Source: Supplied.

Teenage international Lachlan Epis will line up in this weekend’s fifth round of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli at Morgan Park in Queensland.

World Supersport regular Epis will ride an aging Honda CBR1000RR in the Superbike category, as well as ride the Supersport 300 ranks with Next Gen Motorsports, following a successful shakedown at the official test earlier this month.

“When young ace Scott Nicholson from the Next Gen Motorsportsteam couldn’t ride for the next two rounds due to injury, I was asked to fill in on his Kawasaki Ninja 300 machine,” 17-year-old Epis explained. “We also have a 2010 Honda CBR1000RR Superbike and we thought it would be excellent training to do both classes and learn from Australia’s best. It will also be great for my fitness.

“Scotty’s bike is specifically set-up for him and we haven’t quite got into the zone yet. The Next Gen Motorsports team are a professional outfit and will have the bike primed for this weekend. The CBR1000RR in the Superbike class is just like a bigger Supersport 600, so I was closer in lap times than we all thought the bike was capable of, due to its age. We’ve installed several upgrades to the bike, so hopefully that puts us in good stead for the races.”

At the Morgan Park test Epis was seventh on the Supersport 300 time-sheets overall, just over a second outside of Oli Bayliss’ pace-setting lap-time, while in the Superbike category he was P15, 2.718s behind defending national champion Troy Herfoss.