ASBK state of play – Catching up with Glenn Allerton

ASBK 2024

Catching up with Glenn Allerton

Glenn Allerton topped practice on Friday at Morgan Park and looked to have all guns firing before it all went pear-shaped in a red flag interrupted cold qualifying session on Saturday.

Glenn was not the only one to get tripped up by the tricky conditions and somewhat daunting left-hander that is Morgan Park’s third turn.  While Glenn himself had a lucky escape from any really serious injuries, the same could not be said for the GT Racing BMW M 1000 RR.

The damage to the bike and to Glenn himself put the team on the back foot and ultimately robbed them of their potential that weekend.

Trev: Glenn, you didn’t hold back on your criticism of the Morgan Park Circuit. On a brighter note, I believe you recently checked out the work being undertaken at Wakefield Park, now dubbed One Raceway. Things are looking promising ahead of round six there in early October. What do you think are some of the primary challenges of the new layout and surface?  Do you think this round, in particular, might see some surprise results?

Glenn Allerton: “My first impression is that the track is awesome. The upgrades to the pit facilities when you first come in and the amount of effort they’ve put in, just the amount of cement work that they’ve done at the back of the pit area and and the upgrading of the medical facilities, it’s probably the best I’ve seen at any circuit in Australia bar Tailem Bend.

“They’ve really put a lot of effort into looking at the long term and and getting all the safety measures right, and then the circuit itself, they’ve done a great job. It looks like it goes the same way, but I can tell you the whole surface has been dug up and redone and it’s all brand new tar and they’ve done a great job.

“They’ve gone with a different philosophy, there’s no gravel traps there, so wherever there’s run-off it’s either tar or it’s grass, and they’ve done a very good job of matching the surface – the level of the surface of the track – and the level of the grass to the same height, so there’s no steps off at any point.

“I think the only challenge they’re going to face really is the last corner, there’s a little bit of kerb that’s quite high on the inside of the track. We had a chat about that and and they’re looking at making changes to the height of that kerb in in the last corner, to try and take away any chance that you could hit that kerb and kind of jump off it, as it’s just a little bit too high on the inside. If we could get that level down a bit, I think that the track will be really good and I’m really looking forward to going back there. It’s one of my favourite circuits.

“The reason why I think it’s one of my favourite circuits to go to is because from the pit, you can see absolutely everything on the track. From pit lane, while you’re there racing, you can actually watch other races before you, and for a fan to go to ands easily be able to see the whole entire circuit, it’s just a different experience. So, yeah, it’s all looking positive.”

Trev: It doesn’t really look as though there’s going to be any extensive testing there prior to the round, as far as I know. So the surface could produce some surprises and obviously make the tyre game even more of a gamble than normal.  So do you think you might see some, surprises there? What’s your take?

Allerton: “I’ve walked around the track and looked at the surface and for sure we’re going to have tyre problems. I don’t think there’s going to be any question about it. Every time we go to a new track with a new surface and it’s not rubbered in…

“The tar is quite sharp.  It’s going to feel like it’s got heaps of grip and it’s nice and smooth, but I’m convinced it’s going to tear tyres up no matter what tyre you have, there’s going to be tyre tearing.

“I’m glad that when we go to the event we’ve got that Thursday afternoon session, so we can lay some rubber – so all the classes can lay some rubber down – because I think the more rubber that we can lay down on the surface come Sunday hopefully there will be no major issues with the tyres.  I think it’ll be okay eventually, it just seems the norm at the moment that we tear our tyres up on a new surface.”

Trev: Before we get to Goulburn, though, we will be at Phillip Island for round five. What are your thoughts ahead of that contest?

Allerton: “Yeah I’m looking forward to it. Maybe I’m a little bit old school but personally I like the fact that we’re not testing. You know the one-month testing ban for me I think it’s it’s it’s really good and I would actually like to add further to it. I think there needs to be some sort of agreement amongst the teams that we don’t test as much as what everybody wants to these days because it’s getting expensive. Tyres aren’t cheap, accommodation and travel is not cheap, and you know we still end up putting on the same event anyway. So in my eyes going to Phillip Island without testing and running a two-day event, well I’m really looking forward to it.

