Australian Superbike field examined ahead of P.I. season opener

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Will Wayne Maxwell have it all his own way at the ASBK season opener? 

There is no doubt Maxwell is the favourite. Wayne is in form and looks so at home on the Boost Mobile Ducati, man and machine working in synchronicity. But then he always goes into a Phillip Island round as a favourite no matter what he is on, he didn’t pick up the ‘Pharaoh of Phillip Island’ tag for nothing. That said, from what we witnessed only a couple of months ago in South Australia, at 39-years-old, Wayne looks in the form of his life.

Bryan Staring shapes up for 2022 on a DesmoSport Ducati.  The Western Australian is one of Australia’s most experienced road racers with a long and wide ranging career both here and abroad.  He only got on the Ducati for the first time a month ago but since then has been getting plenty of laps in on the bike.  Has that been enough time for him to adapt to the Ducati, and for Ben Henry to tailor the bike to Bryan? I guess we will find out this weekend…

North Coast V-Twins’ Beau Beaton returns to Superbike competition on a V4 R to make it three Ducatis on the grid at round one. Beaton is a quality rider and despite on-off again appearances over the years (this time between drinks has been two years), the Coffs Harbour racer always brings good speed come race day. Despite very little preparation before this round he could crack a top ten if the cards fall his way.

Troy Herfoss is the only non Ducati rider to win an Australian Superbike race in the past couple of seasons and he has done that on many occasions.   Heading into the 2022 season opener though Troy Herfoss and Honda are still getting back up to speed after the injuries he sustained in Darwin last year. As Troy said when I spoke with him earlier this month, he hopes when the lights go out and the race face comes on we start to see him getting back to his best. I think he might struggle at round one, but I hope he proves me, and himself, wrong.

The Yamaha horde are bigger than ever, they make up half the grid and are going to come thick and fast…

In the official YRT squad we have Cru Halliday and Mike Jones.

Cru has been oh so close in recent times and has done a remarkable job of racking up good points on an incredibly consistent basis, podium after podium, but has rarely challenged for a race victory. That’s not a jab at Cru, few others have done so either. Every single Australian Superbike race in the last two seasons has been won by Ducati riders or Troy Herfoss on the Honda.

Cru has done a great job over the past couple of seasons and I hope he can get some wins under his belt in 2022. He also generally goes well at Phillip Island, and the Yamaha has been strong there plenty of times as despite its high speed P.I. is not a horsepower circuit. Not for an outright lap time anyway, but it certainly does help when it comes to making relatively easy passes down the main straight when engaged in a close-quarters battle for position…

By all reports Mike Jones is firing on all cylinders and adapting to the Yamaha after spending the last few years on Ducati machinery. His 2019 Championship title coming on the big 1299 twin. Four podiums on the trot in 2021 across the Winton and Wakefield Park rounds were his most recent highlights on the V4 R before Hidden Valley’s kerbs crushed his toes and also led to some finger injuries that saw him have to withdraw from the round. Vaccination issues then forced him to sit out The Bend finale, but with that issue now resolved and a fair bit of testing under his belt on the Yamaha I expect Mike will be in the hunt for podiums this weekend.

Incidentally, under Phillip Island’s current rules everyone attending the event this weekend will need to show proof of vaccination in order to gain entry into the circuit.

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Aiden Wagner is actually the last rider to have won a Superbike race on a Yamaha YZF-R1 and that was at Phillip Island three years ago. The Queenslander is back on a Yamaha this season but is no longer with the official YRT squad, instead Aiden is racing as a privateer under the Addicted To Track / Northstar Yamaha Banner.  Wagner never really seemed at home with the factory machine at YRT for whatever reason, and it is notable that his, and Yamaha’s, most recent victory came when he was racing as a privateer in 2019. Who can forget the clash between Wagner and Maxwell at Phillip Island that year…..

Another Yamaha rider that has also achieved better results as a privateer than when he was in the official YRT squad is Daniel Falzon. The South Australian is not back to full strength yet after busting himself up at the 2021 ASBK finale. Daniel has had very little time on the bike since the accident, instead taking time to let his body heal. However, his family run JD Racing Team have been busy developing the bike with mechanic Liam Wilkinson in the hot seat while Daniel’s brother Jon gets his head around the new MoTeC electronics. They also recently switched to K-Tech suspension for 2022 and Daniel rode the bike at Phillip Island last week. 

