SBK/SS riders reflect on qualifying and look forward to going racing tomorrow

ASBK 2022

The Bend finale – Qualifying

Mike Jones – P1

“The bike feels really good, we worked pretty hard yesterday to find a set-up that I felt comfortable with, and as has been the case all year, when the bike feels good, and I feel comfortable on it, I have a lot of confidence to push.

“The conditions were a little tricky, but because I had confidence in the bike, I was able to hit my marks, and really extract the most out of myself and the bike.

“Like I said coming into the weekend, the goal is to go pole, and two race wins, that’s the whole purpose of coming here and going racing. So to be able to get the first job done is really cool, and it puts us in a good position to do the job tomorrow. Looking forward to those races.

“It’s great to have Jack and his team here this weekend, it really boosts the profile of the sport and I guess shows a bit of where or how our competitors are here [in Australia]. Of course it’s no easy task for Jack to be able to just turn up at a venue with so many unknowns… there’s a lot of change and a lot of things to get used to, and I think that really shows the level of a rider, their ability to adapt to change. Many people can go fast once they have worked towards it for a period, but to be able to do it when you just get there and get up to speed quite quickly, that just shows how skilled Jack is, and obviously the guys in the MotoGP.”

Will you be happy to sit back in Race 1 for the championship to come to you?

“That decision I will make during the race but obviously we are in a good position and I feel comfortable on the bike, and I’ll fight to a certain extent, but at the end of the day the championship is the goal and has been the goal all year. If I go into the race with the mindset I had this weekend, to race for the win, I believe that will be my best performance in the race, and that will be able to get the job done.”

Despite some setbacks and a lack of data, and experience on the Pirelli rubber, Jack Miller only narrowly missed out on pole and ended the session as fastest Ducati.

Jack Miller – P2

“It’s good to be back, awesome to be here, unfortunately we managed to drop a member of the team pretty early on (Josh Hook with injured wrist). Marcel is pretty safe, so I think crash wise we should be good with him. But for a while there Harry (Voight in Supersport and on pole) was carrying the flag for the team. He still is, he’s the only one who has bought us glory thus far this weekend. It’s going good. We’ve been working on the bike, session by session just trying to understand, having no data logging or anything like that. The only data-logging is the idiot sitting on top of the bike, so we’re trying our best to get a decent lap in there in qualifying. I had a good one going yesterday when I threw it into the ground, so was pretty happy to put two decent laps together in quali today, but it wasn’t quite enough.

“The boys are riding really well this year, everyone is riding well this year, it’s really stacked compared to last year. As we’ve seen over the weekend, we’ve been down outside the top 10, I’ve had to work for this one. Feels good to be back on that front row and as I said, in parc fermé, I’m still very nervous on the starting situation, because I know how to start multiple motorcycles, very good at starting a dirt track bike, or a motocross bike, but I don’t know what it is, with this bike without launch control or anything like that the clutch lever starts bouncing around in my hand, and I start bouncing around like an idiot. So I feel sorry for anyone who rides a V4R on the road and wants to race anyone from the lights, as I reckon it’d be pretty difficult.”

Cru Halliday has been quick all weekend and will start from the front row tomorrow.

Cru Halliday – P3

“Not sure if you’ve been watching the starts for me lately, but usually I’m going from the first row to at least fourth by turn one… I’ve never qualified well here at The Bend and been on the front row, it’s always been fourth but I’ve always been up there in the races, so to start from the first row is a confidence booster. 

“The team has the bike working really well, it’s going to be interesting to see what everyone runs in regards to tyres tomorrow – the weather looks like it’s going to be a little cooler – so I think anyone that says they’ve got the tyre life down pat, is lying straight up. This is always a tyre degradation race, and it’s crazy because it’s only eleven laps. These tyres do fall off quite quick and there is three options there. So we have to wait and see when we wake up tomorrow and see what the weather is like, and it’ll be a battle to the end to see who has the most grip.”

Will you be getting in there tomorrow or giving your team-mate space?

“I’m going to get involved for sure, I’m not going to go out racing dirty, but I wanna race to win, I’ve given one to Mike at the last round. We’re in a team, we’re here to get Mike that title. I’m not in contention, but he also understands that I want to win. If I do end up passing him it’s not going to be something dumb where I throw it up the inside where it’s close and there’s a chance I’ll take him out, that’s not going to happen. I want to get out with the good boys and race clean, and race for the win.”

The only Thriller Motorsport Superbike rider not to go down Friday was Marcel Schroetter and the German showed good early form but fell away when the pace hotted up on Saturday afternoon in what were difficult conditions.

Marcel Schroetter – P14

“Yesterday was a lot to learn, the bike, the track, everything, so it wasn’t easy for sure, this morning with the really good step forward, also Jack showed me around a little bit, it helped for sure. I was confident for qualifying to make another step, but unfortunately I really struggled to go fast, with the windy conditions. But anyway it is what it is. Got to be quicker tomorrow and the race is tomorrow, from P15 we still can go inside the top 10.”

