In Quotebook, a selection of riders detail how their races played out at round six of the 2023 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at Phillip Island.

Superbike

Image: Foremost Media.

Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) – Fourth:
It’s been a tough weekend so far to find an outright lap time. Seems like everyone was struggling to do their best times, and certainly wasn’t helped with the wind picking up quite a lot like it does at the Island. The way race day panned out, I’m pretty happy to come away with fourth overall. It’s a positive way to end the day after a few challenges. Overall, I was happy we had good pace with the leading group. We now leave Phillip Island and head to the final round of the Championship equal on points with Josh [Waters]. Coming from the start of the year to now, we have the Penrite Honda CBR1000RR-R SP working so much better, which is a huge credit to the entire team. I’m just really proud for Honda to be showcasing what the bike can do around the Phillip Island circuit

Mike Jones (Yamaha Racing Team) – 11th:
I’m not overly happy with the results and felt I should have done much better given the speed I was able to ride it. Simply put, I should have turned that into a podium for the round at the very least or even a round win. I feel I let the team down as they gave me a bike good enough to win. The crash in race one was on me, I just pushed a bit too deep and went a bit heavy on the front brake and the front disappeared before I could react. The second race, I caught Josh pretty easy and made a decision to sit behind him and make a charge at the end. But then when I went to get on it, I just didn’t have the grip. I could see the other guys were the same, but maybe they just handled it better than me. The positives to take from the weekend was that it was the best I have raced here and the closest I have been to the front. I feel I improved around the track and next time we race here, I will be better again.

Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team) – Second:
It’s been the best round of the year so far for me and to finally get a race win was a huge relief. It has been far too long between race wins so it was good to get one done and give the team some job satisfaction after the last few rounds I have had. Phillip Island has been good to me lately and I was desperate to get the round win. I gave it everything in the final race, but Josh had a couple of good spots on the track where he would gap me a little, then I had to keep winding him back in. I thought I had a chance in one section of the track, but just couldn’t get close enough to make it happen. But all up a great weekend and some much-needed confidence heading into the final round at The Bend in a few weeks’ time.

Glenn Allerton (GT Racing Team BMW)  – Seventh:
A little disappointed in our results and performance but we improved our position in the championship to third, onwards to The Bend and finishing strong.

Broc Pearson (DesmoSport Ducati) – Fifth:
Although deep down, I’m disappointed in fifth overall, it was a strong weekend for us on the new bike. In practice, we immediately found some pace we were missing in testing, but if I’m honest, I didn’t expect pole in qualifying, but the team did a great job to give me a fast bike and we put ourselves in the best position to get the best lap done and I’m proud of what we achieved together. We knew it would be tough in the races to keep up with the leading group as our pace on the race tire was not very strong throughout the weekend but at a circuit I have never really gelled with, The results give me a lot of confidence as we go to The Bend where I really enjoy the circuit and have a strong track record.

Ted Collins (Livson Racing BMW) – Ninth:
Round six of ASBK – Australian Superbikes is now in the books and we’re coming home with an 8-10 finish, I am walking away feeling quite positive. We were able to stick with a group and race hard this weekend which is a good feeling, and definitely felt as though we have bounced back well after luck hasn’t quite gone our way the past two rounds. We just need to find that little extra pace to catch the next group, but I know we can do it. Massive thank you to Livson Racing for their efforts this weekend. Lets finish the year on a high

Max Stauffer (GTR MotoStars Yamaha) – Third:
What. A. Day. So unbelievably happy, P3 and P5 in the two races today, and third overall, first Superbike podium. I’ll keep pushing forward. It’s coming.

Supersport

Image: Foremost Media.

Tom Toparis (Stop & Seal)  – Seventh:
I’m sore and my arm is broken, but I’m ok. I’ve had scans done on my head since I was knocked out when i first hit the ground, but at this point, I just need to rest up while we decide on the best plan for my arm and see how things go. I’m disappointed to finish the weekend this way, I really wanted to give everyone in the team two race wins on the 600 and I was planning on racing the Superbike in the second race for myself more than anything. With the new bikes being so new, we just went out on rode laps on Friday as a shake-down and to get comfortable, before starting to make some minor changes on Saturday to both bikes. We found an issue on the Superbike that prevented me setting a time in qualifying and meant I didn’t have 100 percent throttle until Sundays morning warm-up so I’m even happier with the progress we made there even though we missed setting a good time. For now, we’ll wait for the doctors to make some decisions on my arm and we’ll decide next steps from there.

Hayden Nelson (Stop & Seal)  – 14th: 
I learnt so much this weekend about riding a fast bike around Phillip Island. My Stop and Seal Cube Racing R6 is reasonably close with setup but after chatting with the team, I think it’s pretty clear I just need to keep riding the bike, and learn from everyone around me. I’m disappointed we had a DNF in the last race with a clutch issue, but we’ll learn from that too. All my attention now turns to The Bend for the last races of the season.