history is gaining its own strength as well.

That’s it for this week. Check out CycleOnline’s social media profiles for more updates and news from the domestic and international series’. Just search ‘CycleOnline’ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to follow us.