Australian Superbike

Official practice for the Woodstock Bourbon Australian Superbike Championship got underway yesterday at Symmons Plains in Tasmania, where teams are preparing for this weekend’s second round of the 2009 series.

The Wednesday practice was scheduled into the event late and was only permitted for Superbike, Supersport, and 125cc Grand Prix riders, but the turnout was strong as many riders and teams are eager for track time because there simply haven’t been as many tests as in recent years.

Five 25 minute sessions were held for each class and it was defending champion Glenn Allerton who unofficially lead the way for Motologic Racing Honda with a 53.5 lap time, which is close to Yamaha Racing Team rider Dan Stauffer’s lap record of 53.479 set in race two last year. Jason O’Halloran currently has the qualifying record with a 53.392.

Although no official timing took place, sources at the circuit have said that Dan Stauffer was close to Allerton as he continues to develop the new big bang Yamaha YZF-R1, as was Team Joe Rocket Suzuki’s Josh Waters. Dan won both races in Tassie last year, while Josh is the current ASBK points leader.

The second of the Yamahas was double Superbike champion Jamie Stauffer, who was putting in a lot of long runs in an effort to get as much time onboard the new bike as he too develops it as quickly as possible.

Allerton’s teammate Wayne Maxwell was within half a second of the lead time, while Waters’ teammate Shawn Giles was also gaining seat time after a long layoff last year with injury.

All of these guys have what it takes to challenge for victory come Sunday as long as they can make steady improvements to their bikes over the race distance. Dan Stauffer was too good last year, so if he can find that form again we might just see a big bang victory in the ASBK sooner than we thought.

Word from the circuit is that the cold temperatures are causing the tyres to tear if they lose heat, so teams were working to get that problem sorted out in time for this weekend’s races. A few showers fell yesterday, although it’s not certain whether rain will come over the weekend.

The usual suspects from round one were fast in Supersport, with privateer Suzuki rider Judd Greedy on pace along with equal points leader Bryan Staring. These two will be an entertaining battle this year, and word down in Tassie is that Jamie Stauffer was also fast on the R6 yesterday.

Official practice with all competitors and classes will start tomorrow, and MotoOnline will be down there amongst the action.

Spies will be very hard to beat at Valencia this weekend

World Superbike
Superbike World Championship rookie sensation Ben Spies has gone on record stating that he believes his former American Superbike Championship rivals could join World Supers and take victory as he has done on three occasions already this season.

Spies battled with Mat Mladin intensely over the last few years as teammates in the AMA, and Mladin has gone on record stating that Spies is the greatest rider that he has ever raced against.

But Spies doesn’t just believe that Mladin has what it takes to succeed in Europe, he also named Jamie Hacking as a strong candidate and said that there are many others in the States who could do the job.

It seems as though Ben Spies has single handily put AMA Superbikes back on the map and there’s no doubt that European teams will be looking for the next stars to emerge out of the land of Stars and Stripes.

Spies will be hard to top this weekend in Valencia too, because unlike Qatar, he has actually seen Valencia before he gets there and has even tested Suzuki’s MotoGP bike there back in 2007. It may be a long weekend for his opposition if the R1 suits the tight and technical Spanish circuit’s layout.

British Superbike
Suzuki’s British Superbike Championship team has landed sponsorship with Worx Power Tools to support ex-MotoGP rider Sylvain Guintoli’s efforts in the series this year. The team will now be known as Worx Crescent Suzuki for the next two years at least, with Worx taking over from Rizla as the title sponsor of the team.

Sponsorship news for Jason O’Halloran’s SMT Honda squad isn’t so good, with their major backer pulling out at the last minute and forcing the O’Show to settle with just one CBR1000RR at his disposal this year. He doesn’t seem too worried that he’ll only have one bike, and check out his new column in AMCN for updates throughout the year.

British Superbike teams have a lot to offer sponsors with the announcement that the series will have no less than 250 hours of total broadcast time on British Eurosport and ITV. 55 of those hours will be live!

International fans will be able to see all Superbike races from each event either live or as-live throughout Europe and Asia on Eurosport 2 and Eurosport Asia-Pacific.

All BSB broadcasts on both Eurosport and ITV will be available online at www.eurosport.yahoo.co.uk and www.itv.com respectively for on-demand viewing, so we’ll be able to keep up with the many Aussies competing over there this year.

Australasian Super X

Some of you may have noticed that this year’s Super X schedule has been announced in our Press Releases section, and it’s interesting to note that both New Zealand and Tasmania have been added to the series this year. Western Australia remains, albeit in a different venue, and Canberra replaces Wollongong. Adelaide is off the schedule this year, while the final round’s TBA is expected to be Queensland in either Brisbane or the Gold Coast.

The specialised formats will remain at most rounds to help entertain crowds rather than the traditional 20 lap main events, although this year will see the Pro Lites class also run with the new formats. Check out the full release here.

It’s great to see that Fox Sports will once again be running the entire series live, as well as Network 10 holding a delayed telecast for the second season in a row. The series is going to be massive this year.

The only concerns so far are that only a week separates the New Zealand round and the round before it in Canberra, which may prove a little tricky for the privateers. Either way, I’m sure that Mike Porra and the organisers from Global Action Sports have it all sorted because they really haven’t put a foot wrong since they began running the series last year.

Further good news is that world champion Chad Reed and Jeremy McGrath will compete in the series, as will more international riders than last year so it’s set to be a good one.