“It means you’ve got to hit the track running from session one and put in a good performance and that’ll put you in good stead for Sunday’s events.

“Our results at Morgan Park weren’t great, but we’re coming into the fill bar with quite good momentum. We had some strong testing before Morgan Park and then Friday was strong for us, we just got a little bit unlucky and I had that accident and I didn’t feel great on Sunday. I hit my head quite hard and my neck and my shoulder was pretty sore and so to get through Sunday’s event at Morgan Park was difficult, but like I said, I feel like we’ve got strong momentum in the GT Racing Team at the moment. We found a little bit more grip out of the back of the bike and I’m really excited for Phillip Island.”

Trev: Looking a bit more big picture, there has been a lot of movement behind the scenes surrounding ASBK of late. There has been talk of a Team Association to lobby competitor concerns to Motorcycling Australia. Even the formation of a breakaway series, and/or a private promoter taking over the running of the championship from Motorcycling Australia, is being talked about. Would you care to air any of your thoughts on those matters?

Allerton: “I think a riders association, rider’s and team’s association because the teams are the ones spending the money, is needed.  Sometime it’s the rider that is the team and sometimes the rider rides for a team, but I think that’s what it needs to be, it just has to be formed.

“Like, we’re in a day and age where everyone’s spending a lot of money to go racing, and I don’t want to bag on Morgan Park because I think the track’s got potential, and we do need places to race that, but that whole section in turn three there, we’ve all been talking about how dangerous that is since the first time we went there. The first day that we all went there, there was a big accident, I think it was Glenn Scott badly broke his leg. I was standing on the side of the fence and I watched the accident and we all talk about these issues that we have of safety, and when we’re gonna race and where we’re gonna race. I really feel like it’s only fair that the people that spend the money to compete in the event have some sort of say in that.

“Whether or not that is actually gonna equate to us having power on where we go, that’s another thing, but it would be good to have some calm heads that represent the teams and riders be a part of where are we gonna race next year, when are the dates that those races are gonna be on and what tracks are we gonna go to and are those tracks up to spec, all those sorts of things. I think that the riders and team association needs to be a part of that.”

Trev: And like I said, there’s even being talk about again a breakaway series or going back to a private promoter taking over the series from from MA, do you have anything to reflect on on that score?

Allerton: “Well you know I actually haven’t heard anything about somebody forming another series, the only thing I had heard about is some talk about doing rounds in New Zealand over the Christmas period which I think would be great. I think we need to race more in the summer when it’s nice and warm, but yeah, I haven’t heard anything about a breakaway series.

“I guess it might be just a natural progression for our sport to have a private promoter. If that person can sell our sport to big corporates and we can try to make the sport a little bit more cost neutral, I’m all for it.

“But at the moment I think M.A. are doing a pretty good job of trying to keep us all going, and you know the TV package that we currently have, I think is really good. I think the coverage that we have, from the guys that come to the track with a little amount that they have to work with, the job they do is phenomenal and yeah, I think it’s up to all of us collectively to work harder together to try and sell our sport to the mainstream.  At the moment I think we’re actually doing a pretty good job.” 

Trev: Looking internationally, it has been confirmed that at the world level, and in some European competitions, the Supersport 300 category will be discontinued at the end of 2025. Talk is that the 300 category will be replaced by a larger capacity, new entry-level capacity, perhaps modelled off Supertwin or Sportbike competitions around the world, with performance balancing via a torque-mapped control ECU. What are your thoughts on this move? How do you see the state of play regarding Supersport 300, is it still relevant?

Allerton: “That’s a difficult one, getting the manufacturers, who all keep changing their minds on what their entry level capacity is. You know Kawi brought out of 300, then they’ve got a Ninja 400 and now they’ve got a 500 coming, and then Honda had a 500, yeah it’s a difficult one. I would like to see the 300 Supersport category stay, with some tweaks, because when I watch the racing at the world level they seem to have done a really good job of getting the bikes quite equal.

