Australian Superbike Saturday Round Up #1 | Q2 graduates decided

ASBK 2022 Round One – Phillip Island
Alpinestars Superbike Saturday Round Up #1

The sun rose over a slightly overcast and somewhat windy but still very pleasant morning at Phillip Island today.  

It is somewhat strange to be at a circuit full of race motorcycles only to be greeted by silence but with the no engines to be started before 0900 rule at Phillip Island that is what we get.  An almost serene sensation before the engines fire into life. 

If you want to be across the various plot lines that had already unfolded on Friday I thoroughly recommend checking out our series of three reports that cover FP1, FP2 and FP3 where we discuss some late changes that have occured in the paddock ahead of this weekend’s season opener.

One of the big surprises was Penrite Honda swapping from Michelin to Pirelli.

What was not quite so surprising was the speed of Wayne Maxwell. The Boost Mobile Ducati rider reeled off plenty of 1m31s and it is clear that in similar conditions he is capable of running that as race pace. On current form, and unless some others make some serious breakthroughs today, I don’t think anyone is within half-a-second of that.

I spoke to Wayne on Saturday morning and he said those low 1m31s on Friday would have been 1m30s on a soft tyre. He also mentioned that he is already on the throttle stops a fair amount of the time and that the only way he is going to go faster is with more horsepower.  Today though the thing most likely to be holding him back was the blustery wind blowing across the circuit at times.

On the form shown thus far this weekend, I think Cru Halliday, Bryan Staring, Mike Jones and Lachlan Epis are the only ones that might keep Wayne in sight for the first half of the race.

While Mike Jones put in a good run of laps on Friday my tip to run Wayne closest would be Cru Halliday, primarily due to how familiar he is with the YRT package after so long with the team and how well he has gone here in the past.  YRT have stuck with their YEC kit electronics thus far so there is no change on that score, however they did switch to Pirelli tyres in the off-season and have been doing a fair bit of testing on the Italian rubber.

Bryan Staring has also put a good run of laps together at times but this is his first competitive weekend on the DesmoSport Ducati and his experience on the package over race distance is limited compared to the others. That said, Bryan can be downright metronomic when comfortable with his package and it is that sort of consistency that saw Bryan win the season opening round here back in 2018.

This takes us back to one of the primary reasons that Wayne Maxwell is so far ahead at this early juncture of season 2022. The defending champion comes into this season with no significant change on the bike or within the team. While most of the others are still establishing baselines with new tyres, electronics or riders, it is a case of just going around again for the Boost Mobile Ducati crew.

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I think more than a few riders will be disappointed at the lack of pace displayed so far this weekend. I certainly expected more from Aiden Wagner and hope there is more to come before this weekend out. They have been discovering a few gremlins that need fixing after being left undiagnosed when the bike was put back together following his crash during testing.

Saturday morning saw a 25-minute timed practice session where the riders head out to gain their direct promotion through to the afternoon’s Q2 session.

Wayne Maxwell put in a 1m31.867 on his first flying lap then returned to pit-lane. Today the riders are on marked tyres so want as few laps as possible on their rubber, preserving them for the two 12-lap races on Sunday.

Bryan Staring then. put in three good laps, a 1m32.944 backed up by a 1m32.549 and 1m32.827 before he parked back up in the DesmoSport Ducati garage.

Somewhat surprisingly Wayne Maxwell went out again halfway through the session, presumably for a few tweaks and/or new rubber and immediately dropped the morning marker to 1m31.766. He then slowed to a 1m33.941 in traffic before winding it on again to drop in a 1m31.700.  Right on his tail though was Bryan Staring and the Western Australian took advantage of that position to improve his time, a 1m32.373 the fastest time of the weekend so far for the DesmoSport Ducati man. Maxwell then slowed up and pulled into the pits while Staring went around again to record a 1m32.558.

Josh Waters also improved this morning to 1m32.751 to place third but Lachlan Epis was unable to repeat his Friday form in today’s windier conditions but was still P4 on the back of a 1m32.836 on his fourth and final lap of the session. Tyre preservation the order of the day for the BMW Alliance rider.

Cru Halliday was a full-second off his Friday best, obviously comfortable enough to just do what he had to do in order to make it into that top nine which automatically graduate through to this afternoon’s Q2 session.

Glenn Allerton improved on his disappointing Friday time to go P6 but would still not be happy with his pace. The Maxima Oils squad have been very busy with building a new bike from scratch while at the circuit yesterday and overnight.

YRT’s Mike Jones, Cessnock Kawasaki’s Matt Walters and a recovering from injury Daniel Falzon the final rider to score the automatic promotion through to the Q2 session scheduled to be held at 1510 this afternoon.

Aiden Wagner will have to contest Q1 as will Arthur Sissis and Troy Herfoss. The Penrite Honda crew had a clutch issue and also tried something with the bike only to find that it didn’t work out.

For Sissis this is the first time at Phillip Island for the Unitech Racing crew with the Yamaha and they are still collecting data in order to finalise a race set-up for tomorrow but seem happy with the direction they are heading and are looking forward to tomorrow.

Superbike Saturday Timed Practice

Michelin Supersport Q1

Benny Baker was missing from the Supersport field today after breaking a wrist and collarbone on Friday. A rough and tumble way to start his efforts in the 600 class after pulling off the 300 Supersport and YMF R3 Cup double last season.

Tom Edwards had set the pace on Friday in Supersport but this morning both himself and Senna Agius were quite a bit slower. Edwards putting in a 1m34.909 on Friday but Senna topped Saturday’s Q1 session with a 1m35.511.

Dunlop Supersport 300 Q1

Yamaha Finance R3 Cup Q1

Glenn Nelson topped the opening qualifying session in the R3 Cup ahead of class veteran Laura Brown and youngsters Cameron Dunker and Varis Fleming.

Yamaha OJC Q1

Superbike Masters Qualifying

mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance
2022 ASBK Calendar