ASBK 2022 Day One

It was a tad wet here this morning at Phillip Island which meant that most riders chose to stay in their garages and work through various things with their teams rather than turn laps out on track during the morning sessions.

Once a few riders went out in the second session they had hardly got up to speed before the session was red-flagged due to geese on track. A seven-kilogram goose can sting a bit at 300 km/h…

Arthur Sissis put in the most laps in that 25-minute P2 session on what was by the end, just before 1230, a track with a slight dry line appearing, but also with plenty of water still laying about.  Thus the quickest lap came right at the end when BCperformance Kawasaki’s Ben Burke braved the conditions to put down a 1m43.496s, 3.5-seconds quicker than Sissis had managed earlier in the session when conditions were nowhere near as good.

Many of the riders had already ridden in the dry here earlier this week during public ride days and had got plenty of laps in ahead of today’s official start to the ASBK testing program.  Those taking part during those ride days certainly benefitting from their decision as it really looks as though we will be lucky to get any significant dry track time over the course of the next two days.

While the rider changes have already been well covered, with the likes of Broc Pearson and Max Stauffer stepping up to Superbike, Staring to Ducati, Waters to BMW, Jones to Yamaha, less has been talked about in regards to the changes among team personnel for this season.

Long-time Honda technician Paul Free has jumped over to the new-look 727 Moto Yamaha squad with Broc Pearson. Stewart Winton is also working with the squad and Jed Metcher returns to front the team and provide a guiding hand to debutante Pearson.  Ex MotoGP mechanic Brent Stephens has also gone across to the 727 Moto Yamaha squad from DesmoSport Ducati. 

Here working with Penrite Honda this weekend is Phil Tainton, of PTR Suzuki fame.  Phil’s primary knowledge base is of course Suzuki, but bike set-up and geometry of course translates to any Superbike, and he also worked extensively with MoTeC over the years across various projects. We do not expect Tainton to be working with Penrite Honda at the track all season, but stranger things have happened..  Troy Herfoss is still building up strength as he recoveries from the injuries he sustained at Hidden Valley last year, he will be keen to show he has lost no speed when the right opportunity arises. That occasion was not today, Herfoss looked to be struggling for pace, we will endeavour to find out the reasons behind that if he does not make significant improvements tomorrow, let’s hope that is a conversation we don’t have to have…

The Penrite Honda was not the only Fireblade here today as Chandler Cooper returns for another crack at ASBK.

2008 and 2012 British Supersport Champ turned crew chief Glen Richards was approached by various teams for this season but has decided to work with young Mark Chiodo as they adapt his R1 machines to MoTeC. People returning behind the scenes still working with Mark from previous seasons include the redoubtable Gary House and long-term Chiodo family confidant Tiges. This will be Chiodo’s fifth year in Superbike and I would imagine the pressure is building to start delivering consistent results well inside the top ten. He was ninth quickest today so that’s a good start.. 

We have previously covered the split between what was previously known as the NextGen BMW squad as team backers Wayne Hepburn and Nathan Webb decided to go their own way with young charge Lachlan Epis alongside Nathan Spiteri.  Their new BMW Alliance squad have been here testing all week and in the off-season also employed a technician from Alpha Racing in Europe, an official partner of the BMW World Superbike Team during the off-season to try and hit the ground running in 2022. 

Long time BMW campaigner and head technician Shane Kinderis is continuing separately with the NextGen Motorsports banner with Glenn Allerton under a Maxima Racing Oils BMW entry and Josh Waters as his team-mate.  With six Australian Superbike Championship titles between them, this essentially privateer family run effort potentially has the most fearsome rider line-up on the grid. It is many years since a BMW rider won an Australian Superbike race, they hope to break that drought in 2022… 

Then we have the eminently qualified YRT combination of Cru Halliday who is joined by Mike Jones for 2022.  Halliday has been the only Yamaha rider in recent times to really rack up serious points over the course of the season and a shift in rubber from Dunlop to Pirelli, along with some new electronics this season, might give him those final pieces of the puzzle that he requires to start racking up some wins.

Mike Jones didn’t seem to adapt to the high-revving nature of the V4 R Ducati in recent seasons, for whatever reason, and might find the torquey nature of the cross-plane crank Yamaha more to his liking. He’s certainly not a dark horse for 2022, as I think most have learned not to under-estimate him, but if he starts to beat Cru, with all his experience on the R1 and good results in recent seasons, then we will know Jones will be a title contender… How soon can he come to grips with the bike and the team?

