Words: Russell Colvin

South Australia’s Olly Simpson commenced his Australian Supersport Championship campaign in style at Phillip Island’s opening round of season 2025, with a solid third-place finish – on debut with the BCperformance Kawasaki team – showing that he can be a serious title contender this year. CycleOnline caught up with the 27-year-old to break down his performance in Conversation.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Olly, you’ve had a few rides onboard the BCperformance Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, namely two days at Phillip Island before the opening round of the Victorian Road Racing Championship, the Summer Night Series at Sydney Motorsport Park, and round one of the ASBK championship at the Island. How is the new machine so far and what are the biggest differences you’ve found compared to the Yamaha?

It’s been a big change, that’s for sure. So far, it’s been very good, though – I’m gelling with the Ninja ZX-6R nicely and that’s a credit to the BCperformance Kawasaki team as they have built a very good race bike. The ZX-6R does a lot of different things and also needs to be ridden differently to the R6 as well. In regards to cornering, the Ninja ZX-6R is far superior to the Yamaha for sure. Just corners in general, the bike is amazing. It was good to get the first round of the ASBK championship under our belts as I learned a lot from that weekend in understanding what the ZX-6R can do compared to the Yamaha, and one of those things was it being easier to make passes into corners.

How much have you had to change your riding style to suit the ZX-6R?

I’ve had to change it a little bit – I have to ride the ZX-6R a lot smoother. With the R6 I was able to ride it very aggressively, able to go into corners a lot harder and ride it in a way where I didn’t have to have much care. With the Kawasaki, it requires a bit more finesse, I reckon, compared to the Yamaha. That’s the main thing I have had to change with my riding style.

Image: Russell Colvin.

You have Bryan Staring in your corner for 2025. He’s one of the legends of the sport and comes with a wealth of experience. So far, have you asked him for any advice on how to adapt to this new bike or has he solely been helping you with the set-up side of things with the bike for now?

Mainly set-up so far because of the limited time we’ve had on the bike – we’re still finding our feet with the new motorcycle. There is still so much potential left in the bike, which is very positive for us, so right now Bryan and I have been focusing on the set-up side of the bike. It’s great to have Bryan in my corner because obviously he’s a former racer himself, and a very good one at that. This makes it a lot easier to share information with him, with how I want the bike set up, as he can understand that different ‘language’ that us racers sometimes use… That’s why it’s been really handy having him as my crew chief. As we get deeper into the season and get the set-up of the bike sorted and get down to the last nitty-gritty bits, for sure the conversations will start going towards the riding of the bike and finding those last few one percenters to pick up some time on track.

During the previous three seasons, you’ve run your own Supersport program, along with the Supersport 300 stuff with your brothers, Mitch and Jordy. How much easier is it now that you can simply turn up to a race meeting and not have to worry about all the bike prep and other stuff that goes into running a Supersport campaign since everything is now looked after by Kelvin Reilly and his team?

Easier and less stress, for sure. That’s the main reason why I decided to go down the path of signing with the BCperformance Kawasaki team. Running our own Supersport program was starting to get a bit too much – it was a big job looking after both my Supersport bikes as well as the 300s. Now that I can simply turn up to the race track and focus on riding, I believe it will reflect in my riding, also. I’m able to go out on track with a much clearer head space and not having to worry about all the behind-the-scene stuff. Even just little things such as getting tyre changes at the track. All those little things like that are taken care of by the team. When I was doing it myself, I was micromanaging all that stuff, as well as riding the bike, which was pretty hard work in the end. Now I can just 100 percent focus on riding the bike to the best of my capabilities and try and deliver for both the team, Kawasaki Motors Australia, and our sponsors the best possible results at the round. It has definitely made it a lot easier on my side, that’s for sure.

Shifting to Phillip Island, third place overall for the round with a 4-3-5 result. What did you take away from round one?

We were definitely better than what we thought. I didn’t expect to get an overall podium finish. There were a few crashes from other riders, which obviously did help us. Put that aside, the team and I certainly have a very good motorcycle which we have to work with. The main thing is we understand what we have to work on to make the Ninja ZX-6R even better moving forward. It’s just little bits and pieces here and there, and I have to look after the tyre a little bit more throughout the race. We also learned that the Stop and Seal bikes will no doubt be the bikes to beat this year – credit to them, they are fast. On our end, it’s all about fine tuning the bike to suit me that little bit more. The more we go through the season, different tracks will of course suit the Kawasaki. When we get to the tighter style tracks, the ZX-6R should come alive even more. It’s a long season, we just have to be consistently up towards the front of the field.

Image: Russell Colvin.

What rounds are you looking towards and thinking that the Kawasaki ZX-6R should be best suited to, and have an advantage over the R6s?

Definitely Sydney Motorsport Park, purely because of the lack of grip there. The Ninja ZX-R6 has a lot of mechanical grip, so that should help us no doubt. On top of that, there are a few tight and twisty corners as well. Then looking forward, tracks such as Morgan Park Raceway, One Raceway, which are like ‘goat’ tracks… You are pretty much turning on the side of the tyre at those tracks, and that is what the Kawasaki does best, I have found. Even by the time we return to Phillip Island in September and the final round at The Bend Motorsport Park, the bike will be a lot better in terms of setting-wise. It’s looking pretty good. I believe the tighter the track, the better the Kawasaki will excel.

Last one, next up is Sydney Motorsport Park at the end of the month. Do you enjoy that track, and are you looking forward to going back there?

Personally, I’m not a massive fan of that track. I haven’t done a lot of laps around there to begin with, as I’m from Adelaide. On top of that, I was unable to ride there as a junior, so I’m definitely in the deficit in the lap department there. It’s not a track I have done well at in the past, purely because I haven’t gelled with it. From doing the night series there in February, I believe I will feel a lot more comfortable when we head there in a few weeks from now, so we will see how we go when we get there.