A dozen Superbike Champions at Winton this weekend
This weekend will see the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli, step back in time with over a dozen past ASBK Champions attending the festivities at Winton Motor Raceway this weekend, September 30 – October 2.
The Australian Superbike Championship has been used as a stepping stone to many great motorsport careers, and this weekend these champions will once again join the team to celebrate a fantastic year of Road Racing in Australia.
Making their return to the sport this weekend will be names, amongst our champs already out on track, Yamaha Racing Team’s Wayne Maxwell and Glenn Allerton, DesmoSport Ducati’s Mike Jones and Crankt Protein Honda Racings’s Jamie Stauffer, will be ASBK ambassadors Steve Martin and Shawn Giles.
Amongst Martin and Giles, the likes of Robbie Phillis, Peter ‘God’ Goddard, Martin ‘Marty’ Craggill, Craig Coxhell, Adam ‘Krusty’ Ferguson and Mat Mladin will brush shoulders at the Night of Champions presentation dinner and will filter through the gates of Winton Motor Raceway to witness a Road Racing spectacle.
After strong speculation that Josh Waters would make his return to Australian Motorcycle Racing it has been officially confirmed that, yes, Waters will once again take to the Superbike grid amongst the Championship contenders for the grand finale round this weekend.
This 2009 and 2012 ASBK Champ will make his return on board the Team Apex Motorsports Yamaha R1 machine headed by Jordan Coote, and shares that to be back in Australia racing is definitely something that makes him happy.
“I have been at home this year, I got to race in Japan which was really good, but I miss racing and I wanted to get back in to it,” Waters stated. The opportunity came up to ride and I weighed up the options, and decided that I wanted to be back home competing. I had some good experience overseas, but I also had some difficult experiences. Things were different to how I thought they were going to be. You need everything to fall in to place overseas, and I just wanted to be in a place that is familiar and where I am really happy.”
Posting the second fastest time of 1:21.437 at the Official ASBK Testing Days in the Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance Superbike Class, Waters explains that hopefully the results from the test can give him confidence on the track this weekend and he can keep increasing his speed.
“We have picked the hardest round to start off, because it’s the final round and everyone has done a full year with their bikes and team. They also all should be in the best shape they have been all year. It probably wasn’t the smartest round to pick for that side of things, but this round I am just looking to try my hardest, I think we will improve from the test, and hopefully get some good results.”
This past champ won’t be in championship contention this weekend but with his sights set on staying in Australia next year to continue his road racing career Waters might just be heading for an ASBK three-peat. I would like to hang around next year. The series is definitely getting stronger and everyone has made their return to the main series now.
“They have good people involved from the media, to the rule makers, to the head honcho, it’s all going ahead. I still would like to race overseas but I enjoy being home, and to be based in Australia would be easier,” Waters finished.
This weekend will cement the support that has been shown from past champions and motorcycle legends towards the Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli this year, and will see fans flock to Winton Motor Raceway for the final time this year as bikes take the grid.
Winton ASBK Superbike Test Results
- Troy Herfoss – Honda – 1m20.405
- Josh Waters – Yamaha – 1m21.437
- Jamie Stauffer – Honda – 1m21.767
- Mike Jones – Ducati – 1m21.973
- Brayden Elliott – Suzuki – 1m22.500
- Robbie Bugden – Kawasaki – 1m22.952
- Wayne Maxwell – Yamaha – 1m24.051 (Don’t read anything in to Maxwell’s times, he was on his own with a 2014 YZF-R1 and just getting come laps. Yamaha Racing Team did their own Superbike Test the previous week).
- Sloan Frost – Suzuki – 1m24.496
- Ben Burke – Kawasaki – 1m24.996
- Adam Senior – Yamaha – 1m25.343
- Ryan Hampton – Suzuki – 1m25.423
- Nathan Spiteri – Honda – 1m27.821
- Brendan Schmidt – Kawasaki – 1m29.039
- Peter Berry – Kawasaki – 1m29.648