“My nephew’s got a Ninja 400 and I’ve ridden the bike with the standard ECU with a 12,500 rpm limit and the bike is a lot faster than say a Yamaha R3, but when you knock too much revs out of the bike (in ASBK the Ninja 400 had a 9650 rpm limit imppsed that was recently raised to 9900 rpm), it then becomes slow, you can’t get into the good part of the power, and that makes it difficult to set the bike up for circuits, because you have to gear the bike so tall – that’s part of trying to to get the competition all equal. But if you watch the World Championship they’ve done a great job there, the bikes all seem to be around the same speed.

“What I don’t understand is where they’re going to go from where they are, at the current point, Kawasaki is still making these bikes, Yamaha is still making an R3 and they seem to sell on the street so it might be a bit odd to get rid of the class because it is a good feeder class. I’m interested to see what they want to bring in to replace it.”

Trev: Taking a step back, you have seen your nephew, Josh Newman, take up road racing. I can’t remember Josh in the OJC ranks. Did he skip that competition altogether before joining the Supersport 300? Where he currently leads that championship?  He competed in FIM MiniGP for a while also. What reflections do you have on the path he has taken, and what is the ideal path now, as you see it, for a youngster starting out?

Allerton: “So we actually put him on to a KTM RC390 to start with, and myself, my dad and my sister took him to tracks like Pheasant Wood down at Marulan and he did track days at Luddenham. We started him on a bigger bike because he’s a bigger kid, but then when he started racing he was lucky enough to get an opportunity to ride in the Ohvale MiniGP and he was lucky enough to get a ride with the ESG team. They were very generous to let him ride their bike and. I feel like that was a good thing for him because the power to weight ratio of the Ohvale I think is closer to what you’re going to come up against when you start racing say 600s.

“The Ohvale seem to have a higher power to ratio than even the Ninja 400 that he races, so to get a feel of something that can turn really sharp, has good brakes, I think Ohvale was a good avenue for him to start in MiniGP.

“He didn’t do the OJC, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to, he wanted to, but money and budget was the issue there.  I like the initiative that Yamaha put forward with OJC, we need to put the kids on bikes to start with, that are all even, but the only issue I see with it, is that those motorbikes are just a little bit slow and they’re a little bit big for the kids. On some of the circuits that we go to, the OJC kids are basically wide open the whole way around the track. It’s good for them to get out there and learn their racecraft but I think that a different motorcycle probably would have been a better option. I don’t have an answer of what that motorcycle is, but I just feel like the OJC bikes are just a little bit… they’re a little bit slow for the tracks that we race on.”

Trev: As we talked about the 300s before, I think that class is looking at being replaced because, especially when we look at Europe, the kids by the time they get into that 300 championship, they’re pretty impressive riders, proper fast and talented, and so they want to put them on a faster bike. I think they’ve sort of come to the realisation that – where here we were talking about OJC bikes perhaps being too slow for kids starting out – I think that is where they are coming from in Europe in regards to 300 as the next step, that maybe the kids are now just so good and so fast at such a young age, that the 300s are now simply too slow for them. If we go back 20 years, to the 125 era as the first stepping stone on any major stage, they were 40 km/h quicker down the chute at Phillip Island than a current Supersport 300 bike, about six-seconds a lap quicker than a modern Supersport 300, if comparing domestics to domestics, let alone the world level 125s back then, which were ten-seconds a lap quicker than what a modern 300 Supersport machine is now, and that was 20 years ago…

Allerton: “Something with a better power to weight ratio than say a Ninja 400 as the bikes are a little bit slow, there needs to be something that’s a little bit quicker, there needs to be something that’s nearly… an R7 would probably be okay but even when you look at them they look a little bit heavy. I think that the kids are ready if they’ve competed for a couple of years on an Ohvale, they’re definitely ready for a supersport bike but then they’re talking about getting rid of supersport too – you know 600s – so yeah I don’t know where they go to from here, but definitely the majority of the kids that are coming through the feeder sport these days are far more well advanced than you know, for instance, when I came through.

