2021 ASBK Finale – FP3 Report

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Local South Australian guns Arthur Sissis and Daniel Falzon had topped FP1 but Jack Miller managed to best both of them with his last flying lap in FP2 to move to the top of the time-sheets.

While most competitors had been locked out of South Australia throughout the plague local riders Arthur Sissis and Daniel Falzon do have the advantage of being able to test at the circuit in the lead up to this event. That said, both of them are privateer efforts, Sissis with his Unitech Racing band of supporters, while Falzon’s effort is essentially an all family affair.

The bike Jack is riding is an ex DesmoSport Ducati Australian Superbike. In place of the race kit Marelli electronics set-up is the standard Panigale V4 R electronics. The standard Ducati set-up is still better than the electronics kit being used by most ASBK competitors, and was good enough to set lap records in recent seasons. Jack is not allowed to use the Marelli race kit due to restrictions placed on MotoGP riders in regards to the specification of bike they are allowed to ride, outside of official MotoGP Tests.

The move to the 25k WorldSBK level kit for the Ducati only happened here in last year’s COVID interrupted season. Penrite Honda riders also subsequently made the move to WorldSBK spec’ electronics but the rest of the field is on essentially track day level electronics.

In many other Superbike series around the world their race bikes would be modified in many other ways that would also prevent any MotoGP rider from legally being able to ride them at all, let alone race them. But luckily, ECU aside, our ASBK Superbikes are otherwise so standard that Miller can race here without breaking the MotoGP testing rules that only allow competitors to ride production bikes with minimal changes. And that, essentially, is what an Australian Superbike is. Our Superbikes are more standard than most Superstock categories around the world, let alone a British Superbike or World Superbike.

Josh Hook is getting to terms with the 4.95-kilometre, 18-turn venue. His guest ride on the Penrite Honda starting strongly with a 1m52.726 good enough to match ASBK Championship leader Wayne Maxwell right down to the thousandth! The pair recording identical times to finish FP2 in P4 and P5.

Hooky is obviously getting his head around the Michelins that he rode on for the first time only a week or so ago, but he did say they are perhaps more similar in their characteristics to the Bridgestones he uses in World Endurance, which have a very different feel and construction in comparison to Pirelli.

In recent years Pirelli has been the dominant tyre in Australian Superbike with Michelin only coming back into the game recently and scoring some great results with Troy Herfoss.

Lachlan Epis had been the quickest BMW in P6 but Glenn Allerton was confident of regaining the BMW honours come this final session after some gearing and other changes to the new M 1000 RR.

Cru Halliday had been picking up pace on the YRT machine and was P7 ahead of Oli Bayliss. Halliday the leading Dunlop runner.  Oli was struggling to get the bike stopped in FP2 and the team have made some changes to try and get him more comfortable to push harder under brakes.

It was all pretty close at the top across FP2 though, with the top nine all covered by nine-tenths across what is quite a long lap.

The track and ambient temperatures had dropped a few degrees by the time FP3 came around at 1625 and Arthur Sissis wasted no time in taking the battle back up to his old sparring partner Jack Miller, dropping in a 1m52.041 to go back to the top of the time-sheets as FP3 got underway.

Then everyone was in the dark…

The ever reliable Computime systems that we have come to rely on for over 20 years had a hiccup that saw all live timing across the circuit fail to update for over 20 minutes…

When it came back on line it was still showing Sissis on top after lowering his marker further to 1m51.877 and Daniel Falzon was up to P2 on the back of a 1m52.143, while Oli Bayliss had obviously found an answer to his problems and moved up to P3 with a 1m52.237.

Wayne Maxwell then dropped in a 1m52.249 to go P4, pushing Jack Miller back to P5 on combined times.  Sissis then went quicker again, a 1m51.717 with five-minutes remaining the new target for the others to beat.

And beat it Wayne Maxwell did! The championship leader putting in a 1m51.686 to push Sissis out of top spot with four-minutes left on the shot clock.

Maxwell ends day one on top from Sissis and Falzon while Oli Bayliss moved up to P4. Jack Miller failed to improve on his FP2 time and sits fifth on combined times. Josh Hook also failed to improve on his FP2 marker, as did Lachlan Epis who suffered a crash at turn six.

Glenn Allerton ended the day as lead BMW in P6 after finding some more speed while Cru Halliday also found more pact on the YRT bike to move into P7 ahead of Josh Hook and Troy Herfoss.

The Australian Superbike action starts to get a little more serious tomorrow, Saturday, with a 40-minute Timed Practice session schedule to start at 1040 local time. The top nine in that session will graduate straight through to Q2. The remainder of the field will first have to contest a 15-minute QP1 session at 1520, the top three in which will join the top nine from practice in the Q2 session that will decide the grid for Sunday’s pair of 11 lap races. While that is less than half the race distance Jack is accustomed to racing at , imagine how short it will feel for Hooky who is used to doing 24 Hour races!

