Image: Keith Muir.

Josh Hook’s first Australian Superbike outing with the Racer’s Edge Performance/McMartin Racing Ducati team resulted in sixth overall at Winton and there appears to be more to come for the high-profile international.

On debut aboard the Panigale R in place of Beau Beaton, Hook has quickly adapted to the Ducati and registered 6-6 results in Victoria, but admitted he wants more in the coming rounds.

“The Ducati’s really nice and it didn’t take long to get to grips with it – Craig McMartin had it in the window first thing,” Hook told CycleOnline.com.au. “We got off to a slow start, but come to grips quite quickly and the guys were obviously running a fast pace all weekend.

“Overall it was a pretty good weekend, we’ve gotta be happy with sixth place, being not at the test here a couple of weeks back. I’d like to be a lot further up fighting for the podium, but it is what it is and we knew it was going to be hard. Sixth met the team’s expectations, but it didn’t meet mine – the bike’s definitely capable of getting a podium.”

As Beaton did in the opening rounds, Hook has managed to place the Bridgestone-equipped entry well inside the top 10 already and has vast experience with the Japanese brand – albeit different specification tyres – in World Endurance. He’s yet to extract optimal performance out of them locally, however.

“The biggest issue for us was that we’re using the Bridgestone tyre obviously, but being the only Superbike rider in the field running them we haven’t got a lot of data about what works and what doesn’t, so we’ve got a fair bit of work to do with that.

“We knew qualifying was going to be our weak point, because it just doesn’t have the outright grip in the beginning, but towards the end we maintain our lap-time right the way through. We were picking off positions towards the end and that worked in our favour. We just need to work to be more competitive in the first seven or eight laps.”

With Winton complete and a two-month break now scheduled in the Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli series, Hook will head back to Europe for the German round of the Endurance World Championship with TSR Honda on 20 May.