Throwback Thursday
Morgan Park ASBK 2015
With ASBK hitting Morgan Park this weekend for round four of the 2024 mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship, we decided to cast our eye back to what was an interesting first visit to the Warwick venue back in 2015.
At this point in time, 2015, the Australian Superbike Championship was at its lowest ebb. The vast majority of the fastest riders and motorcycles in Australia at the time were competing in the rival Formula Xtreme Championship promoted by Terry O’Neill.
The likes of Glenn Allerton, Cru Halliday, Wayne Maxwell, Jamie Stauffer and Troy Herfoss, along with their top flight Yamaha and Honda teams raced in FX and chose not to take part in Australian Superbike. Thus the front runners of the ASBK field at Morgan Park in 2015 consisted of primarily Mike Jones (Kawasaki) who was starting his second year on a Superbike, and a young Daniel Falzon (Yamaha) who had just stepped up to Superbike after winning the Supersport title in 2014.
Morgan Park was a circuit where Jones had spent plenty of time cutting laps on all manner of machinery and he put his cicuit knowledge to good use, taking pole position by almost two-seconds! His pole time and new lap record was 1m15.368. Last year, 2023, Mike Jones also took pole, a 1m12.079 to set the current qualifying benchmark at Morgan Park.
Also in the ASBK mix during that first visit to Morgan Park in 2015 was Ben Henry, current Team Manager of DesmoSport Ducati, riding Kawasaki #18 as pictured below.
James Mutton had returned from Europe and put in an appearance at Morgan Park on that April weekend astride a Ducati. Ryan Hampton had joined the fray from New Zealand on the new and delectable BMW HP4, while Phil Czaj was on the equally special Aprilia RSV4.
Western Australian Adam Senior was on a Suzuki, as was fellow sandgroper Ashley Fleming.
The lovable rogue that is off-road legend Phil Lovett was racing a Kawasaki while Chas Hern, another bloke that has raced just about every type of two-wheeled conveyance possible, was riding Erik Buell’s latest creation, an EBR 1190 RX. Chas gave the front runners quite a scare that weekend on the Buell when he shot to the lead in a Superbike race, while kangaroos provided a different type of scare…
Morgan Park ASBK 2015 – Race One
Daniel Falzon scored the holeshot in the first ever ASBK Superbike race at Morgan Park, however, less than a minute later riders were backing off the throttle and putting their hands up after seeing a number of kangaroos crossing the back section of the circuit. The red flag was subsequently produced.
Only a couple of minutes later the race successfully got underway. Chas Hern got the holeshot on the EBR this time and led the field through turn one as Jones tried to push up the inside of Falzon for second place, but the Yamaha rookie shut the door and held his line, thus Jones had to keep his powder dry.
Hern continued to lead the field around the back of the circuit, but heading into turn one the next time around Jones slotted up the inside and Falzon swept around the outside, both men firing past Hern on either side under brakes into turn one to make a Chas Hern sandwich, squeezing the Hern filling back to third place.
As soon as Jones got some clear air the full potential of the Crazy Dogs ZX-10R was unleashed on the Morgan Park circuit with ferocity. Straight down to 1m15s.
Daniel Falzon appeared to have found another gear in his efforts to try and go with the Queenslander, his second flying lap over half-a-second faster than he had managed during qualifying.
The pecking order was quickly established however. Jones in a league of his own and pulling away from Falzon to the tune of a full second or more every lap.
Chas Hern’s scintillating start excited onlookers but the EBR rider could not keep pace with the early combatants as they got down to a race pace. Hern still impressive, but his pace more than a second slower than second-placed Falzon. By half-race distance Hern was more than ten seconds behind the leading duo.
James Mutton, riding a virtually standard 1199 Ducati Panigale, was fourth during the early laps before being overhauled by Ryan Hampton, Ben Henry and Phil Lovett. His pace slowed markedly as the race wore on, the Brisbane Motorcycles rider eventually pulling into the pits with five laps to run.