Off the back of what we witnessed at The Bend, Arthur Sissis comes in to season 2022 as a bit of a dark horse. The South Australian ex-speedway star is known for his lightning starts, he must have been a gun-fighter in a previous life, such is the speed and feel of his clutch hand, but more recently he has also shown genuine podium pace over full race distance.  His Unitech Racing Team look like a well prepared, well staffed and well backed effort. Will he be hot to trot at all tracks? Let’s hope he can be a sharp clawed cat among the pigeons and shake things up some more throughout the whole season. 

And yet another dark horse in Yamaha colours is Aiden Wagner… The Queenslander was dropped from the official YRT line-up for 2022 but has put together his own privateer effort under the ‘Addicted To Track’ banner and is here this weekend being helped by Brisbane motorcycle dealer Michael Edwards. He is already looking comfortable…

A strong Yamaha rider not here this week is Daniel Falzon. The South Australian broke his leg at the 2021 finale and is giving it another couple of weeks rest to try and be in better shape for the season opener here at Phillip Island in late February.

There are two Kawasaki riders here this week. The perennial privateer Matt Walters is going around again and will no doubt surprise us once again with some great results despite having the least resources to work with. Some people turn up to track-days with more gear and personnel than Matty generally races with, and he gets more than a few top tens…

The other ZX-10RR pilot here is Ben Burke, riding a BCperformance Kawasaki, as they try to bed down their new MoTeC electronics. Burke has scored good results on a Superbike before, and could upset a few if him and the squad get down to business in 2022. 

Anthony West is here with MotoGo Yamaha. After seemingly endless technical issues with an under-prepared bike in 2021, Westy is continuing with the project and will be hoping for a bit more reliability in 2022. It’s a credit to him that he persists considering what went down last year. Alongside Westy in MotoGo colours once again is Victorian youngster Luke Jhonston. 

Bryan Staring has made the jump from BcPerformance Kawasaki to the DesmoSport Ducati squad. The Western Australian turned his first laps on the V4 R earlier this week and is getting in as much seat time as he can ahead of the season opener back here in only four weeks time.

And of course we have the not quite retired any more Wayne Maxwell back for another crack. We spoke to Wayne early in the week about his decision to come back and defend his title in this interview. The key to his decision to press on comes due to the enjoyment he derives from working within the McMartin Racing Team. And of course that V4 R is more than a bit special, and it would hard to see anyone else in its seat…

Someone else had been sitting in his seat though, two-time British Superbike Champion Josh Brookes was here earlier in the week and turned some laps alongside Wayne to get some seat time ahead of his return to the UK, and the team also wanted to see if he could offer any meaningful feedback on their set-up. With the Boost Mobile Ducati ASBK machine proving so different to his BSB V4 R, and time so limited, there was not the opportunity for him to really help the project along.

The team have been trying to some new things this week though as they continue to strive for improvement and were also trialling new tweaks today.  They might have ended season 2021 looking well ahead of the field, but the quest for more speed and consistency never stops…. 

I spoke to Wayne this morning about whether he would go all-out for a quick one if the conditions are right, but with the subject of parity being talked about of late, he thought it might be better to play their cards a little closer to their chest and not reveal their hand. That said, I know the Boost Mobile Ducati squad certainly wouldn’t want to be the second fastest Ducati, and Wayne stamped his authority with a 1m31.993 in the final session.

That time was well ahead of the rest of the field here today but remarkably, it was also slower than what he did on one of his first rides on the Ducati here two years ago, where at the 2020 pre-season test, there he put down a 1m31.776.  Now with two years of development behind them, better electronics and tyres, we know that there is a lot more speed to come…

Lachlan Epis put in an impressive 1m32.968 to go second quickest and claim the honours of top BMW, while Bryan Staring was starting to find some speed on the DesmoSport Ducati, a 1m33.026 good enough for third ahead of Cru Halliday who took top-Yamaha honours ahead of privateer Aiden Wagner.

Mike Jones was sixth quickest ahead of Josh Waters and Glenn Allerton, but the latter of that trio only did one session. A crash at the Hayshed cut the day short for Allerton and did a lot of expensive damage to that pretty M 1000 RR.  The team will work tonight to try and get him back out in the morning.

Tomorrow’s forecast is not exactly encouraging, but we will back at the track tomorrow to see what unfolds and relay our findings, as per usual… Hopefully we get enough dry track time to allow the rest of the field to try and edge closer to Wayne ahead of the season opener back here in only a few weeks time.

