Hidden Valley Australian Superbike victor Josh Waters believes the recent test at Morgan Park will play an important role in this weekend’s fifth round of the championship at the Queensland venue.

The double Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) winner was overseas when the series first visited Morgan Park in 2015 and was on the sidelines last season.

“It was great to ride at Morgan Park Raceway for the first time at the official ASBK test,” Waters said. “The test was good for me, we had limited staff for the two days, but we achieved a lot and I hope we can make further steps during the practice sessions on Friday.”

Waters set a fast lap-time of 1m13.571s in the final session to place him fifth overall and 0.366s outside of Yamaha-mounted pace-setter Wayne Maxwell. It was a positive end to a vital shakedown at the Queensland venue.

“Although I was hoping for more, we’re still only three tenths off the leading pace,” the sole Team Suzuki Ecstar rider added. “The track has recently been resurfaced and lap-times should be extremely quick.

“The Suzuki was working great on the technical track and I hope we can dial it in even further to fight at the front. The field is extremely competitive at the moment, so it will be a challenge for sure.”

Waters enters the Morgan Park weekend with significant momentum on his side after scoring Superpole and both race wins last time out at Hidden Valley in the Northern Territory. Those results see him currently placed fifth in the standings, 35 points outside of Honda’s title-leader Troy Herfoss.