Nostalgic Thursday
Morgan Park ASBK 2015
With ASBK will head to Morgan Park this weekend for round four of the 2024 mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike ChampionshipWe decided to revisit our exciting first visit to the Warwick location in 2015.
At this point in 2015, the Australian Superbike Championship was at its lowest point. Most of the fastest riders and bikes in Australia at the time were competing in the Formula Xtreme Championship, started by Terry O’Neill.
The likes of Glenn Allerton, Cru Halliday, Wayne Maxwell, Jamie Stauffer and Troy Herfoss, along with their top Yamaha and Honda teams, raced in FX and opted out of Australian Superbike. As a result, the ASBK field at Morgan Park in 2015 was dominated by Mike Jones (Kawasaki), who was starting his second year on a Superbike, and a young Daniel Falzon (Yamaha), who had just moved up to Superbike after winning the Supersport title in 2014.
Morgan Park is a track where Jones has spent a lot of time cutting laps on all sorts of machines and he put his knowledge of the circuit to good use, taking pole position by almost two seconds! His pole time and new lap record was 1:15.368. Mike Jones also took pole last year in 2023, running 1:12.079 to set the current qualifying benchmark at Morgan Park.
Also present in the ASBK contingent for its first visit to Morgan Park in 2015 was Ben Henry, current DesmoSport Ducati Team Principal, riding the Kawasaki #18 pictured below.
James Mutton returned from Europe and turned up at Morgan Park that April weekend on a Ducati. Ryan Hampton raced from New Zealand on the hot new BMW HP4, while Phil Czaj rode the equally hot Aprilia RSV4.
Adam Senior, a Western Australian, was driving the Suzuki, as was Ashley Fleming, another sand trapper.
The lovable rogue, off-road legend Phil Lovett, was racing a Kawasaki while Chas Hern, another guy who has raced just about every type of two-wheeled machine imaginable, was riding Erik Buell’s latest, an EBR 1190 RX. Chas had given the leaders quite a scare that weekend on the Buell when he stormed to the front of a Superbike race, while the kangaroos provided a different kind of scare…
Morgan Park ASBK 2015 – Race 1
Daniel Falzon scored a holeshot in the first ASBK Superbike race at Morgan Park, but less than a minute later, riders were seen easing off and throwing their arms up after seeing a number of kangaroos crossing the back of the track. The red flag was then thrown.
Just a few minutes later, the race was back on track. This time Chas Hern had a holeshot on the EBR and was leading the pack through the first corner as Jones tried to push Falzon on the inside for second, but the new Yamaha rider closed the line and held the line, leaving Jones to keep his powder dry.
Hern continued to lead the pack at the back of the track, but entering turn one on the following lap, Jones took the inside position and Falzon went past on the outside, both riders passed Hern on either side while braking into turn one to form a “sandwich” in front of Chas Hern, pushing Hern back into third place.
Once Jones got some fresh air, the full potential of the Crazy Dogs ZX-10R was unleashed on the Morgan Park track with ferocity. Straight down to 1m15s.
Daniel Falzon appeared to have found a different path in his pursuit of the Queenslander, his second lap half a second quicker than his qualifying time.
However, the order of precedence was quickly established. Jones was in a class of his own, outpacing Falzon by a second or more every lap.
Chas Hern’s impressive start had the crowd buzzing but the EBR rider was unable to catch his early rivals as they slowed to racing pace. Hern was still impressive but was over a second behind second-placed Falzon. By the halfway mark, Hern was over ten seconds behind the leading duo.
James Mutton, riding a near-spec Ducati Panigale 1199, was fourth in the early stages before being passed by Ryan Hampton, Ben Henry and Phil Lovett. His pace slowed considerably as the race progressed, with the Brisbane Motorcycles rider finally pitting with five laps to go.
Jones’ complete dominance continued unabated at the front, each lap at 15 and under his own previous lap record. Just four laps from the end, Jones slowed to a low of 16.
After an impressive 1m16.443, Falzon quickly dropped to 17th place, eventually finishing 17 seconds behind Jones as the chequered flag signaled the end of the opening 14-lap run.
There was a good fight for fourth place between Ryan Hampton, Phil Lovett and Ben Henry. Ryan Hampton eventually took fourth place and the New Zealander managed to open up a two-second gap over Chas Hern in third in the closing laps. Phil Lovett was two seconds slower, but had a comfortable eight-second gap over Ben Henry in sixth.
Phil Czaj rode his Aprilia to seventh place, 55 seconds behind Falzon but two seconds ahead of Ballina BMW rider Andy Fisher. Perth’s Adam Senior was ninth while Ashley Fleming was tenth. Only the top ten finishers finished on the same lap as the race leader.
Morgan Park ASBK 2015 – Race Two
Mike Jones and Daniel Falzon started side-by-side in race two but it was the Yamaha rider who took the lead at the first turn for the first time in the final 14-lap race at Morgan Park in 2015.
By the time they crossed the starting line for the second lap, Jones had once again asserted his dominance on the track, 0.819s ahead of Falzon at the start and 2.35s ahead of third-placed Chas Hern. It was the final order in the opening Superbike race, which was interrupted by kangaroos earlier in the day.
That result looks unlikely to be repeated this time around as Hern is in a tight battle for third with New Zealand’s Ryan Hampton, while Ben Henry and James Mutton are also chasing to try and claim their place on the podium.
Chas Hern then took himself out of the race for a podium finish after crashing out at turn six, with the EBR rider rejoining the race at the back of the pack. It was a poor end to an impressive week of racing for Hern and his fairly standard American machine.
Daniel Falzon ran a more consistent 76-second pace in this second race, but it was still not enough to keep Jones in sight. The Kawasaki rider continued to hit 75s even in the latter stages of the race.
Mike Jones was the clear winner by 13.5 seconds over Daniel Falzon. The second-place finish was three seconds closer than Jones’s first stage finish, an improvement for the rookie.
Ryan Hampton fought hard to get away from Ben Henry in the final laps to take the final step on the podium. James Mutton ran well but dropped out two laps from the finish.
Mike Jones took a perfect score of 51 points from two race wins and pole position.
Of course, this unprecedented display of dominance in a national circuit was somewhat overshadowed by the distinct lack of depth in the Superbike field during that ASBK season.
Looking back on it now, without Team Honda, and Team Yamaha, and the fastest riders in the country, the Morgan Park weekend felt more like a well-organised club day than a national championship event with a group of highly-ranked A-list competitors. That’s not to say Jones was any less of a threat, even early in his career the Kawasaki rider was a serious threat around Morgan Park against any opponent at any level. The Queenslander was a regular front-runner in the Swann Australia-Asia FX Superbike Championship, and had won a race in the FX Superbike season finale at Sydney Motorsports Park the previous November.
Overall, I would rate the inaugural Morgan Park event as a good race. Despite the lack of top talent, there was still plenty of good racing to watch. I would also suggest that the schedule could definitely be tweaked a bit before ASBK comes to Wanneroo Raceway for the next round as there is a lot of space between any on-track action.
The turnout was good, as is usual for a small town where the event has always received good coverage in the local mainstream media. In fact, the local Warwick News Daily newspaper had a number of significant stories in the lead up to the event. I also bumped into some members of the Ulysses Club who had travelled over 500 miles to stay in Warwick for the weekend and take part in the ASBK event. There was a fair amount of commercial activity, the crowd clearly appreciated the show and the atmosphere at the track was great. Something that continues to happen at Morgan Park today and this weekend will show how far ASBK has come since the dark days of 2015.
