Image: Keith Muir.

Callum Spriggs will enter the second round of the 2014 Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship as the rider to chase after attaining the lead in the Supersport championship standings at the opening round.

Wakefield Park’s first event of the season saw Spriggs take the initial series lead in the Supersport division, which provides a comfortable buffer for the Queenslander leading into Mallala’s second round on Sunday.

“The first round at Wakefield Park was certainly a successful one for us and this has seen me take the series lead,” Spriggs said. “We worked on securing a lot of consistency with both our setups and lap times there and this really helped me develop my knowledge of the track with a second round there later in the year.

“Going into this weekend I have a lot of goals, the most important of which to maintain my series points lead. There are a lot of good riders in the Supersport field, including some local challengers so I will be focussing on getting to the front early and staying there for the all-important races.”

Recent testing at Mallala for Spriggs has helped him greatly in preparing for round two, with a focus on preparing his Yamaha R6 for the tight and technical layout. Working alongside XXX Rated Race Suspension, Spriggs believes he is ready to take on every encounter at the three day event.

“Our testing at Mallala has proven it is a very hard to track to get used to,” he added. “It’s very technical and features a lot of different corners that challenge me as a rider to be on my game every second of the lap.

“I really worked hard to deliver the right feedback to get a strong dry setup for the race meeting.”

Spriggs’ advantage currently rests at five points from fellow Yamaha runners Aaron Morris and Aiden Wagner.