Qualifying lap record holder Mike Jones is not present at the event due to his choice not to get vaccinated. His pole lap had come on the Ducati 1299 Panigale Final Edition.  ASBK rules had been opened up to allow the big-banger to compete in Superbike when Troy Bayliss made his return to racing. The 1299 displayed a distinct top speed advantage against the 1000 cc four-cylinder competition.  Mike Jones also holds the race lap record on the 1299 at 1m52.875 and his pole record is 1m51.220. That year, 2019, tyre wear was dramatic and it saw Bryan Staring come from behind on the Dunlop shod BCperformance Kawasaki to win all three races. The Dunlops displayed a significant advantage on the abrasive surface but Pirelli and Michelin are confident they have closed that gap and now have tyres that will go the distance come race day.

Bryan Staring is not racing here this weekend due to the withdrawal of the BCperformance Kawasaki squad but the Western Australian was expected to test with the DesmoSport Ducati squad here on Monday after signing to compete with the team in ASBK 2022. But with Bryan residing in Western Australia, if he comes across the border they will likely never let him back in to the hermit kingdom that the W.A. Premier has made them in to, so those testing plans have now been shelved.

Anthony West has just returned from Europe but is on a very under prepared bike. His team is short-handed and Westy was not confident that they will be able to get the bike into a performance window that would allow him to compete on Sunday. But this afternoon they did make some progress and if they can improve the bike more tomorrow Westy might be able to show a little more of his potential.

ASBK Friday Combined Times (TBC)

1. Wayne Maxwell – Ducati V4 R – 1m51.686
2. Arthur Sissis – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 1m51.717
3. Daniel Falzon – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 1m52.143
4. Oli Bayliss – Ducati V4 R – 1m52.237
5. Jack Miller – Ducati V4 R – 1m52.331
6. Glenn Allerton – BMW M 1000 RR – 1m52.401
7. Cru Halliday – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 1m52.491
8. Josh Hook – Honda Fireblade SP – 1m52.726
9. Troy Herfoss – Honda Fireblade SP – 1m52.774
10. Lachlan Epis – BMW M 1000 RR – 1m52.820
11. Anthony West – Yamaha YZF-R1 – 1m52.900

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The Bend Motorsport Park

There are numerous different lay-outs used here at The Bend Motorsport Park but it is the 4.95 kilometre ‘International Circuit’ is the one used for ASBK.

The South Australian venue have courted Dorna officials in a quest to lure international events to the circuit, which has already held a round of the Asian Road Racing Championship. Circuit owners have expressed interest in trying to bring World Superbike, World Endurance and even MotoGP events to the circuit in coming years. In full length form the circuit measures 7.77-kilometres in what they call the GT Circuit. This is shown in the lightly shaded areas of that circuit map above.

Onboard lap of The Bend

This video was taken on the first day that ASBK ever visited the South Australian venue for a test session three years ago. Times have tumbled since this 1m55 lap but it will give you a good idea of the circuit lay-out.

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Australian Superbike Entry List

ASBK Superbike Championship Points

The Bend ASBK Schedule

ASBK TV and LiveStream Schedule

For fans unable to make it to The Bend this weekend (and there’s still time, tickets and championships-to-be-decided reasons to go!), we have options…

ASBK fans from all over the world can enjoy all the live racing action from the comfort of their own home this weekend from the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, presented by Motul Grand Finale at The Bend Motorsport Park.

ASBK TV official Free-to-Air broadcast partner SBS have stepped up to provide ASBK fans the opportunity to catch the livestream action from Saturday via their exclusive broadcast platform SBS On-Demand.

SBS has long been the home of great motorsport and in 2021 they have again provided ASBK race fans with both Live Free-to-Air coverage and the opportunity to catch all the action via SBS On-Demand after each round. At no cost to join, ASBK fans simply need to jump on and subscribe to SBS On-Demand.

The ASBK Championship comes to massive conclusion on Sunday and ASBK TV have all the angles covered with Free-to-Air coverage on SBS HD, SBS On-Demand or via Fox Sports Australia from 12.30pm – 3.30pm (Australian Central Daylight Times).

New Zealand race fans can catch the action on Sky Sport NZ who continue to broadcast every round of ASBK to fans across the ditch.

From the comfort of home, or on mobile devices, SBS will provide free to air coverage, and Fox Sports Australia and Sky Sport NZ will ensure pay TV viewers won’t miss a minute of the action.

Live race coverage will include the Alpinestars Superbike, Motorsports TV Supersport, Dunlop Supersport 300, Yamaha Finance R3 Cup and the bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup, plus race fans will get no shortage of behind the scenes features.

Fans across the nation and around the world can also go to www.asbk.com.au and watch up to the live ASBK TV Live Stream on Sunday.

Exclusive Live telecast of the Grand Finale of the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, presented by Motul, can be seen:

Saturday 4th December
ASBK Livestream Telecast 10.30am – 5.00pm (ACDT = SA time)

• Exclusive telecast on SBS On-Demand

Sunday 5th December
ASBK Live TV Telecast 12.30pm – 3.30pm (ACDT = SA time)

• SBS HD
• Fox Sports Australia
• Sky Sport NZ
• SBS On-Demand

Sunday 5th December
ASBK Livestream Telecast 9.30am – 4.00pm (ACDT = SA time)

Check your local guides for times and more information.

Keep up to date with the latest news on the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, presented by Motul via www.asbk.com.au and following ASBK on Facebook and Instagram.

Source: MCNews.com.au