It’s amazing to think that we’re essentially at the halfway point of the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli when the series reaches Sydney Motorsport Park’s third stop this weekend.

Yesterday a lot of the Superbike and Supersport riders were on track for a Stay Upright ride day, before official proceedings get underway today. It’s going to be another incredible weekend of racing, boasting strong fields and world class competition.

It’s really good to hear Jamie Stauffer will be back from injury with Crankt Protein Honda Racing alongside title leader Troy Herfoss. Wakefield Park replacement Ant West is all the way across at Assen for his second World Supersport wildcard of the year (more on that below).

When you factor in the factory Honda duo, Yamaha Racing Team trio Glenn Allerton, Wayne Maxwell and Cru Halliday, DesmoSport Ducati’s Mike Jones and top privateers Daniel Falzon, Brayden Elliott, Ben Burke, as well as guest entries Matt Walters and Michael Blair (plus even more), there’s good depth on the grid.

Image: Keith Muir.

Phillip Island’s the fastest circuit on the schedule, Wakefield Park is one of the tighter ones, and Sydney Motorsport Park is probably right in the middle. It’s technically challenging in its nature, but still has open spaces to really get flowing. It’ll mix things up once again for season 2016.

And meanwhile, make sure you catch a couple of films released this week from the Wakefield weekend, including a Viral film from Yamaha Motor Australia’s bLU cRU and a specific CycleOnline.com.au tour of the Honda team transporter. There’s lots going on, that’s for sure.

Possibly the biggest – and most shocking – news of all this week was when Motorcycling Australia swiftly announced the appointment of sporting director Peter Doyle as the new acting CEO on Monday. He’s the fourth person in the chair since David White’s departure in 2014 and hopefully we end up seeing things stabilise at this point.

Doyle, who is universally recognised as one of the sport’s top crew chiefs and as the man behind Mat Mladin’s seven American Superbike Championships, stands in for David Cottee, who was in the position only since December last year.

It’s a strange turn of events after Cottee seemed so confident and capable in the job at hand, however the only official info supplied was that they parted ways due to ‘personal reasons’. Regardless, lets move on, hope to see Doyle’s experience and knowledge from within the sport come to the fore for everybody’s sake.

West meanwhile, as mentioned, has returned to the world championship at Assen. It’s a complete privateer effort, partly supported by crowdfunding, and we’re hoping his effort pays off with another podium. Ant’s adventures are definitely worth following on social media, he’s faced all kinds of challenges to get to this one and he’ll be eager to get on the bike for FP1.

Image: Russell Colvin.

The addition of West back on the grid makes for a stacked field of Australians on the grid in World Superbike and its sub-categories this weekend, with Josh Brookes and Josh Hook in the premier class, Aiden Wagner, West and Lachlan Epis in WorldSSP, plus Bryan Staring in STK1000 for his final go-around in the class.

Speaking of Aussies doing well on the world stage, a huge congratulations must go to experienced Taree brothers Alex and Damo Cudlin for their podium results in the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours! And right behind them was Aaron Morris, a rookie in the series, fourth on debut, and Broc Parkes soldiering to 11th with just two riders. It was a remarkable weekend for the crew.

It was also fantastic to hear this week that Phillip Island has secured contract extensions for the next decade to host MotoGP World Championship and WorldSBK events at the picturesque seaside venue. Fans worldwide will be excited to hear that officially announced by the circuit and Dorna.

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