Features 26 Feb 2014

Cycle Central: 8

An all-access view of Australian road racing, presented by Alpinestars.

Tuesday’s Wakefield Park Australasian Superbike Championship test marked the beginning of a fresh new era in domestic road racing, a shakedown that previewed what we’re in for in the season ahead.

On paper Next Gen Motorsports’ Glenn Allerton is the man to beat, fresh from a competitive showing just two days earlier in World Superbikes at Phillip Island and with form on his side despite an ongoing knee injury.

Allerton eased into proceedings at Wakefield back on Dunlop tyres following 12 months with Pirelli, and debuting a brand new HP4 that will be even more competitive come round one in a few weeks. For his rivals, the A game needs to be very, very high.

Funnily enough as Next Gen reverts to Dunlop in the ASC – at least with Allerton in the Superbike ranks – the team will maintain their Pirelli alignment both through its livery and also with Ben Nicolson in Formula Oz.

While the Pirelli backing on Next Gen and also Wayne Maxwell’s Motul Honda will ‘ambush’ Dunlop’s deal with the series, we’re seeing a host of insurance companies get involved as well. Swann with the ASC naming rights (and Condon), Kawasaki Insurances in the FX-300 Ninja Cup, Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance (YMI) with YRT and InsureMyRide with Glenn Scott. They’re everywhere!

Image: Alex Gobert.

Image: Alex Gobert.

Besides Allerton at the test, it really was the rising stars of the sport that stole the show. Sean Condon was consistently fast on his ZX-10R with Frank Pons in his corner and he will shine in the ‘big leagues’ against the best in the country this season.

The Yamaha trio of Cru Halliday, Robbie Bugden and Kev Curtain were difficult to monitor. Halliday was immediately quick and seamlessly re-adapted to the YZF-R1, while Bugden slowly but surely gained momentum as the day went on. He hadn’t been to the circuit in 10 years and said it was far tighter and more technical than he even remembered.

To put Halliday’s speed in perspective, Curtain, Rick Olson and Broc Parkes were in the high 58s last year from memory and Halliday is knocking on the door there already in a low-pressure testing environment. Yesterday’s conditions were perfect, if not a little too warm in the mid-stages of the day, and tyre usage was critical – you had to be on new rubber at the right hour of the day.

Bugden will be fast as the season progresses and as we’re well aware, the Yamaha takes some time getting used to. Last year Parkes took his time to gel and eventually won the title – it’s a lengthy season. Compared to his Suzuki ASBK bike from last year claimed at around 220 horsepower, the R1 has been measured at around 165hp to 170hp (but keep dyno variances in mind).

Curtain was surprisingly off the pace, more than a second behind Allerton and 0.9s from Halliday. The team wasn’t willing to share his 1m00.0 lap time post-test after Curtain had departed, but a quick call to Kev on the trip home confirmed his fastest lap.

And we’re glad we did contact him too, because although the lap time wasn’t where it could have been, the veteran wasn’t overly concerned since he posted times in the 58s last year. What Curtain was doing was trying a variety of settings and geometry changes, but ultimately went back to his 2013 settings convinced that high 58s is the absolute best the bike is capable of.

But the scary thing is as I mentioned above, Allerton believes his BMW has a lot left in it. He’s done a 58.0s before and with the company of Team Honda Racing come race time, 57s aren’t out of the question, which is lightening quick. In fact, some stop watches had Allerton at 58.3s yesterday, but he was only owning up to the 58.5s we reported.

Image: Alex Gobert.

Image: Alex Gobert.

Halliday, Condon, Scott, Mike Jones and even Troy Herfoss will be new faces establishing themselves as elite riders in the sport this year, plus when you add in Josh Hook and Matt Walters – two riders absent yesterday – the sport’s future is bright.

Speaking of Herfoss, with Hook unfortunately injured and out for at least round one, he’s in line to replace him alongside Jamie Stauffer on the factory Honda team for Wakefield Park’s opener and that will be a huge benefit for him after over 12 months off. The expertise and base setting he’ll find working with Paul Free will be vital for the following rounds.

It was also nice to see Beau Beaton back at ‘home’ aboard a Ducati and he too gelled nicely with the Panigale 1199. He’s working with Pro-Twins legend Craig McMartin this year and is yet another quality rider that has the ability to impress throughout the season.

But anyway, it was a good test, the vibe was quite positive albeit low-key, and we’re in for a strong season of racing. It’s been a lot of years since the mood has been so up-beat, which is exactly what the sport requires right now.

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.

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