Another South Australian that has shown good speed of late is Arthur Sissis.  The 26-year-old gained plenty of experience contesting the Red Bull Rookies Cup as a 15 and 16-year-old before then racing full time in the Moto3 ranks for three seasons. He then returned to his speedway roots with a couple of stints riding professional speedway in Europe. That slider experience honed Arthur’s clutch hand to perfection as every time the lights go out he demonstrates a masterclass in launch technique. Unfortunately though it was a clutch issue that caught him out and robbed him of a potential podium last time out at The Bend. His Unitech Racing Yamaha was also quite often the fastest YZF-R1 down the chute in South Australia. Arthur’s best results in 2021 came at Winton where he took a pair of fifth place finishes, I think it is probably fair to say that we are yet to see his best.  

Mark Chiodo is coming into this season perhaps a little better prepared than he has been before in Superbike. Gary House has built his bikes and adapted the YZF-R1 to the new MoTeC ECU that Crew Chief Glen Richards has been busy developing strategies for during testing with Mark.  A lack of available parts such as head gaskets sees them start the season on standard engines that already have a lot of miles on them, but they have been demonstrating some decent speed in testing. 

The new 727 Moto pairing of Jed Metcher and Broc Pearson have been conducting an intensive testing program ahead of this season. This will be 21-year-old Pearson’s first year in the Superbike class after wrapping up the Supersport crown in 2021.  He certainly has a good army behind him with the new Queensland based team recruiting some MotoGP and ASBK heavy weights including former Valentino Rossi and Desmosport Ducati mechanic Brent Stephens, former Team Honda Racing chief Paul Free, and Yamaha Racing Development’s, Stewart Winton. It will be interesting to see how long it takes Pearson to get up to speed but Phillip Island is a daunting prospect for someone new to Superbikes and I hope he takes his time to get into the groove. Jed’s always been fast and this season might be his best chance yet to start racking up some better results.

Another debutante in Superbike this season is young Max Stauffer.  Max might have only just turned 18 but he has spent his whole life in and around the Australian Superbike paddock. Those of us that have been around the paddock all that time also know what Max and the Stauffer family went through when he was diagnosed with cancer at five-years-old. A bit of background on that can be found here.

Dad Jamie was the last Yamaha rider to win a Superbike Championship for Yamaha, he did that in both 2006 and 2007. Jamie has guided Max through the 300/600 cc ranks and has now built his son a Superbike for 2022. They have not tested as much as many of their competitors and the opening rounds of this season will see Max learning on the job, so to speak.

Jamie seems to let Max learn at his own pace, but will be a trusted and experienced source for Max to get any advice from when called upon. They are two of the most popular people in the paddock and Max has certainly inherited his dad’s quick dry wit, hopefully the DNA for mastering a Superbike has also made it into the bloodstream.

I really hope Anthony West has a more competitive and reliable motorcycle underneath him this season. His speed has never been in question, and it is a credit to him that he has been sticking with the sport of late despite the endless run of mechanical and electrical gremlins that have struck his MotoGo Yamaha. I am sure it has been as depressing for him as it has been for us to watch, so fingers crossed they have a more sorted package for this season as there were times last season where I was fearing for his safety.   Luke Jhonston will be his team-mate once again in the MotoGo Yamaha garage and the young Victorian now has a fair bit of Superbike experience under his belt.

Northstar Yamaha proprietor Mick Edwards is back again for season 2022 and is also lending a hand towards Aiden Wagner’s Superbike effort. 

Yamaha have recently been allowed some small concessions towards parity but it is unlikely many teams will have the chance to implement the changes ahead of round one. Yamaha had asked for their riders to be able to change the swing-arm linkage, but that request was denied by Motorcycling Australia.

Other requests that were made but did score approval was the facility for Yamaha riders using the MoTeC ECU to be able to relocate their IMU to a different position on the bike and also utilise the optional E-Lean Sensor in the MoTeC firmware. Another request that was successful was for Yamaha competitors to be allowed to remove the webbing from the swing-arm axle adjuster slot to give them a slightly longer wheelbase.

