The check-in and vaccination certificate checking process caused some delays this morning for riders and crews as they waited to gain entry to the Phillip Island Circuit this morning. This already had more than a few people well harried even before things get underway.
Anecdotally, a photographer had allegedly snuck an unvaccinated friend into the circuit inside their boot, and as a result has now been barred from attending any further rounds of the series.
The riders briefing was slightly delayed but the on-track action still got underway with the opening practice session for the YFM R3 Cup on schedule at 0905. It took place under overcast conditions and with a little more humidity than customary in Victoria.
Henry Snell was the early pacesetter in the R3 Cup ahead of Cameron Dunker and seasoned class veteran Brandon Demmery who has come out of retirement for another run with the young guns.
Supersport were out next and Senna Agius continued to show the same sort of speed he did here during testing late last month with a 1m36.082 on his fourth lap of the day. Tom Bramich was not too far behind while Tom Edwards spent the session running in a new bike. These boys have not even got started yet and I expect the Supersport lap record to be smashed here this weekend.
Obviously at this early juncture of proceedings lap-times are not all that relevant for the most part, as we don’t really know the game plan of each rider and team in this early shakedown of their motorcycles.
One thing that I have probably not covered all that well in the lead up to this season is the size and make up amongst some of the Superbike outfits this season. Privateer is probably not quite the correct terminology for many of the teams that in other times might have correctly been described as such.
Our Australian Superbike Champion Wayne Maxwell is a ‘privateer’ so to speak, and with it largely operating a lot of the time in Craig McMartin’s suburban garage that term is somewhat fitting. However, with the backing of the Horner brothers, in both engineering terms and with their support as the Australian distributors of K-Tech suspension, they are not exactly a Dad and Dave style outfit.
That said, in the last couple of seasons McMartin’s Boost Mobile Ducati squad certainly never got the support from Ducati that was enjoyed by the DesmoSport Ducati squad owned by Troy Bayliss and Ben Henry. But they have certainly been putting the runs on the board and have stood out as the operation to beat.
Aiden Wagner has a fairly well-funded and organised team behind him under Mark McGregor’s Addicted To Track banner with Quinn building the bikes and Stephanie Redman helping out on the electronics side of the equation.
The new 727 Moto outfit has a huge amount of experience spinning the spanners behind Jed Metcher and Superbike debutante Broc Pearson. Ex MotoGP mechanics, ASBK Championship winning team managers and technicians, a well practiced electronics technician and look very well bankrolled.
JD Racing is still most definitely a family based outfit but the Falzon family certainly have plenty of runs on the board, including Daniel dominating the season opener here as privateers five years ago. Brother Jon is an electronics and engineering whiz, then their seemingly adopted brother Liam is more than well practiced spinning spanners, and both of those guys are also more than capable of throwing down a decent lap-time when called upon. During Daniel’s recent recovery Liam has been riding the bike as Jon adapted their YZF-R1 to the new MoTeC control ECU.
Fellow South Australian outfit Unitech Racing with Arthur Sissis also look very well resourced coming into this season.
These are just a few examples in regards to the teams in ASBK this year, but it is a similar story up and down most of pit-lane with ‘privateer’ status not quite what it once was as some of the teams have serious support behind them and within their teams.
YRT may be the only real ‘Factory’ outfit so to speak in ASBK, but there are plenty of Yamaha riders out there that perhaps could even be said to have just as much resources as the distributor backed squad. The agility that comes with being smaller and in a much less political environment can also certainly be advantageous no doubt.
In the lead up to this opening round there had been some rumours swirling that the Penrite Honda squad were considering a switch from Michelin to Pirelli. That talk was confirmed this morning with plenty of Pirelli rubber seen in the Penrite Honda garage and Troy Herfoss rolling out of the pits for FP1 shod with the Italian hoops.
This is without a doubt a major embarrassment for Michelin as they came back to ASBK with a lot of fanfare and the likes of ex Rossi mechanic Alex Briggs and Doug Sharpe running the Michelin presence in the paddock. Even Jeremy Burgess was on deck for the French rubber manufacturuer at the track when Michelin first came back to ASBK. It was a high profile return for a brand that had been largely absent from Australian racetracks for a long time, and had not been successful in Aussie Superbike since their championship winning years across both the Superbike and Supersport classes in 2004 (Adam Fergusson) and 2005 (Josh Brookes).
Honda’s split with Michelin after such a concerted effort to bring the brand back to the top in ASBK could be seen as even more embarrassing than YRT’s switch from Dunlop to Pirelli ahead of this season.
On the other side of the ledger, this is a massive coup for Pirelli. Aside from the six wins taken by Herfoss in the past two seasons on Michelin, and Bryan Staring’s wins at The Bend on Dunlop in 2019, Pirelli have otherwise dominated.
Could this switch from Michelin to Pirelli though be as much about tyre performance as it is about tuning up the head of Troy Herfoss?
It was clear from my interview with Herfoss earlier this month that he needed something to break him out of a fog.
Will the switch in rubber also flick the switch inside Herf’s brain that sparks the burning furnace of competitive fire that burns white hot when Troy gets really wound up? Not that he generally needs much winding up, but with this struggle back from injury anything that can work in a positive way on his psyche has to be embraced. In that regard it looks to have worked as even before he rolled out the pits this morning, Herf’ was looking and sounding so much happier than he has of late.
When FP1 got underway this morning Wayne Maxwell was immediately under the lap record on his first flying lap of the day, a 1m31.647 that we believe was the fastest ever domestic Superbike lap of Phillip Island, for about ten minutes…
Maxwell’s chances of improving on it were delayed when Nathan Spiteri went down which brought out the red flag and delayed proceedings. Spiteri took a knock to the head and might be preventatively ruled out of the weekend.
When the track went live again Maxwell then dropped in a 1m31.379 to lower the benchmark further… At this early juncture he was two-seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Nothing like coming out all guns blazing….
Cru Halliday was the first of the rest to crack into the 1m32s, a 1m32.909 on his ninth lap. Bryan Staring then joined him with a 1m32.993 but then that was pretty much it as far as progress went.
Maxwell tops FP1 by more than 1.5-seconds ahead of Halliday and Staring, Mike Jones fourth.
Lachlan Epis headed a triumvirate of BMW machinery in fifth ahead of Josh Waters and Glenn Allerton.
Aiden Wagner eighth ahead of Cessnock Kawasaki’s Matt Walters while Troy Herfoss rounded out the top ten as he gets a feel for his new Pirelli rubber.
Things will get much tighter in the following sessions I have no doubt, but still, that is one serious early shot across the bows of the competition to start the day…
Motojourno - Founder of MCNews.com.au - Australia's leading resource for motorcycle news, reviews and race coverage for over 20 years.
MCNEWS.COM.AU is a specialist on-line resource that provides motorcycle news for motorcyclists. MCNews covers all areas of interest for the motorcycling public including news, reviews and comprehensive racing coverage.