The Superbike Yamaha Racing Team (YRT) kicked off the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship supported by Motul Pirelli season in dominating form after both Wayne Maxwell and Glenn Allerton set the benchmark ahead of privateer Daniel Falzon (Caterpillar Mainline Dyno, YZF-R1) in the opening free practice session. 

Maxwell shared his thoughts after topping the Yamaha Motor Insurance Superbike timesheets, pulling a 1:33.952 on his final lap; “We ran two bikes with two different setups to try and find a bit of direction for this race. I think we’ve found a setup that will work and that showed in our results.

“There are high spirits ahead of 2017, with the addition of live TV and all the work that’s going in behind the scenes from Motorcycling Australia and the ASBK team, it’s all going in the right direction. It’s the strongest field of past and present champions we’ve had in Superbike. Yamaha have been working really hard in the off season with Dunlop. All of these things combined make for a great result!” Maxwell concluded.

Wayne Maxwell at the 2017 Phillip Island ASBK test - Image: Andrew Gosling, TPG Photography

Wayne Maxwell at the 2017 Phillip Island ASBK test – Image: Andrew Gosling, TPG Photography

Yamaha team mate Allerton posted a best time of 1:33.979 ahead of Falzon (1:34.128).

With an encouraging time of 1:34.472, Suzuki GSX-R mounted Team Suzuki Ecstar, Josh Waters finished the session in P4 on a brand new untested bike.

“It was the first session out and the first time the Suzuki has turned a wheel! Despite this we ended up in P4! Not bad considering we only got the bikes last Friday. Unlike us all the main players were here at the Official Test Day in January,” Waters explained.

“Considering I’ve only just got the bike, I feel that I am really gelling with the GSXR after only 10 laps, and I see no reason that I won’t improve further over the weekend. It’s a real credit to the team.” He finished.

Yet another category success story is that of Robbie Bugden on board his Kawasaki BC Performance ZX10 (1:34.826) who finished hot on the heels of Waters.

“We did have an issue with the wind which slowed us up a bit in a couple of the sectors,” explained Bugden. “But overall we are really happy with P5. It’s a good start, we just need to tidy ourselves up on a couple of those middle sectors, but for the moment we are really happy.

Mark Chiodo (Repsol Gas Racing) trumped Thursdays’ Motul Supersport practice session on his Triumph 675R, lapping the Island in a 1:36.885, almost a full two seconds ahead of Ryan Taylor (Pablo’s Motorcycle Tyres, YZF-R6, 1:38.568). With literally nothing in it, Ted Collins (Next Gen Motorsport, GSX-R600, 1:38.754) was nipping at Taylor’s heels.

When the Supersport 300 class went out for FP1, Tom Edwards was first to stop the clocks at 1:51.126 on his Steeline Kawasaki EX 300, with Jack Passfield (Stay Upright, R3) in P2 with a 1:52.157 and Reid Battye managed to pilot his Ipone Kawasaki EX 300 to a respectable third position (1:53.173).

Image provided by Andrew Gosling, TPG Photography

Share this article