For those of you not across the set-up of a modern Superbike, long gone are the day where forks were dropped through the triple clamps to quicken the steering and the chain adjusters pulled up in the swing-arm to shorten the bike and provide more agility.  Nowadays it is all about making them comparatively long, almost lazy, so the bikes can be controlled more easily on worn tyres. Next time you are in the pits check out bikes like BMW’s M 1000 RR and see just how long the distance looks between the output sprocket and the rear axle…

Speaking of BMW, the German marque have their biggest ever presence in ASBK this season with two strong teams and four riders on the new M 1000 RR. 

Lachlan Epis has been recording some impressive times during testing. The best result for Epis last season was in the three-lap dash conducted at The Bend in a race that had been restarted after a red flag incident. An eighth place finish at Wakefield Park was his best result of the season over a full race distance. The big question being asked ahead of season 2022 is if Epis can convert that testing pace on new tyres to a full race distance when the new rubber goes away…? Epis has been the subject of more than a few jibes from his competitors that his testing pace is only because he throws new tyres on the bike every five minutes. Whether that is the case or not I don’t know, but I do know it has fired him up to prove them wrong, and I hope he does exactly that. 

Nathan Spiteri was to run with Epis under the BMW Alliance Racing pit roof but it seems the alliance has been deemed unholy before it even really begun…  Spiteri and crew chief Jake Skate have split away from the Alliance and gone their own way. 

Over in the Shane Kinderis managed Maxima Oils Racing BMW tent are two of the most successful racers on the ASBK grid. Both Glenn Allerton and Josh Waters have three Australian Superbike Championship crowns each, that’s six between them in the last 14 years of the series. The last of Waters’ three crowns came in 2017, and all of his titles were recorded on Suzuki machinery.  Allerton has won a championship with Honda once and two with BMW, the last of which was in 2014.

Incidentally we believe the last Australian Superbike race won by a BMW rider came in that 2014 championship year for Allerton. But that 2014 season was a tainted two-round contest that at the time I called ‘the poorest quality Superbike field to ever contest the series.’ The vast majority of the top Australian talent had contested the rival Swann Australasian FX-Superbike Championship run by Terry O’Neill that year, rather than compete in Motorcycling Australia’s ASBK competition.

It was a similar story in 2015 when Mike Jones lifted his first title as again most of Australia’s best riders did not contest the M.A. series. All the major action was happening in the rival FX series over those years.

The ASBK history books might say otherwise, but to most insiders the real Aussie Superbike Champion in 2014 was Wayne Maxwell, and in 2015 it was Troy Herfoss. As much as many people will be putting pins in their Trevor Hedge voodoo doll for me saying so, that is the reality of the situation and everyone knows deep down that it’s the truth, no matter what the official record shows. Anyway, forgive my regression into the history lesson, that is all behind us now as the ASBK ship started to get righted in 2016 and has been building in strength ever since. 

The last Kawasaki victory came at The Bend in 2019 at the hands of Bryan Staring. At round one there will be three Kawasaki machines on the grid, a BCperformance entry with Ben Burke while the perennial privateer Matt Walters is back for another tilt at the big boys.  Hamish McMurray will also be on a ZX-10RR. 

There are also two privateers contesting round one on Honda Fireblades, NSW’s Corey Forde is dipping his toe in the ring of ASBK and will join fellow Honda privateer Chandler Cooper on the grid for the season opener. 

Forde will be a busy boy as he is also contesting the Superbike Masters category for Period 5/6 machines that has been added to the ASBK program for round one and the class has more than 30 entrants.

Of course we also have the tyre war to look forward to in 2022. Pirelli, Michelin and Dunlop have all been busy evaluating new rubber options in the lead-up to this season in conjunction with their riders. Pirelli have been fairly dominant in ASBK in recent years, will their competition manage to catch up this season?

And then there is Phillip Island weather… The current forecast is mainly fine, but we all know how reliable that can be down there on the edge of Bass Strait…

Earlier today it was confirmed that ASBK has secured a live free-to-air broadcast deal with SBS for the 2022 season.  ASBK Round One at Phillip Island this weekend will be broadcast on SBS this Sunday the 27th February from 1-4pm (AEDT).

If you plan to head along yourself see here for ticket details.

Below you will find the full weekend schedule along with entry lists for all classes and the 2022 mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship calendar.

When the flag drops the bullshit stops, let’s go….

Superbike Entry List

Supersport Entry List

Supersport 300 Entry List

R3 Cup Entry List

Oceania Junior Cup Entry List

Superbike Masters Entry List

mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance
2022 ASBK Calendar