Ahead of this weekend’s second round of the Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli (ASBK), Goulburn Post regular guest motorcycle writer and photographer Russell Colvin went and found out from the top five Superbike championship sitters on their thoughts and feelings about the 2.2km Wakefield Park circuit and this is what they had to say.
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Bryan Staring (Kawasaki BCperformance) 1st 60-points: “I wouldn’t regard Wakefield Park as my favourite circuit in the world, but I do find it to be a particularly challenging circuit which is something I do look forward to. Wakefield Park is definitely not a type of circuit which I have experienced in the last dozen of my career. However, what is important is that the competition is difficult and fierce, which makes for good racing on what is a tight and challenging circuit. That’s, that. We’ll go there and get the racing done on my Kawasaki BCperformance Ninja ZX-10R.
Josh Waters (Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia) 2nd 59-points: “Wakefield Park is definitely a physical little track. I admit, it’s not high up on my come and ride track. In saying that, Wakefield Park always gets a good turnout, which just adds to the atmosphere to the round as a whole. In terms of the racing side of things, this track always produces close racing, which is an added bonus for the crowd, as there is always action going on. This is why I believe the racing this weekend will be very difficult, because it will be close and the level is quite high at the moment in the Superbike class.
Troy Herfoss (Penrite Team Honda Racing) 3rd 59-points: “Wakefield Park is just another track for me. However, the thing which makes it fun for me is the fact I get to come home and see my friends and family and have them here at the track supporting me and the team for the weekend. To cap it all off, we get to have a big party at the end of it! Overall but I do enjoy racing at Wakefield Park, as it has always suited me and the previous Honda model and go on test the last two days, it should suit the new CBR1000RR SP2. I just hope I can deliver the local fans a win here on ‘home soil’.”
Troy Bayliss (DesmoSport Ducati) 4th 51-points: “Wakefield Park is obviously a very technical little circuit, which catches a lot of riders out. These two days of testing has been a really good for me to learn and understand some of the little secrets about the track. I think I have learned enough to get away to come back here next weekend and hopefully get a decent result here. I actually enjoy coming down to Wakefield Park and Goulburn in general, as it’s a really nice town. At the test, we always stay at ‘Toparis World’ and have a good time with them. Change of pace, I believe Tom [Toparis] will be up for a good result in the Supersport class in front of his home crowd. We wish him the best, so all in all, it will be a great weekend here next week.”
Daniel Falzon (Yamaha Racing Team) 5th 47-points: “Wakefield Park is an extremely technical, tight and unpredictable circuit and is also the shortest lap on the ASBK race calendar. There are some fast corners and some very slow corners. It will take so much out of us riders, physically and mentally to be able to complete twenty laps around here in the races come Sunday. For sure, when riders do crash at Wakefield Park, they are typically quite spectacular! Hopefully we can provide some great entertainment for the crowd. I believe they will be in for a good days’ worth of racing across all classes, as the racing will be very close, this year more than ever. I wouldn’t miss it for the world!