Features 29 Jan 2025

Five Questions: Glenn Allerton

Veteran on quest for fourth ASBK title with Superbike Advocates Racing.

Three-time champion Glenn Allerton has been one of the key storylines as we approach the 2025 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), joining a new team in Superbike Advocates Racing onboard Ducati V4 R machinery. With his sights set on a fourth premier class title, CycleOnline caught up with the ever-determined 44-year-old for this latest Five Questions feature.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Glenn, tell us a little bit about the Superbike Advocates Racing team. We obviously learned a little bit about it after the announcement at the end of last year and now we’re one month out from the ASBK opener, so how’s everything coming along?

So far, it has been awesome. It’s always been a dream of mine to have a team that’s running Ducatis – the budget and the team are really solid. I’ve been able to pick the mechanics and personnel involved in the team that I wanted, so we’ve got a really good program.

You mentioned being able to pick mechanics and personnel – who have you got involved in the team for this season?

Our crew chief for this year is Mathew Casey, he’s spent about 30 years in the MotoGP paddock working as an electronics engineer for guys like Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Dovizioso and plenty of others. His experience is already invaluable to the team, and the professionalism he brings to the operation is second to none. Every session is planned out with tyre runs and suspension runs, so everything is coming together really well. We’ve still got Jake Skate on the electronics, he’s been really helpful with setting this whole team up. His knowledge and background with the electronics and what it takes to get everything set up has been awesome. Plus, we’ve got Paul and Tom as the mechanics from last year, so the team is looking good.

Being on the Ducati Panigale V4 R for 2025, how has the adjustment to the new bike been so far?

The base set-up is so good and we’ve been able to go really fast straight away. The bike is really unique in a way that you actually feel like you have to slow down to go fast. If I try to rush, the lap times are slower, so I’ve been working on slowing my entry down to get the corner right so I can use the acceleration of the Ducati. It frees up your head space when you’re riding, and you can work on technique, then the bike rewards you for correct technique.

Image: Russell Colvin.

That’s awesome. We know you guys are quite limited in terms of how much time you get on the bike prior to going racing, so how much riding have you gotten to do on the new platform?

I’ve had about five days on the bike now, and every time I get on it, I feel more confident. I had one day on the V4 R before the Sydney Motorsport Park night race, which was a pretty cool outing. I didn’t do the qualifying session because the track was half wet and half dry. So I started the race from the rear of the grid, and there were some fast guys there, like Josh Brookes and Mike Jones. I managed to get to the lead by about the fourth lap, so it was good to be able to come from the back and get all the way up to the front. We were battling some ECU issues because it is still standard, we’re waiting on some components to come so that we can fit our Motec onto the bike. That’s being done right now, but at the night race, we showed that we were really strong. I was convinced that I won a couple of the races because I was in the lead when the red flag came out. But, they have a different points scoring system at those races and they go back nearly two laps to when every rider on the track completed their last lap. So, I kind of got two wins taken off me that night, but overall, it was a great outing and a really positive first hit out. The feeling I have with the bike is the most important thing, and I feel really good on it. We headed to Phillip Island last weekend also, and they had a practice day on the day before the race. We’d had some refined settings in the suspension after Sydney, the guys at YSS had put together some stuff for me to try at the Island. It was a step in the right direction, the bike had a lot more stability on its side. I qualified on pole there and went on to win the first two races, I was actually surprised by the lap times. With the standard ECU, the bike doesn’t want to accelerate hard at full lean angle – there’s quite a lot of restriction based on the road setting ECU. Once we get the race ECU in and can fine-tune it, we can extract a lot more speed out of the bike. So, every part of it has been positive, everyone is doing a great job and the feeling is very positive, we’re having fun and every time we make a change to the bike we go forward.

At this stage in your career – being one of the older guys on the grid – do you believe that with this team and on this bike, you can contend for a fourth ASBK title?

For sure. Last year, we showed that we could be right up the pointy-end and challenge at the front. We just had a run of bad luck, as every racer does. But, with this platform, I can’t see why we can’t get up and win a championship. At some points last year, I did beat everyone who was in the hunt for the top three, so the speed is there. In our sport, it’s about having a complete package. You need a good team as much as you need a good rider, and I believe that we have that for this season. That’s why I’m doing it because I want to win another championship. I’m not out there just riding around because I just want to be out there. The only goal for me is to win the championship, that’s why we’re out there.

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