Image: Foremost Media.

Progress continues to be made by Matt Walters onboard the Aprilia RSV4 1100 and the longtime Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) contender is eagerly awaiting upgrades to help boost his performance with the platform.

After an extended 13-year racing tenure with Kawasaki, Walters made the switch to Aprilia machinery for 2023 but entered the current campaign with minimal testing time, competing on a bike with limited modifications across the opening rounds.

Despite the duration of laptimes differing across each venue, the progress of Waters has been clear and he started the season by qualifying 13th at Phillip Island, 4.715s from pole, then reduced that deficit to the front of the grid to 3.557s at Sydney.

Walters chopped the gap to P1 on the grid further at Queensland Raceway, 2.458s from the benchmark, and was even closer in qualifying this morning at Hidden Valley as a 1.06.942 saw him just 1.979s from Josh Waters (McMartin Racing Ducati).

“It was a little bit of hard work there in the end, but we just had to use what we can and use our resources,” Walters explained. “We don’t have a lot, but it’s going to be really good when we get the bike finally sorted out.

“There’s a lot more coming [for the Aprilia], including some spare parts [laughs]. Motec ECU and wiring harness for it, it still runs a street ECU with a key. A few more suspension parts and probably a little bit of a modified exhaust again for it, and hopefully the bike should be a lot better and move us further up the grid quite easily.”

Walters will start from 11th on the grid for the fourth round of the 2023 ASBK Championship, with race one at Hidden Valley commencing at 12:40pm local time.