KTM RC390 success in Supersport 300 opener

KTM’s team of RC390 riders made a big splash at the weekend’s first round of the Australian Road Race Championship’s Supersport 300 class. Running as a support to the World Superbike Championship opener, the class saw some incredible racing as eighteen-year-old Max Croker left Phillip Island holding second in the over-300 ranks.

The Supersport 300 class is the second-tier of the ASBK support classes, and KTM fielded a dynamic trio of young dirt trackers including multiple national title winners Jared Brook and Billy Van Eerde, all aboard KTM’s exciting RC390 Supersport bike.

Despite Croker being the only experienced road racer, the trio came away with impressive results in the cutthroat racing which sprawled out around the track all day – Croker’s consistent 9, 10, 11 bringing him to within a single point of the championship lead.

Max Croker – Image: TGB Photography

Diminutive junior dirt track ace Billy Van Eerde had an incredible introduction to road racing, coming away sixth on the day despite being high-sided into the gravel and out of the second race. He’d earlier finished third in the opening race, and later sixth in the final.

Jared Brook worked diligently to adapt his throttle-heavy, rear-wheel steering technique to something more suitable for the smaller capacity and tremendous grip of the situation, and recovered from 35^th place in qualifying to be 11^th on the day.

Brook’s machine decided not to button-start on the startline for the first race, and he spotted the field in excess of 30 seconds while bump starting, eventually making his way back from 42^nd to 35^thin that race, then posting 18^th and 21^st across the next two.

Max Croker – KTM RC390: “It was great fun, and different racing compared to the 600. It was very difficult to break away and to get a good lap time you really had to have a tow. There was passing every single lap. You could be in a good position one minute, then you might drop back five positions in the one corner. And you were rubbing elbows the whole way. It was awesome!

“I was definitely surprised to get second. We’d had no testing on that bike, and just turned up with an exhaust for it and some suspension and that was it. I think we did really well with where we finished, and everyone knows that the KTMs are competitive. With just those few mods it was incredible the way the bike felt.

“I really liked the slipper clutch as well, and I was able to use that coming over Lukey Heights and into MG. There was no shuddering like on a normal supersport, I was coming down through gears and it was just gracefully sliding in and I was able to point the bike to where I wanted to go – that was incredible.”

Billy Van Eerde – Image: TGB Photography

Billy Van Eerde – KTM RC390: “One of the best tracks in the world, for a world superbike round – a fairly extreme first road race meeting! It’s crazy racing, the battles are just so much more intense. Dirt track you might be battling one other person, but in this you’ll have like 12 at a time and can lose like five positions at once – it’s awesome! I got a pretty decent time in and in the first race I was hoping to get a top ten or something, and got into a battle with the leaders and ended up third across the line and first in the over-300s! I was so happy with that!

“In the second one I was on lap seven of eight and we were trying a new tyre on the back and it was just sliding everywhere. I was in an insane battle with at least ten riders and I was coming out of turn 11 – where you’re flat through to the main straight – and the back stepped out and I got thrown over the bars into the gravel. It wasn’t that fun.

Billy Van Eerde – Image: TGB Photography

“In race three I didn’t know if I’d have as much confidence, but I got another good start, and found myself battling for first again. I think I hit the lead two times, and then on the last lap I made a big mistake in the last corner, and my front end started tucking and I ran onto the grass. I lost like three seconds on the leaders but the finish line was just ahead anyway, so I didn’t lose any positions and ended sixth.”

KTM’s 2017 Supersport 300 team – Image: TGB Photography

Jarrad Brook – KTM RC390: “It was a great weekend, I didn’t qualify as high up as I would have liked, but then in the first race I had to get push-started and got 35th. We fixed the problem and in the second I rode from 31^st to 18^th, so I was pretty happy with that! It was such a big field, there were 42 of us, so it’s difficult to weave your way through without getting into any trouble. It wasn’t a progressive start grid, so you just started each time from where you’d qualified. In the third race I ended up 21^st.

“It was a lot of fun being able to have another road race again. Because it is such a fast race track and I’m not used to doing that sort of speed. My fastest speed down the straight was 194 and you have the throttle wide open for periods much longer than I’m used to, and the grip levels as well require a big trust factor with how much you can lean it over and be on the throttle mid-turn. I ride dirt track with the back end, and I’m quite aggressive on the throttle too, whereas with this you don’t want to break the back out too often. So, still learning as we go, and each time I went out we improved.”