Image: Keith Muir.

The Swann Insurance 2016 Australasian Superbike Championship has undergone a number of changes in the lead-up to Sydney’s opening round on 11-12 March, designed to suit the non-factory entry list across all categories.

Sydney Motorsport Park will play host to the opening Australian FX-Superbike Championship on Friday and Australasian Superbike Championship on Saturday in a two-day twilight format, attracting a formidable list of privateer entries.

With last year’s dominant Honda and Yamaha factory teams departing the FX-ASC series in favour of the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), the six-round schedule will take on a new structure for the upcoming season.

The premier Ipone-backed Superbike category will return to a three-race format at all rounds this season, rather than having a pair of longer races at select events, and the top front-running A-graders have returned to Superbike after a year of campaigning Formula Oz.

Superbike has attracted a mixture of national level talent including the SA Kawasaki BCperformance squad of Robbie Bugden and Ben Burke, Kawasaki Connection Repsol’s Matt Walters, Ipone Yamaha’s Michael Blair, Racers Edge Performance Craig McMartin Racing Ducati’s Beau Beaton, LTR Honda’s Paul Byrne, LMR BMW’s Linden Magee, KTM’s Angus Reekie and more (click here for the complete entry lists).

This year will see the Formula Xtreme category combined with the Superbikes for three races across the weekends, as well as having a fourth standalone outing that will be televised. It’s a move that has the C- and D-grade competitors returning within the A- and B-graders once again.

In Supersport the major change confirmed is that they will return to running on slick tyres, rather than the treaded options that returns in recent years. It too will feature some of the finest rising talent in the country. With the series reverting to six rounds, the option to drop your worst round in supporting classes has been removed.

The revisions come following a turbulent off-season for the FX-ASC series, which will be operated under Recreation and Competitive Events Resources and Services (RACERS) sanctioning in 2016 after previous partner Australian Auto-Sport Alliance (AASA) aligned with ASBK organisers Motorcycling Australia (MA).

As a consequence, the FX-ASC was forced to drop the Winton and Wakefield Park circuits from its calendar, adding additional events in Sydney and Queensland respectively. The series will now be hosted between Sydney Motorsport Park (three rounds), Queensland Raceway (two rounds) and Mallala (one round).

Extensive television and livestreaming coverage will be back for the full season again, featuring three one-hour shows on SBS Speedweek per round, as well as three one-hour shows on Fox Sports – amounting in 36 hours of national television coverage between all categories. The series will also air in Europe, the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and much of South America.

Categories alongside the Superbike/Formula Xtreme and Supersport divisions will include the high profile Kawasaki Insurances FX300 Ninja Cup development series, run-what-you-brung Formula Oz, plus the mainstay Pro-Twins and Nakedbike class.