SUPERBIKES : TEST OF METTLE
Could we see a changing of the guard at the opening round of the Australian Superbike Championship ?
It ’ s fitting the 35th anniversary of the Australian Superbike Championship begins at Phillip Island this weekend – a circuit that , more than any other , has produced a magnificent catalogue of extraordinary battles over the last five decades between the titans of local motorcycle racing .
That ’ s just the ‘ official ’ version of history , with Superbike racing for all intents and purposes already a de-facto national class well before it was formally inaugurated in 1989 . From the early 1980s , riders like Graeme Crosby and Wayne Gardner were leading lights on machines which were ‘ open books ’: not always the most angelic in the handling and braking departments , but still able to transfer some serious horsepower through skinny rear tyres .
The large capacity ‘ bucking broncos ’ had bucketloads of character and were a magnet for spectators and motorcycle media alike . The Superbike die was cast , in a huge and entertaining way , with massive support from manufacturers and the best riders in the country .
That prestige was too overwhelming to ignore , and in 1989 Tasmanian hard-charger Malcolm Campbell won the first Australian Superbike Championship on a Honda RC30 .
Thirty-five years on , today ’ s generation of Superbikes from Japan and Europe are light years ahead of their forerunners across every conceivable performance metric , but the philosophy remains the same : showcasing the latest generation of high-performance , four-stroke productionbased machines on racetracks across the country .
In 2024 , that all begins with round one of the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul ( ASBK ), with the riders to start the sevenround season with three 12-lap races around the legendary tyre-churning constant-radius curves of the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit .
The buzz factor in ASBK has gone up appreciably , too , with exceptionally fast incumbents joined by a new wave of precocious talent like current and former Australian Supersport champions Cameron Dunker and Tom Toparis . Harrison Voight , a 17-year-old star from Queensland , will also compete at Phillip Island before he heads off for another European Moto2 campaign .
That means the plots and sub-plots will be intriguing at every turn , but we already know one thing : a new champion will be crowned following the abdication of 2023 top gun , Troy Herfoss , who has moved on for fresh road racing challenges .
Three former ASBK champions – Josh Waters ( Ducati ), Mike Jones ( Yamaha ) and Glenn Allerton ( BMW ) – will return to full-time action in 2024 , while a fourth rider – Max Stauffer ( Yamaha ) – has ‘ direct ’ links to the championship via his father , Jamie , who was a two-time champion in the 2000s !
As battle-hardened veterans , Waters , Jones and Allerton know when it ’ s time to flick the switch into serious , uncompromising race mode . All will be in the mix this weekend – with the former possessing all the tricks to mastering the Phillip Island circuit by not only holding the current lap record but winning five of the last eight ASBK races at the venue with his fast , smooth and error-free riding style .
Waters shared wins with Cru Halliday ( Yamaha ) at the last Phillip Island ASBK round , in October 2023 . It was Halliday ’ s first ASBK win in several seasons , and he went onto finish third in the championship behind Herfoss and Waters and ahead of Allerton , Jones , Broc Pearson ( Ducati ), Bryan Staring ( Yamaha ) and Ted Collins ( BMW ).
In 2024 , Queenslander Anthony West ( Yamaha ) also returns to ASBK as well as Stauffer ( Yamaha ), Paris Hardwick ( Kawasaki ) and a brace of impressive rookies : Toparis , Dunker and Ty Lynch .
The trio will all ride Yamahas at Phillip Island , with 16-yearold Dunker and Lynch finishing first and third in the 2023 Australian Supersport Championship , while 23-year-old Toparis is a two-time champion and returns to Australia on a full-time basis after recently campaigning in the UK .
Dunker is a wunderkind : he ’ s won four championships under the ASBK banner over the past three years , as well as dominating a MiniGP title in 2023 and still finding time to return to his roots as a dirt track gun . His decision to go Superbike racing at such a tender age has an impressive precedence : Chris Vermeulen did the same thing in 1999 before going on to forge a successful career as WorldSSP champion , WorldSBK and MotoGP race winner .
Voight ( Ducati ) and Toparis also have similar thrill-of-the-hunt racing instincts , which begs the question : will this weekend kickstart a changing of the ASBK guard or will the evergreens reign supreme ? It ’ s going to be fascinating to watch .
OFFICIAL PROGRAMME 23
AUSTRALIAN SBK