Image: Andrew Gosling.

Motorcycling Australia (MA) CEO Peter Doyle has outlined the importance of the YMF Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) aligning with the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC).

Cooperating together as a double-header in The Bend Motorsport Park’s first-ever motorcycle race weekend, the ASBK/ARRC combination has proven a popular mixture in South Australia this week.

With ASBK continuing to excel and the Asia series growing in stature by the year internationally with an immense amount of direct factory involvement, Doyle – who is also the vice president of FIM Oceania – says it is an ideal opportunity for the two series to tighten relations.

“The concept is great and the event has gone okay – it hasn’t been without its issues,” Doyle told CycleOnline.com.au. “Any new venture and new venue such as The Bend is going to be like that. Everybody is going to learn a lot, but so far, so good.

“Having the FIM Oceania and Asia cooperation and collaboration, opening the gateway for Asians to come into Australia and also for Australians to have that communication and contact with the Asian teams is important. As you can see, the Asian teams are heavily-supported by a list of Japanese factories. For the future it will be beneficial for many riders.

“I think it’s common knowledge that the ARRC is going to 1000cc next year and, this weekend, we have Asia, New Zealand and ASBK [representatives] here. We’re having discussions and some of those are centring around harmonising those regulations in those areas. That can also only be beneficial.

“In December 2015, that was when I first flew to Buriram and met [ARRC director] Ron Hogg, to discuss how we become closer with Asia and this is the result of that. It just so happened that The Bend popped up in the meantime, it fits the standards of FIM Asia and what they want to do in this championship.”

This weekend sees both the ASBK (Superbike, Supersport and Supersport 300) and ARRC (SuperSports 600cc, Asia Production 250cc and Underbone 150cc) share the racing program with three categories each, spread across the four days of competition.