Image: Foremost Media.

The feelings are positive for Max Stauffer who enters his second Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) premier class campaign looking to build on the progress made in his rookie season.

Stauffer stepped up to a superbike last year with GTR MotoStars after spending the previous two campaigns on a 600, achieving race-winning success and third overall in the 2021 Australian Supersport Championship before making the move.

2023 was a steep learning curve for the number 27, but he was able to make notable progress throughout the year on his way to ultimately finishing 13th in the championship standings. Particularly in the final two rounds, Stauffer was able to significantly decrease the deficit he faced to the leader at race-end, which is a promising sign for further steps forward entering the upcoming championship.

“I feel real positive going into it, I’ve done laps at all of the tracks now and I’ve got that first year out of the way,” Stauffer told CycleOnline.com. “It was a big thing to step into the Superbike class after two years on the 600 in covid times, so it wasn’t easy, but we got through the first year and I am really now starting to make a lot of progress and get quicker as time goes on.

“Time on the bike has been a big thing, I think just everything has got to be so right on a superbike for you to be fast, so I have been doing a lot of work with dad [Jamie Stauffer] to fix myself up and try different things too for myself to get the bike working a bit better.

“I’m trying to change my style up, and just little things like that. I think that has helped me a lot in the last few rounds, and we are starting to get the bike a lot more comfortable now, so on paper, we will try those different things a lot easier. I think that’s been the biggest thing for the progress we have made, the team is working together to try and get me further up the front.”

The 2023 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship officially commences on 1-2 February with the pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park, as round one gets underway later next month between the 26th and 28th.

“Obviously I want to be as far up the field as possible, just in front of me there is that big pack of riders just before sort of the top three or four, five I suppose, if I could be running in that group early on in the year and hopefully be at the front of that group towards the end of the year, or even in the group above that, I think that is a good goal,” Stauffer added.

“We’ve just got to wait and see you know because things change and I’d say the boys are going to go faster again this year, so I have just got to adapt through the year and keep working on ourselves and see what we can do to get going faster.”

Before the ASBK season gets underway, Stauffer will join a host of top-level talent competing at St George Summer Night Series races at SMSP, with rounds three and four taking place this Friday and Saturday night.