“I’m pretty confident that I’ll be in the running to win a race over the weekend at Wakefield” says Allerton
Yamaha Racing Team’s Glenn Allerton says he is pretty confident heading into this weekend’s second round of the Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli at New South Wales’s Wakefield Park circuit.
Allerton enters this weekend’s round in eighth place in the championship fight with thirty-five points to his name, which is forty-one points behind championship leader, Daniel Falzon.
The former three times Australian Superbike champion, who is aiming for his fourth title, which has never been done in the history of the sport scored a second in race one and a sixth place in race three at the opening round of the championship at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on the last weekend of February. However a crash in race two at Doohan Corner on the opening lap meant he scored zero points for that race which is why he finds himself in eighth place after one round.
“The placing of the championship is not ideal, but we are still early days in the season,” Allerton told AMCN.
“It does help with having an extra round this year (Darwin) which allows me more time to catch back up in the championship hunt.”
With round one firmly out of the way now, Allerton is focusing on Wakefield Park this weekend, which basically is second home race for him, as he hails from Wilton which is 135km up the road from the 2.2km circuit.
“I have done a lot of riding at Wakefield Park in the past years and I enjoy the track,” explained Allerton.
“The track is very unique with the bumps and the technique you need to ride the track suits my riding style.”
With two twenty lap races on the menu this weekend, Allerton says it will be very different and somewhat difficult compared to the old sprint format races which he and other riders raced in when they raced in the Australasian Superbike Championship a few years ago.
“It’s going to be a longer race which means setup is going to be crucial to still have a tyre left at the end of the race.
I just have to work on being consistent and fast and maximise the time on Friday and Saturday to get the most out of the Yamaha YFZ-R1M.
I’m pretty confident that I’ll be in the running to win a race over the weekend. In saying that, hopefully I can win both of the races and claw back some important championship points.”
As its Wakefield Park, which means anything can happen and normally does, the 36-year-old expresses that it is crucial to get a good qualifying position as well as getting a good start if he wants to get a good result this weekend.
“At the moment it’s all up in the air in terms of what could happen this weekend. There are a lot of fast riders and it’s going to be two races where you have to knuckle down and get a good start.
Twenty laps around Wakefield Park is going to be a hell of a long way and that place as it’s quite physical,” said Allerton.
So what’s the key to getting a good result or even winning at Wakefield?
In simple words, you have to be there at the end of the race!
“There are a lot of places around the track where if you make a mistake you can fall off,” explained Allerton who knows all too well about it as unfortunately he hit the deck in race one last year while leading, but bounced back to finish in third place in the second race.
“You have to be strong mentally and have a good bike setup and you have to be there at the end of the race to try and take the checkered flag”
At last week’s testing at the rural circuit, the test went quite well for Allerton and the Queensland based team.
However Allerton did say it was a shame the second day got rained out as he really needed that second day of testing to get on top of a few things.
“It is what it is, we can’t do anything about the weather. The lap times were comparable to everyone else. I believe the top five riders were all doing the same sort of lap times, which gives me confidence that we have a good package to go racing and be competitive this weekend,” concluded Allerton.
Words & Images: Russell Colvin
