Swann Insurance Kawasaki press release:

Swann Insurance Kawasaki’s Matt Walters worked his way through all kinds of adversity in the Hidden Valley round of the 2018 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), in what was one of his most challenging rounds of the season.

Walters ultimately displayed his top 10 pace in qualifying on Saturday, despite missing much of Thursday and Friday’s practice sessions, once again proving his capabilities aboard the Ninja ZX-10R.

Sunday was another difficult one for the Cessnock-based multiple national champion however, forced to charge through the pack to 12th position following an early off-track excursion in an inspired effort. He climbed the order from 24th place at the end of lap one.

The second race saw him caught up in another incident during the opening part of the 18-lap affair, going down on the opening lap and unfortunately putting a premature end to his weekend.

“Thursday was really difficult for us with a few issues that almost stopped us for the weekend, but we overcame those for Friday and got everything together,” Walters said. “I had limited time in practice, so qualifying as all about testing the suspension and everything, but it was still good enough for 10th and we were happy with that.

“It shows just how strong we actually were, but we just couldn’t prove it in the races because of a couple of incidents. They could have been avoided, but unfortunately they weren’t. It is what is, I was happy to get back to 12th in race one for some points, but then clipped the back of another rider in race two.”

“I was lucky not to be hurt in that one, but now we will move on and head to Morgan Park with a good attitude, try to put it all together from there. It’s positive to know that we qualified well and the one-lap pace was there this weekend, so we will head to the next one and try our best.”

Walters and the Swann Insurance Kawasaki team will now turn their attention to round five of the 2018 ASBK season, to be held at Morgan Park Raceway in Queensland from 17-19 August.

Like Matt Walters Racing on Facebook and visit www.asbk.com.au for further information on the series.