Features 12 Mar 2016

Cycle 360

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

We’re coming to you from the opening round of the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship in Sydney this weekend, which has a distinctly different feel to the 2015 season that wrapped up last December.

The factory teams of Honda and Yamaha are no longer here, nor is Mike Jones now on the factory DesmoSport Ducati, as each are focused on the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) fulltime this year.

But not all’s negative in the Swann Series as there are particularly strong fields throughout. Sure, they’re not full factory riders at the front of the Superbike field, but there’s some high calibre talent vying for the title and across the additional classes as well.

In fact, comparing one series to the other, they’re extremely different now and that’s a good thing. As long as there are enough riders to go around, at this point if there has to be the compromise of having two national series, then this is a relatively okay result for the sport.

Keep in mind though that this separation largely affects depth, especially in the premier class. While the factory guys are on those teams for good reason as typically the best in the country, quality racing requires depth (even if not all are capable of winning races) and it’d be nice to see everyone consistently against eachother.

Image: Keith Muir.

Image: Keith Muir.

If many of the other non-factory racers – still largely on quality teams in their own right – are in the Swann Series, we’re not going to witness as good of racing as we otherwise could be in the ASBK. It’ll still be great to watch and report on though, so lets see who turns up at Wakefield Park and who’s in for the remainder of the year.

And same goes in reverse. Although it’s great to see a mixture of very, very good motorbike riders battling up front in FX-ASC, without the top-level riders such as Troy Herfoss, Wayne Maxwell, Glenn Allerton and co, it lacks that real premium type of competition. As spectators and fans, the divide does still affect the end product of Australian motorcycle racing.

Each entrant makes their decision what series to enter for good reason and we respect that, regardless of what one they’re opting to contest. Some will even try to do parts of each, such as Matt Walters. A lot of the time it also is dependent on who’s supporting who and where sponsors prefer you to race as well.

But still, it is what it is, and so far it’s been a largely positive couple of days in Sydney. After a week of incredibly hot weather Friday was affected by showers and thunder storms in the area, but all has turned fine for race day Saturday this weekend. It’s another warm one and there’s lots of on-track activity for riders to work through.

I predicted Walters, Michael Blair and Ben Burke would be the main threats for this weekend in our Fan Guide and so far it’s been relatively close to the mark. Add in Robbie Bugden and we could see a four-way fight for victory at round one.

After a bit of a frustrating ASBK opener at Phillip Island, Walters was instantly on the pace in Sydney yesterday with the FX-Superbikes pole position and opening race wins on the new Ninja ZX-10R.

Image: Keith Muir.

Image: Keith Muir.

While the factory might isn’t here, Yamaha Racing Team’s current ASBK points leader Allerton is playing a whole different role here in Sydney as part of his GASD (Glenn Allerton Suspension Developments) business.

Allerton works with a number of privateers in his Sydney-based business including Blair and also does trackside support at the Stay Upright ride days at the venue, so it will be a busy weekend for him nonetheless.

Also this weekend we have round two of the Superbike World Championship at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand, a fortnight following round one in Australia. WorldSBK is shaping up to be unreal this year and today will see race one of the weekend.

Grillini Kawasaki Superbike class newcomer Josh Hook is still recovering from his injuries sustained at Phillip Island so he’s absent, while Australian round World Supersport hero Ant West wasn’t able to secure another spot on the grid for round two (he’s not giving up hope of returning later in the series though).

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