Source: Supplied.

Australian debutant Anthony West has gone on record that he’s more suited to a 1000cc and he backed up his claims this afternoon with ninth in World Superbike race one at Sepang.

West’s first-ever WorldSBK appearance has been a stunning one on board the privately-run Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R, the 34-year-old 11th in Superpole 2 and ninth in a gritty opening affair.

“The team were very happy when I got back to the box, they were all cheering and patting me on the back,” West reflected. “It’s a good feeling, you know you’ve done a good job.

“It’s the first time on the bike and it has been a bit crazy, new people, new bike, I’ve had a lot of fun jumping on it. Last week I didn’t know what I was going to do this weekend, so it’s great to just jump on the bike and get a decent result.

“It’s strange to be here in WorldSBK, after so many years and I’ve done every other world championship. WorldSBK was the only one I hadn’t done and I’ve finally done it today, so it’s a good feeling and I think it’s a good achievement with that result.”

West will now work toward an even better result in Sunday’s second race, taking advantage of a full race to his credit, in a bid to cement himself in the WorldSBK top 10 once again.

“We wanted to make a change for race one and actually for qualifying as well as I’m starting to understand the bike,” he added. “But going into qualifying we didn’t want to do it.

“Going into the race we made a small change and it was the right step so we’re going to make a big change for tomorrow’s warm up, take a risk and see what happens.”