It was a promising start to the 2023 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) season for Cru Halliday, particularly in the first three rounds, and despite misfortune throughout the year that has dropped him down in the standings, the premier-class contender has underlined that he can’t be counted out of contention at the front. The Yamaha Racing Team rider looks to finish the season on a positive note, and shares on the ASBK mid-year break plus his future racing ambitions in this latest Fast Thoughts interview.

The extended mid-season ASBK break…

To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of the big break, it’s like 15 weeks. I think that is too long of a gap in my eyes, I think they need to try to put another round in or shift all of the rounds closer together so we actually get an off-season. I’m pretty sure the break from Morgan Park to Phillip Island, the next round, is bigger than the last round to the first round next year. So, we don’t really get an off-season, you have basically got to train the whole time and in my eyes it’s not a good thing, but it is what is it, it’s how they have set it out. I’ve basically been working and training, been hitting the cycle bike pretty hard, just trying to keep fit. Other than that, haven’t really had that much track time. I rode out at Eastern Creek last week, just to sort of get my bearings back then headed down to Phillip Island last Thursday, and yeah, feeling a bit rusty at first then came up to speed pretty quick.

Updates brought to the table for the final two rounds… 

Honestly, not really. We’ve got data from Phillip Island, as you’ve seen in previous years Mike and I have been at the pointy end, it’s just trying to close the gap to the Ducati. They are not going to do anything outside of the rules, I think as riders Mike and I need to improve on our lines and our pace to get a bit closer to the Ducati. But yeah, I don’t think there is anything in development for us before the next round.

Drawing confidence from good form on GP-style tracks earlier this year… 

The only bad thing about me heading into this round, is I had a big crash last Thursday which sucked my confidence going through The Hayshed. It was quite fast, and I didn’t get to ride after that. You know when you finish a day with a crash in the back of your head, you go home and think how could you have avoided it. I know what I can do down there, we weren’t really riding on the tyres that I raced on down there before. There were windy, cold conditions, but as I said, if you look back I can definitely take confidence to the next round from my performance at round one, and obviously round two as well, as you said, both GP-style tracks. Looks like Mike [Jones], Troy [Herfoss], and Glenn [Allerton] were down there not so long ago at the Victorian titles, and they all went a good pace so it looks like they might have even picked up the pace around there too. So it is going to be interesting.

Physical condition after The Hayshed testing crash…

Nah man [no major injury], just pretty bruised up. It was a pretty fast crash, but just got another whack to the ribs, but I’ve already had one of them at Darwin so it got me on the same side but basically bruising. I’m good to go, I’m pretty sure I was training two days after it. Just need to try to minimise those mistakes.

Desire to secure future with the Yamaha Racing Team…

Of course, I’ve been with Yamaha for so long, of course, it’s important to finish the year off… I’m outside of the points to the top three really, so I am basically just trying to go for race wins. You know the competition has been so hard this year, it is quite an achievement just to win a race. I would love to be with Yamaha again, but there are a lot of other riders trying to shoot for that ride, so I just need to see what I can do and hopefully, I can secure a ride for next year.

Duration left in racing career… 

I’ve always said to my fiance that I’d never race if she got pregnant, not saying that she is [laughs]. I don’t think I would race if I was in that situation. But I have still got fight in me, you can tell by, most people probably see the angry side to me after a race when I don’t go too good, but in my eyes I think that is a bit of pride that wants me to achieve better for myself. I’ve still got a lot of fight in me, and there is still a lot of fire in the heat.