News 16 Oct 2018

Stellar Phillip Island outing grants Walters top privateer honours

Swann Insurance Kawasaki rider fifth at Victorian ASBK finale.

Image: Russell Colvin.

A stellar fifth overall placing at Phillip Island’s Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) finale at the weekend ultimately promoted Swann Insurance Kawasaki’s Matt Walters to the top of the privateer standings in the premier class.

Walters qualified eighth on the grid with a new personal best lap of 1m33.549s around the high-speed Victorian circuit, before going on to register 9-5 results across Sunday’s pair of 12-lap premier class races.

The top five placing to cap off a brilliant year for the Kawasaki ace was not only rewarded with top privateer honours, but it also saw him wind up seventh in the overall championship rankings.

“The set-up has felt really good in the last couple of rounds and I recorded my best lap-time at Phillip Island,” Walters reflected. “Race one wasn’t too bad and managed to claw back a few points on [Alex] Phillis, which was the main objective to take the privateer championship.

“In the second race I got a better start and was happy with it, saw some people have bad luck and I just kept pushing on. I made my way to fifth in the race, which was enough to win the privateer championship and it’s really nice to meet our goal and target.

“We’ve had a number of DNFs out of everybody’s control, so it’s really rewarding to come through with the top privateer award and the guys in the pits who are largely my family and mates have worked so hard and it’s been great. It’s a reward for them and it’s a reward for me, especially having a pretty good time doing it as well.”

Phillip Island’s finale marked Walter’s last Superbike appearance of the year, despite a support race being hosted at the end of the month in conjunction with the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

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