Jones total domination continued unabated up front, every lap in the 15s and under his own previous race lap record. Only four laps from the end did Jones back the pace off into the low 16s.
After his impressive early 1m16.443 Falzon quickly dropped back into the 17s, eventually finishing 17-seconds behind Jones when the chequered flag signalled the conclusion of the opening 14-lap opening bout.
A good battle had been waged over fourth place between Ryan Hampton, Phil Lovett and Ben Henry. Ryan Hampton eventually carding that fourth place finish and the Kiwi managed to get within two-seconds off third placed Chas Hern over the closing laps. Phil Lovett was two-seconds further behind, but with a comfortable eight-second buffer over sixth placed Ben Henry.
Phil Czaj brought his Aprilia home in seventh place, 55-seconds behind Falzon, but two-seconds clear of Ballina BMW rider Andy Fisher. Perth’s Adam Senior was ninth while Ashley Fleming rounded out the top ten. Only the top ten finished on the same lap as the race leader.
Morgan Park ASBK 2015 – Race Two
Mike Jones and Daniel Falzon got off the line side-by-side in the second bout but it was the Yamaha man that took the lead into turn one for the first time in the final 14-lap race at Morgan Park in 2015.
By the time they crossed the stripe to commence lap two Jones was already once again establishing his dominance over the field. 0.819s faster than Falzon from a standing start and 2.35-seconds quicker than third placed man Chas Hern. This had been the final order in the kangaroo interrupted opening Superbike bout earlier in the day.
That result looked unlikely to be repeated this time around as Hern was engaged in a ding-dong battle for third with New Zealand’s Ryan Hampton, while Ben Henry and James Mutton also gave chase to try and stake their claim on a podium position.
Chas Hern then ruled himself out of podium contention after going down at turn six, the EBR rider rejoined the race at the back of the pack. A sour end to what had otherwise been a very impressive weekend for Hern and his fairly standard American machine.
Daniel Falzon was running a more consistent pace in the 76-second bracket in this second race, but it was nowhere near enough to keep Jones within sight. The Kawasaki rider continued to reel off 75s even in the latter stages of the race.
Mike Jones the clear winner by 13.5-seconds over Daniel Falzon. The second placed rider three-seconds closer to Jones than he had been at the end of race one was a show of progress for the rookie.
Ryan Hampton had managed to sneak away from Ben Henry over the final laps to secure the final step on the rostrum. James Mutton had been running well but retired two laps from the end.
Mike Jones took a perfect score of 51 points from his two race wins and pole position.
Of course this unprecedented display of dominance in a national round was somewhat overshadowed by a distinct lack of depth in the Superbike field that ASBK season.
As I reflected on at the time, without Team Honda, and Team Yamaha, and the fastest riders in the country, the Morgan Park weekend resembled more of a well organised club day, than a national championship event with a well stacked field of A-grade competitors. That’s not to take anything away from Jones, even at that early stage of his career the Kawasaki rider would have been a serious threat around Morgan Park against any level of competition. The Queenslander was running regularly towards the front in the rival Swann Australasian FX Superbike Championship, and had won a race in the FX Superbike season finale at Sydney Motorsports Park the previous November.
Overall, I ranked the inaugural Morgan Park event as a good race meeting. Lack of top level talent notwithstanding, there was still plenty of good racing to see. I also suggested the schedule could certainly do with some tweaking before ASBK headed to Wanneroo Raceway for the following round as there were lots of dead gaps between any on track action.
The crowd numbers were quite good, as is often the case when visiting a provincial area where the lead up always gets good support in the local mainstream media. In fact, the local Warwick News Daily newspaper ran a number of major stories in the lead up to the event. I also came across some Ulysses Club members that had ridden more than 800 kilometres to stay the weekend in Warwick and take in the ASBK event. There were quite a few trade displays, the crowd were visibly appreciative of the show that was put on, and the vibe at the circuit was quite enjoyable. Something that continues at Morgan Park today and this weekend will show how far ASBK has come from those dark days of 2015.
