A selection of riders detail their day at Winton’s third round of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli. Team and privateer competitors can submit comments to [email protected] prior to the Friday after events for inclusion in the post-event Quotebook feature.

Superbike

Image: Keith Muir.

Cru Halliday (IPONE/YMF/YMI/Yamaha) – Third overall:
Overall it has been a good weekend for the team and I. I knew we would be strong at the end of each race, so it was important that I maintained good track position in the early stages. It’s good to get on the podium and the team did a great job all weekend.

Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team) – First overall:
It was a strange race as Troy [Herfoss] and I were strong in the first sector of the race track, then in the second and third sector I was stronger, while Troy was strong in the final sector. My only passing opportunity was in the second sector. Troy just kept fighting back and I couldn’t get clear air. However, with three laps to go I managed to get clear air and managed to win. The Yamaha YZF-R1M was a great package here this weekend. To be able to do those lap times one after another is no mean feat. The guys at Yamaha Racing Team have given me a great bike to go racing on this weekend. The bike and the tyres were consistent. I just tried to hit a number and stuck to it. I’m so happy to come away with pole position yesterday and the double race win today as it’s a nice way to repay back the team for all of their hard work. The team and I are going to have to try and keep that momentum going into the next round and for the rest of the season.

Daniel Falzon (Caterpillar JD Racing Yamaha) – Fifth overall:
The result wasn’t ideal this weekend. We came into this round with the expectation of still leading the championship when we left Winton, which we have done that but I would have like to have gone a little better. We learnt from our mistakes from race one and we won’t do what we did again. I just tried to stay with Cru for as long as I could and together we raced backwards and forwards but he was able to make it stick by the end of the race.

Callum Spriggs (DesmoSport Ducati) – 16th overall:
In the first race the exhaust split and that put us out of that one, so that set us back a bit. In the second one it was all me. I was going good at the start, but once the tyre wear set in I had nothing left. I missed out on the experience of a full race in the first one, so anyway, I’ll have to go back and keep working on myself, then hopefully we can get a bit better again for Darwin.

Robbie Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance) – Fourth overall:
It wasn’t one of the weekends where it came easy, but we worked hard and we got the Ninja ZX-10R pointing in the right direction. Right away we realised it was going to be fairly challenging from the beginning, especially with the soft tyre selection, we struggled to get a fast qualifying lap time but the BCperformance Kawasaki Racing team did a great job and we went faster every time we rode the bike. Once the first race started we lacked a little with the harder tyre in the first half but we were consistent throughout the race and we pulled a few positions to get into second place. I was chasing down the lead but to finish second was a really good result considering how we started. I lost a lot of distance in the early part of race two, getting held up but once I got clear, I could lap as fast as anyone. We made up a few positions and got into 5th but with a couple of more laps I think we could have done better. To come away with second and fifth was a good result for us and I’m really pleased with the team’s bike. Championship-wise we are getting closer to the lead so it’s looking like a five-horse race and we are definitely in for a shot with the Ninja ZX-10R.

Kyle Buckley (Kawasaki BCperformance) – 10th overall:
I wasn’t 100 percent for the weekend because I fell off during training before the round, so it took me most of the day to work up the speed. On Saturday we made a few adjustments to the bike and I ended up with P12 on the starting grid. In the first race I didn’t use the last half of the race well but I raced full pace in the second race which I was pleased with and I was the top rookie in the last race which is what we have been aiming for all year so I am pretty happy with that and we are in a good frame of mind for the next round. I’ve got an amazing bike and team, plus Robbie on my side and he doesn’t keep any secrets when I ask him for some advice, which is a huge help as well.

Matt Walters (Swann Insurance Kawasaki) – 19th overall:
It was definitely one of our more challenging weekends. It’s probably the worst result of my career, to be honest, which isn’t a good thing to be saying, but it’s certainly character-building. We finished the second race and that gave us a lot of info about the bike over race distance, so we can only build on that. We will try to turn this around over winter, get back to Darwin where I’ve had a lot of success, and things should go a fair bit better than Winton. We tried a lot of things and the result wasn’t through a lack of trying, that’s for sure. It just didn’t happen, which is disappointing, but we can’t really dwell on it and the plan from here is to push-on as hard as we can. We will most likely go to Sydney for some testing, but aside from that I’ll work hard on fitness, ride motocross and by the time we get to the back-half of the season we should be back on track for some strong finishes again.

Supersport

Image: Keith Muir.

Tom Toparis (Cube Racing) – Seventh overall:
I think it’s okay to say we struggled a little this weekend, but the pace we were running was pretty good and we were fast. We did the best we could and all in all, it was a good weekend to learn a lot as a team. I had fun this weekend and the weather was perfect, so we will move onto Darwin positively and I’m happy to be fourth in the championship now.