Race Center director Darren Sciberras manages the Yamaha Motor Finance R3 Cup race support, introduced alongside this year’s YMF Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli. CycleOnline.com.au spoke to the former Victorian Supersport Championship winner about his newfound role.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Tell us about your involvement with the R3 Cup.

Our involvement with the Yamaha R3 Cup is providing the trackside support service. That ranges from things as simple as spare parts supplies and goes right through to advice, mechanical support, when a rider is unfortunate to have a crash with the crash damage support. We also offer some mentoring and coaching – with the R3 guys at every round we do a track walk and provide them with some tips and tricks to get around the track. Then we also provide them with tips and tricks on how to look after their bikes. Really, the main goal of it all is to have the spare parts truck at all the rounds, so the riders don’t have to carry as many spare parts themselves. And if a riders crashes, they will already have a part there in the truck at their disposal.

You touched on the subject of providing track walks at the rounds. The last two rounds at Morgan Park and Phillip Island, we have seen the 2011 FIM European Superstock 600 Champion Jed Metcher, doing the track walks with the R3 riders. Give us your view on having Jed there providing that unique experience for the riders.

It’s great to have Jed doing the track walks with us. This is because a lot of the guys know of Jed and they look up to him. Jed’s accomplishments obviously speak for themselves, so having him to do the track walk with us is fantastic, as the racers get it from his prospective, but it’s also real for them. It’s not like it’s this fictitious thing or something they can’t reach. He’s somebody who is talking to them in a way they can understand and helping them on the R3s. I think the great thing that Jed’s experience provides is the fact he has gone through all the little bikes which has included mini GPs, 125GP, then onto Supersport, then Superbikes. Jed started on the smaller bikes, so he can relate to the Yamaha R3s. It’s a big eye-opener for these young kids and people who are new in the sport, who go ‘wow, Jed use to race one of these types of bikes’. There is a lot that can be learnt in racecraft, so it’s great to have Jed there for the riders.

How have you found working with new riders in the sport?

Awesome! It’s refreshing to work with new riders and seeing the enjoyment that they have when they come back into the pits. Being involved with the sport for so long, you sometimes forget what that first thrill is like. When you see these guys and girls come in from their first handful of races and they have been dicing and their close, they are freaking out, they think it’s awesome. It is awesome. To be honest it’s been amazing to work with these young riders. The R3 Cup is a great initiative by Yamaha.

There are some relatively experienced riders in the R3 field as well.

I think if you look at Callum [Alderson], he is doing an amazing job on the R3. We obviously worked quite closely with Callum last year, so it’s great to see him doing so well. There are also guys like Zac Levy, even fellas like Aiden Hayes, Hunter Ford and Ty Lynch who have been doing super-well. It just shows the depth of field. It sort of gives the guys who are starting out somewhere to start, but also an indication where they need to aim for. I think the riding of the guys at the front of the R3 Cup they showing a quality in the class. I think they are also providing massive amount of entertainment in their racing.

What keeps you most busy over the course of a race weekend?

What keeps us busy is Adrian Nestorovic having to go through his food break every two hours – we have to get the food truck in for him [laughs]. In all serious, it’s a range of things. Obviously we run a development team in the Supersport field, where we help a couple of riders, so that keeps us busy as well as attending to the R3 guys. It’s normally full on with advice, mechanical support and spare parts. It’s a full on job.

Source: Supplied.

Does it take much to get a Yamaha R3 set up for racing?

Not really. There is a race kit with the bike and packages, which is very reasonably priced. Because of the support team, you are going to have someone there to help you and guide you through it. You can farm out all the work to Race Center. For example we can do all the mechanical work and preparation, or you can do it yourself and just ask us for advice where you need it. The great thing about this class is it’s designed to be very basic modifications to keep the cost down and keep it very accessible. There is experience there if you need it. So Yamaha have done a great job with the Yamaha Motor Finance R3 Cup, because it is very accessible. There is not much to get going.

What’s been the highlight round for you thus far and why?

There are probably two highlights for myself. The most recent was the last round at Phillip Island in August, which was held in conjunction with the Victorian Road Racing Championship (VRRC). Reason why I select that is because there was great atmosphere in the paddock with everybody. It was our biggest grid so far in the series and at an iconic track like Phillip Island, it was just a great weekend. The track walk was lots of fun and just to see everybody getting along. At the start of the season everyone was getting to know each other, but now the competitors have formed a really close bond with eachother, which is great to see. The other standout was the first round at Wakefield Park. On the Friday morning there was so much work to do, running around and helping people that didn’t quite get enough prepared, as the class came together so quickly and it was so popular straight away. The class formed and there was so much work to do, so Wakefield Park was pretty crazy, but we got through it. It was a pretty awesome experience.

Finally, what do you think the future holds for the YMF Yamaha R3 Cup?

Well, what we hope to do is make racing more accessible to people. There are heaps of people doing track days and never take the leap to go racing. These bikes, the Yamaha YZF-R3s, are small in cubic capacity and maybe small in power compare to what someone might go out on in a track day outing, but the thrill and the excitement of actually going racing is nothing like it. The Yamaha R3 Cup is a great class for people to learn their skills and learn about racing, so we hope over the next two years that the class really grows and more people that wouldn’t normally go racing, get involved. The great thing at the moment is they can come and race alongside the Australian Superbike Championship series, which is a pretty awesome series in itself.