Image: Foremost Media.

A switch to Ohlins suspension is promising for Glenn Allerton and the GT Racing Team with the three-time Mi-Bike Australian Superbike (ASBK) champion quickly comfortable in Darwin and confident there is more to come.

Hidden Valley marked the first time this season Allerton and the team competed with Ohlins, and despite a crash in the final outing, the number 14 delivered strong form to finish third in both races one and two.

“We switched to Ohlins suspension in between races, my crew chief this weekend was Sam Costanzo who I’ve got a good relationship with and we had some technical help from Alpha Racing, they helped us with the setting of the new suspension straight up and I was really just comfortable with the bike straight away,” Allerton told CycleOnline.

“This is a track that I do really well at, so very happy to get on the podium. It’s bittersweet right now because I have just come off the back of a crash, even after the crash if I had been able to fire the bike straight up I think I would have got deep into the top 10. Unfortunately, the bike went into like a tip-over lockdown mode and I had to turn the whole system off, which took me about an extra 30 seconds to reset the bike and get it going.”

While Hidden Valley has been a strong circuit in the past for Allerton, his overall race time in both outings where he didn’t crash was faster than what he managed last year at the venue, despite dealing with a braking issue in Sunday’s first outing. Previously equipped with Bitubo Suspension, the BMW rider believes he has not reached his ceiling with the Ohlins yet and there is more to come out of the overall package.

“I’d probably say that we are at about 80 percent being that we haven’t had much time on the bike with it [Ohlins], and I feel like there is another 20 percent in the potential of the bike and the settings and electronics for us to go faster,” Allerton added.

“It’s looking positive. The bike is really strong, we got a new engine before this race – just a rebuild, fresh one, and it seemed really strong. I’m just happy with the direction that the whole thing is going.

“I’m disappointed with how we ended the day, but the overall direction of the team, we’re trending in the right way towards the front and getting on the podium in both races that we stayed upright in, that’s just good signs for the future and I can’t wait to get to Morgan Park.

Allerton has three podiums to his credit in the 2023 ASBK season – P3 in the first race of the season at Phillip Island plus his rostrum success in Darwin. He enters the fifth round of the season at Morgan Park fourth in the championship standings, a single point from third-placed Mike Jones (Yamaha Racing Team).