Michelin Supersport

Harrison Voight took pole position for tomorrow’s pair of nine-lap races.

Harrison Voight – P1

“Today I managed to bank in a not too bad lap time with the conditions we had, the wind was a little bit stronger compared to yesterday, so that made it difficult, but that was difficult for everyone else. So I just tried to get going early at the start and build up the momentum and some consistency, laps, it wasn’t too bad and I managed to put in an alright lap time, a second from second place. I tried to bank it early, because we weren’t sure what the weather would hold and it managed to be wet anyway. So we were a bit lucky on that side. Looking forward to getting back out there again and having another go to see if I can improve my lap time.

“I don’t really mind what the weather is tomorrow, I’m not too bad in the wet. I haven’t had a lot of experience with the 600 in the wet, but when I rode at Phillip Island earlier this year it felt alright. So I’m looking forward to whatever it is, bring it on.”

Dallas Skeer – P2

“It was good to get my first second, and my first front row start, so we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. The pace, there is still more pace there to be gained. I just put in a quick lap in the last lap, because I thought it would probably be wet, looking at the weather, and it was, so I was happy to come away with second and hopefiully we can keep the progress together for tomorrow and see what it holds. It surprised me, I’m just feeling pretty good on the bike, I had a bit of a break in the off season, so I was able to reset a bit, and I’ve come back feeling good and just sort of working into it. I can’t just go out there and do a one off lap, I think I did 10 or so, and that definitely helped. I felt pretty good on the last lap, but pushed. So feeling good for the nine lap races. We’ll see how we go.”

Tom Bramich will be starting behind Voight this weekend in P3, with a chance at the championship, but crashed today.

Tom Bramich – P3

“The pressure is not on me, it’s on the people leading the championship ahead of me, so I’ll just do what I can, I made a mistake in qualifying, and didn’t get out there, and then the rain came. So that’s alright, we were fast yesterday and we’ll try some things in warm up and look forward to the races. I was looking forward to the second one [qualifying session], we needed it dry and I thought I could have improved on yesterday so it’s alright, on the front row and get a good few starts and we’ll be there.”

John Lytras is in the box seat to take Michelin Supersport title, but will start from eighth tomorrow on the grid.

John Lytras – P8

“It didn’t go fully to plan, we made a few stuff ups – personally with myself – the team gave a really good bike to ride. I felt like I could have gone a lot faster, but I cooked the tyre way too early, before I could even do a lap, so that was on me. I think we can race forward, I know I have pace here, I’ve gone fairly fast last year here, so I think we can go forward and eighth isn’t really too far to race from so it’ll be right I think. Not too sure, I’m not too bad in the rain, haven’t had heaps of experience in the rain on a 600, so we’ll see how we go.”

Superbike Qualifying Results

Supersport Combined Qualifying Results

Pos	Name	Bike	Total
1	Mike JONES	Yamaha	288
2	Bryan STARING	Ducati	249
3	Wayne MAXWELL	Ducati	238
4	Troy HERFOSS	Honda	217
5	Glenn ALLERTON	BMW	210
6	Josh WATERS	BMW/Duc	200
7	Arthur SISSIS	Yamaha	199
8	Cru HALLIDAY	Yamaha	189
9	Daniel FALZON	Yamaha	134
10	Anthony WEST	Yamaha	126
11	Broc PEARSON	Yam/Duc	102
12	Jed METCHER	Yamaha	102
13	Max STAUFFER	Yamaha	95
14	Lachlan EPIS	BMW	66
15	Michael EDWARDS	Yamaha	59
16	Mark CHIODO	Yamaha	58
17	Matt WALTERS	Kawasaki	48
18	Aiden WAGNER	Yamaha	47
19	Beau BEATON	Ducati	38
20	Senna AGIUS	Honda	28
21	Ben BURKE	Kawasaki	25
22	Ben STRONACH	Yamaha	25
23	Sloan FROST	BMW	24
24	Nathan SPITERI	BMW	22
25	Chandler COOPER	Honda	21
26	Paul LALLY	Yamaha	20
27	Travis WYMAN	Yamaha	13
28	Ted COLLINS	Yamaha	13
29	Alastair HOOGENBOEZEM	Yamaha	11
30	Benjamin LOWE	Ducati	11
31	Luke MACDONALD	Kawasaki	10
32	Brendan McINTYRE	Suzuki	9
33	Billy McCONNELL	Yamaha	7
34	Paris HARDWICK	Kawasaki	7
35	Luke JHONSTON	Yamaha	7
36	Trent BINAISSE	Suzuki	6
37	Corey FORDE	Honda	3

The Bend ASBK Schedule