“You look at these kids and they’re riding at least once or twice a week, on Ohvales at go-kart tracks and they’re literally ready to go onto a 600 supersport before they’re 17 years old. It’s certainly a hard thing and of course we’ve got to balance what the manufacturers can make and sell, because obviously that’s at the end of the day what sort of makes the world go around and make this sport happen.”

Trev – They have to be able to sell the motorbikes that people are racing or we’ve got to come up with track only models for the sport only perhaps, that aren’t even related to the road, and the sport would need to become much bigger for them to sell enough of a track only model to make it viable I guess. There’s no easy answer, but it seems as though a bit of a shake up across across all the categories in the years to come is inevitable. We’ll just have to sit back and and see what happens from there, when the changes happen, and what those changes will be…

Allerton – “I think that we’ve actually outsmarted ourselves as humans, the reason why I don’t think that the thousand cc sportsbikes sell anymore is because they’ve gotten too fast for the street, and we’ve basically just decided to cater for every part of motorcycling. Now, if you look at a brand range like BMW has, they’ve got so many adventure bikes, and then they have one range of street bikes that are basically the same as their adventure bikes, then other street bike ranges also. Look at the R 1250, it is basically an adventure bike with some street tyres on it. So we’ve got all these upright bikes, which in my opinion are way easier to ride on the road, and way more fun on the road, but we’re kind of taking the attention away from our 1000 cc sportsbikes, and made it easier for people to ride around on bikes that go plenty fast enough to get in trouble – but they’re a lot more comfortable – so that’s probably the reason why we’re not selling so many M 1000 RR models and the like.”

Trev: 100 per cent. 20 years ago, from a personal perspective, myself and all my mates, we bought sportsbikes, because 20 years ago if you wanted decent horsepower, decent suspension, and decent brakes, you had to buy a sport bike. But in today’s market, we’ve got naked bikes and adventure bikes, which have awesome suspension, unbelievable brakes, and huge amounts of power and torque. We don’t need to be uncomfortable to go fast and have fun on the road anymore, and a lot of us are not as flexible as we once were! And look, on a tight and twisty road, a sportsbike isn’t going to turn as well as an adventure bike or an upright bike, which also give you more vision and confidence anyway on most roads. Certainly, the motorcycling world has changed. The performance envelope of the street motorcycle is now so huge that, we don’t have to ride, S 1000 RRs, R1s, Blades, Panigale, ZX-10 and GSX-Rs, on the road these days to get our jollies, because just about all the big bikes on the market today are plenty fast, have awesome brakes and great suspension. We’ve effectively cancelled out the reason for a road punter to ride a superbike, which is, it’s a bit sad for guys sort of your age, and the likes of myself that little bit older as well.

Allerton: “You know, that has always been our bag, for so many of us. The sportsbike now has turned into a collector item and occasional track day toy. They’re not what you see on the road. I live on a road that’s fairly well used on the weekends by a lot of bike guys. And all I see is upright nakedbikes, lots and lots of them. And you know, the S 1000 XR, it’s got bascially the same engine as my race bike, but it’s upright and it’s an adventure bike… So I guess that’s the path we’ve gone down.”

Trev: Obviously we don’t have all the answers but it seems further change is inevitable, that’s progress… Good to chat. I’ll see you at Phillip Island in a couple of weeks. And then again, at Wakefield Park in October.

Allerton: “Yeah, it should be good mate, I look forward to it.”

Trev: Thanks Glenn.

ASBK returns to the revered high-speed curves of Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on September 7-8 for round five of the championship, with two action packed days as the nation’s finest circuit racing talent taking to the 4.448km GP layout, boasting one of the highest average top speeds of any circuit around the globe.

The two-wheel activity will be provided by the Australian Superbikes, Michelin Supersport, Race and Road Supersport 300 and Superbike Masters classes, while the always entertaining Aussie Racing Cars will add an exciting point of differentiation for spectators.

To purchase tickets for round five of the ASBK Championship at Phillip Island, click here.

ASBK Superbike Championship Points

Supersport 300 Championship Points

Supersport Championship Points

Superbike Masters Championship Points

ASBK Round Five Schedule