Round three of the 2025 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) saw Josh Waters once again victorious, strengthening his grip on the Superbike series lead, as Tom Bramich was back on the top step in the Supersport category. CycleOnline caught up with both riders after the races for this Debrief feature.

Superbike

Image: Foremost Media.

Josh, congratulations mate! You got the Queensland Raceway win, extended the points lead – I’m going to call that a perfect weekend for you.

Thanks a lot! I felt really good in the dry. Obviously in race two the conditions were really slippery, I’m just glad that I finished, but if there were conditions like that again, I’m sure we could improve the bike a bit and make it a little easier. But a huge thank you to my team for the work that they did in the dry, and helping me improve as a rider, because that was the biggest thing – getting out of my comfort zone. I was riding like the fast guys do here.

That’s one thing Craig McMartin said on TV. He said [the team] had to ask you to do a couple of things this weekend, and that’s obviously worked for you.

Yeah. You know, Mike [Jones] and a lot of the competitors are so strong here, especially Mike. He’s so dominant around here, so I’m over the moon to do what we did. I know the rest of the year is not going to be easy, so we’ll enjoy the moment. But yeah, we’ll keep chipping away for the next round.

That first one, you had to track down Mike, you had to make the pass. Then to make the pass and run away with it, that’s a good way to do it.

Yeah, really good. To pass him back, I felt strong in certin areas around the track, so I was really, really happy. We do come back here again, so I’m looking forward to being back here again with the Supercars. I’ve always enjoyed racing here, it’s just never shown.

On the line for race two. Obviously you got a couple of laps, then we had rain – when we came back into pitlane, what did you guys change on the bike?

We changed the spring rates in the front and rear, and then also the tyres, obviously. They were the main things that we changed, but maybe it could’ve been a little bit softer.

What are your thoughts on the bike change situation?

Well, for example, while I was riding around – before it got red flagged. I was thinking while the mist was there, like I put my hand up a couple of times, in case the rain came. Well, before the race started, I said to Broc Pearson when there was 30 seconds to go, before anyone had started their engines, ‘do you think it’s going to rain?’ and he was like, ‘it’s meant to at 3:15pm,’ [laughs]. I was looking at those clouds coming in, so that made me start thinking about not crashing. Because, if I did write it off, then the race got red flagged – I would’ve been up that creek without a paddle.

I think prominently for you, and this may be wrong. But in the wet, you tend to start the race slower, tip toe it around and work your way into it. Was that the same way you approcahed this wet race?

Yeah, I’ve been fortunate in my career that I’ve gone alright in the wet. I don’t enjoy riding in the wet, but yeah, maybe from racing dirt track and living in the desert where it’s always dry and slippery. But when I took off, I just spun.

In that moment was just a case of needing to get in front of Mike?

Yeah, and just go as a safe as possible. I worked out, if I got third and Glenn [Allerton] won, he got fourth in the first one – so yeah.

When we return to this track, as you said, we’ll be alongside the Supercars. It’s probably going to be a completely different environment, how is that for you guys?

I think it’s good. I believe we’ll race three races at that round. Well that’s what we normally do with the Supercars. I think it’ll be good, it’ll be good interest for them too, they all seem to love it. So it’ll be really cool.

We’ll see you at Morgan Park, mate.

See you there!

Supersport

Image: Foremost Media.

Tom Bramich, congratulations on your result here at Queensland Raceway. Take us through the weekend for you.

Thanks mate. Yeah, it was a really good weekend, I felt like we kept building all weekend. In qualifying, I felt like I probably could’ve had pole. On my fast lap I had to overtake a rider, so I knew from there that we had really good speed, and we confirmed that again in the warm up this morning. I had a good rhythm and we just made the right changes, the boys did a great job on that front. We always made progress, especially with the electronics, which we’ve never really played with. I think we’re starting to learn that there’s a lot to be gained in that area. So I was really happy for us to learn and progress on that front. Then yeah, two races today – both of them were very different races. The first one, I sort of lead from the second lap and kept my head down and kept hitting my marks. Jack [Mahaffy] pressured me from about lap 10 to the end, he was really close. I read my pitboard wrong a few times and I didn’t know if it was plus four seconds or plus 0.4 seconds. I heard a bike and had a look on the second last lap, then I could make a plan for the last lap and went super defensive. We managed to win that one, which was a really good reward for us.

Talk about that. having to change it up from attacking to defending on a track like this, take us through how that works.

It’s really hard, because you ride with the braking zones at such high speed, I knew that if I could get off the corner good and have a few bike lengths going into the braking zones, that I could manage to hold my position. I just rode defensive, so I made sure I used the track, made sure I put my bike where I knew he’d want to put his bike, and it worked for that one. Then in race two, it was a bit strange, I lead again for most of the race, but I didn’t have the same pace as the first rcae. We made a small change, and it probably wasn’t the right way. I was also wanting to conserve my front tyre – especially for the last few laps. That’s what I struggled with in the first race, but then Olly [Simpson] came past with about three to go, then Jake [Farnsworth], then it was just really close for the whole race.

That last lap you could’ve thrown a blanket over all four of you. In that moment, were you just trying to watch that tyre too and try and get it to the end?

Nah, at that point I was trying to make it happen. I was trying to get to the front. I got a really good slipstream into turn three and had to go the long way around, but it seemed to work. I knew Olly was struggling into the left all race, so I just wanted to be really close there. I managed to pick him up and get back to the lead, but then he did really well in the last corner to out brake me – I thought I went deep enough, but he went even deeper.

Did you know what result you needed for the overall?

Nah, I wanted to try and win. I wasn’t really focused on that, I knew if I won, the overall would look after itself, but going to the line I thought I was going to get him, but I just missed out.

Being from Melbourne, you don’t get to ride here that often. What are you thoughts on the facility here?

I really like this track, everyone says it’s so boring, but for me it’s a real challenge because it’s so simple. If you don’t extract everything out of it, you’re not going to get the lap time. So I really like it here, I think the facilities are great, they’ve spent a lot of money getting the sheds, the corportate center, the VIP suites – I think it’s a great facility, and I hope that the championship can make progress at other tracks, like this track has.

Congratulations on the result here, we’ll see you at Morgan Park!

Thank you.