Alpinestars Superbike Day One Times

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Michelin Supersport

This week the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, presented by Motul (ASBK) announced that Michelin has signed on as the title sponsor of the Supersport Championship for the 2022 season.

The Supersport category have a few interlopers lapping amongst their ranks this week with some of our young Aussies racing overseas turning their hand to some local action, among them were Harrison Voight and Senna Agius. Both of those riders have also been riding here earlier this week during public ride days and have turned plenty of laps. 

Oli Bayliss joined the Supersport category on the Panigale V2 in the final session, after running with the Superbike class earlier in the day. After all, he will be racing against 600 cc four-cylinder Supersport machines in the new ‘Next Generation’ World Supersport category when he gets to Europe, so it makes sense. Oli was just under the Australian Supersport lap record with a 1m35.092.

Tom Edwards was the quickest of the Australian Supersport competitors with a 1m35.714 ahead of Senna Agius and Harrison Voight.

Michelin Supersport Day One Times

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Dunlop Supersport 300

A couple of Moto3 machines turned laps amongst the 300 Supersport riders here today. Harrison Voight was on an RC250 KTM while Angus Grenfell and Carter Thompson dodged the showers on NSF250 Honda machinery. Marianos Nikolis also used the sessions for Moto3 training.

Harrison Voight dominated proceedings with a 1m40.467 on his one session on the machine. Four-seconds off the Moto3 World Championship lap record, even though that is not a fair comparison here today, it is the yardstick. Carter Thompson was next quickest, six-seconds slower than Voight and 1.6-seconds quicker than Grenfell.

The quickest of the Supersport 300 runners was Liam Waters ahead of class debutante Cameron Swain and Brodie Gawith.

Dunlop Supersport Day One Times

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Yamaha OJC

The returning and new crop of Oceania Junior Cup riders also took to the track today on their YZF-R15 machines. Notwithstanding the youth of the field, for many newcomers to the OJC, it has been a long path to the 12 corners of the Phillip Island circuit. Without help from parents, and supporters, this would not be possible.

Yamaha returns for their fourth year supporting the OJC, and riders in the OJC will benefit from a wealth of experience this season, with former 500cc, MotoGP and World Superbike racer Garry McCoy set to come on board as the series coach for 2022.

McCoy has already been keeping in the development game by coaching junior competitors at Morgan Park and even had the opportunity to coach young gun, Joel Kelso, who will make his debut in the Moto3 class in 2022.

The OJC allows competitors to learn fundamental technical aspects such as suspension set-up and tyre settings. On this front, McCoy is confident the series with provide an ideal grounding for riders wishing to progress through the ranks.

“It’s great to have a focus on suspension, a bit of data and working with your tyres. Riders will have to learn to ride on worn tyres for Friday sessions. You don’t learn much by throwing new tyres on the bike every session.” said McCoy.

With the OJC now in its fourth season, McCoy says he will be approaching his role as coach as an open book – take things one-step at a time and see where the riders are currently at and how they will evolve.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to give advice not just on set-up, but from my experience racing oversees and racing with a limited budget.”

McCoy also believes he will have some sage-like advice to offer young riders on off-track necessities, such as dealing with the media and other competitors.

“It’s not about how to win them over, but how to put them out of your mind, keep to yourself and do your own thing. I really enjoy working with kids. They’re all very different in that some want to listen and some don’t, but that’s all part of growing up. At the end of the day, you want to put a smile on their faces.”

Yamaha OJC Day One Times

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mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance
2022 ASBK Calendar

• Round 1 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC 25 – 27 February
  SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC, SBK Masters
• Round 2 Queensland Raceway, Ipswich QLD 18 – 20 March
  SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC, Sidecars
• Round 3 Wakefield Park Raceway, Goulburn NSW 22 – 24 April
  SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC, Sidecars
• Round 4 Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin NT 17 – 19 June
  * With Supercars – SBK Only
• Round 5 Morgan Park Raceway, Warwick QLD 5 – 7 August
  SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC
• Round 6 Symmons Plains Raceway – Launceston TAS 20 – 23 October
  SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup
• Round 7 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Cowes VIC TBA – November
  TBC
• Round 8 The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend SA 2 – 4 December
  SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC
  ASBK Night of Champions Dinner – The Bend 4 December

Source: MCNews.com.au