Features 27 Jul 2022

Five Questions: Broc Parkes

Former international on domestic racing comeback in 2022.

With a successful career at both an international and domestic level, Broc Parkes is set to make a racing return in this year’s Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), as well as contesting the support class races alongside the MotoGP World Championship at Phillip Island. CycleOnline spoke with the Yamaha rider to ask Five Questions about recent testing, expectations and motivations, and his aspirations beyond season 2022.

Image: Russell Colvin.

How did the two-day unofficial ASBK test go at Morgan Park? 

Basically I only got one proper session out of the days, because I had a flight booked back and had to work the next day. So, I missed the last session, we had sort of one session on the first day, and then one dry session on the second day, unfortunately not enough time on the bike. With the weather and stuff that has been happening lately, I haven’t had any time on the bike, it hasn’t been great to be honest.

What makes the 727 Moto Yamaha platform stand out? 

There’s a lot of new stuff on the bike, including the electronics package, running the MoTeC system. I’ve run always the YEC electronics, well mostly with the R1, so that is something that they wanted me to try and help out and develop, it’s why they got me to do some testing this year. Other than that, everything else is pretty standard on the bike, the Ohlins suspension and stuff like that is all the base sort of stuff, it’s not the R1-M type. With my experience with the R1, they want to develop the electronics for the future years.

Where do your expectations sit entering the upcoming races?  

Morgan Park for me was a top 10, that was like our goal, and then in the last two rounds we were hoping to be more competitive and be in the top five. It’s a bit hard at the moment to know, without being able to do any laps really at Morgan Park. From my side it’s not an ideal situation at the moment, it’s not a track you can just go to… I’ve rode a couple of times in twelve months, you can’t just rock up and be competitive. My goal really was for Phillip Island and The Bend to try and be competitive.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Why was the fire reignited personally to come back and race again? 

I really enjoyed the test at QR (Queensland Raceway) with the team. I felt like I was on the pace and felt good on the bike considering I hadn’t ridden in a long time. Morgan Park was a bit of a different scenario, I felt like I hadn’t been on the bike for 12 months when I went out. To be honest, I felt like after I rode at QR, I said to Travis [Schmitz, 727 Moto Team owner] that I would like to do some more testing, and maybe race at the end of the season for a couple of rounds, or even one round. I felt like I wanted to do it again, I had that drive to go and race again. We are not that keen to do Morgan Park, but we will just have to see where it is at, and if I can get a test before then and stuff like that. At the moment, it’s not going to be easy if I rock up there without any more testing.

Do you see yourself racing beyond 2022? 

Well my goal is… I want to come back and be strong. The package at the moment still needs a bit of work and I need some time on the bike to get it up to speed. My goal is to do well at Phillip Island, at the World Superbike round and the support races at MotoGP, and at The Bend, to hopefully get a full-time gig for next year. I’d like to be on a top bike in the championship and have a go.

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