In Quotebook, a selection of riders detail how their races played out at round two of the 2023 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Superbike

Image: Foremost Media.

Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) – Third:
Our first night race went really well. It was a big weekend, there’s a lot to talk about! The whole team worked well together, considering we were missing two of our regular guys – Charlie and Ian. Thanks to Dan who filled in for us, I started my time at Honda with him on the team, so it was cool to have him back working with us for a weekend. I’m of course really happy with the results, to get another podium and second in race second was a highlight. We are looking to push on and bridge that gap to the front now. As far as the championship goes, it’s great to be second, really happy about that but we are wanting more so I’m looking forward to the next race and what’s to come.

Mike Jones (Yamaha Racing Team) – 16th:
It certainly wasn’t the weekend myself or the team wanted. It started out great on Friday and we were on the pace early and clicking off laps that were super competitive, so I was confident I good turn that into a good result on race day. But things just didn’t go our way. The mechanical issue in race one is no one’s fault and a freak thing that happens in racing. And I just was very conservative in the wet of race two. But the team worked tirelessly all weekend and never stopped trying. We will regroup, come up with a plan moving forward and come out fired up for round three at Queensland Raceway.

Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team) – Second:
The weekend has gone really well for me, and the team has worked so hard to get this result. We were fast right from the start, put up a good fight in every session and to be honest, maybe the thing that makes me most happy was a third in the last race in the wet. I’m usually pretty ordinary in the wet but that was probably my best result ever in the rain and I felt safe doing it. We come to every race trying to win it and while we didn’t get the win, I leave here feeling as motivated and as confident as I have in a long time and really happy to be able to give YRT a good result. You saw in qualifying how fast our bikes were as both Mike and I were going faster around here than we ever have before so the work the guys are doing during the week is showing up. I wish round three was tomorrow as I want to keep getting better and keep building this wave of momentum.

Glenn Allerton (GT Racing Team BMW) – Fourth:
It’s a great way to debut the GT Racing Team, and of course I want to win at my home race, but we missed the official test. So to get fourth for the round and lead laps, I am extremely happy with our result. 1.29.6 is a personal best for me in race one so we have a lot of positives to go forward with to Queensland, thanks for all the support from the guys on the team and our partners.

Broc Pearson (DesmoSport Ducati) – Seventh:
We had a few little issues on Friday, things that are quite unusual and just disrupted the rhythm that we needed to find throughout the practice sessions, but the guys really worked hard all day to give me a bike that worked for me when we got to qualifying. Being able to put in fast, consistent laps, my confidence grew pretty quickly, and I felt like we would be able to move forward in the races. I made a few small mistakes in race one and was working my way forward when the race was red-flagged. In race two, the track was still a bit wet in places but went with slicks and I actually really enjoyed pushing it a little in the conditions and I was a contender in the race, but then the rain bucketed down, and with wets on for the restart, I struggled a little for grip and hung in there for that sixth place. I just want to thank the team for everything this weekend. They are doing everything in their power to give me the tools I need to go fast, and although we didn’t hit our first milestone of a top five, it feels like it might not be far away.

Ted Collins (Livson Racing BMW) – Eighth:
For us, these results from round two show some really positive progression in comparison to round one with all of our testing in between these past few weeks really paying dividends to my final race results for round two. Racing under lights already presented a number of altering challenges, but with rain thrown into the mix and no prior wet testing or setup around here, we are honestly stoked to have come away with seventh place in race two. I think it really does put emphasis on how well the Livson Racing team work together, both in a controlled environment and when they are put under pressure in circumstances like race two – the rain was falling and we had no set-up, yet in as little as five minutes the team all knew exactly what had to be done to ensure I was jumping on the bike with a full bag of confidence going into turn one at race pace.

Max Stauffer (GTR MotoStars Yamaha) – Ninth:
ASBK under lights all finished. Certainly not the results I wanted over the weekend, we come across plenty of difficulties, but we live and we learn. P7 in the dry and P8 in the wet my best finishing position to date. We will keep working.