Mark Bracks is feeling the summer love already
It’s a little strange that the 2026 Australian Superbike Championship is done and dusted halfway through the year and in about four months the 2026/27 season will start.
Let’s just call it the 2027 season as there will be three rounds in the new year in the new look championship to balance the three rounds (for the Superbikes) in the remainder of 2026, the first round marking a return as a support category for the final MotoGP event at Phillip Island on 23-25 October.
In reality, the ’27 season doesn’t start for the rest of the classes until they get a run at the official second round at the Bend Motorsport Park (13-15 November) before the One Raceway round in December. That is followed by Queensland Raceway in January, then back to Phillip Island with the final WorldSBK round there in February and the ASBK Grand Finale under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park (19-20 March).
While 2026 has been the season of racing change, it also saw the changing of the guard at the sharp end of supremacy in the premier category.
It might have been a condensed season with five rounds in five months from the opening round in February but there were plenty of back stories besides the remarkable achievement of Harrison Voight. He become the second youngest winner of an Australian Superbike Championship, sandwiched between the youngest, the sadly missed Anthony Gobert, who won the title in 1994 at 18 years and seven months, and Mat Mladin, who won the title in 1992 aged 20 years and five months.
Depending on where his road racing journey takes him, Harry has the ability and time to add many more national ASBK titles to his resume.
After wrapping up the title with a race to spare, he decided not to head out in leg two when the heavens opened within minutes of the start. His focus was now elsewhere as he flew out later that night to Jerez in Spain for the the third round (along with fellow Aussies Jacob Roulstone and JJ Nahlous) of the Moto2 Junior World Championship at the Circuit de Jerez Angel Nieto.
Back in ASBK, the Next Gen class had only four competitors this season but there is plenty of rumbling that we will see a number of new teams in the class for summer. With the combining of the Supersport and Next Gen bikes, the traditional Supersport class riders are allowed a number of concessions to bring them in line with what Aussie Supersport specs used to allow – compared to the basic ‘super stock’ regs we’ve seen over the past couple of decades.
The 600cc capacity machines will be allowed porting, velocity stacks and camshaft modifications to engine internals as well alterations and modifications to change the electronics package. The idea is to bring more parity to those machines and the folk who wish to continue to compete with them.
This was demonstrated at the final round with Tom Toparis replacing the V2 Ducati that had caused a lot of grief to himself and the Stop & Seal team with the Yamaha R6 that he rode to 10th place in the first Supersport World Championship race at the Phillip Island round in 2024.
One addition to the ranks will be the Champion’s Ride Days team with Riley Nauta. The 16-year-old went oh-so-close to taking out the Supersport 300 class. He has been riding the bigger capacity machine at various times during 2026 so he will be right in the mix from the very start.
With the first round held alongside the final Australian GP at the Island, I am hearing plenty of whispers about the interest from folk in the UK and Europe keen to bring riders and bikes to this event.
So here’s a thought: as we saw in a couple of past years at The Bend in late November and early December, Jack Miller committed to the round and he talked a few of his MotoGP paddock mates to attend as well. Dominic Aegerter and Marcel Schroetter came out and then last year we had the bonus of witnessing dual BSB champion Kyle Ryde have a steer in the Supersport category via Stop & Seal where he blitzed the field.
Kyle is keen to return, as are a number of other riders. No names have been confirmed but the move to a summer ASBK championship has piqued the interest of many overseas based Aussie riders, as well as many others.
A tantalising thought I have is that if Jack fails to secure a ride – or even if he does – would he be tempted to compete in an entire season of ASBK? However, the Captain Sensible part asks why would he commit to spending money and not earn any by winning?
The change of seasons also opens up the possibility of an ASBK round in New Zealand and vice versa, in future years. The obvious drawback is the amount of time the bikes would be on a boat. In these current economic times, air freight is out of the question.
The change to a more weather-friendly championship also raises the question of what effect the temperatures will have on tyre and bike performance.
To a certain extent we are entering unknown territory as the Queensland and NSW circuits in summer will likely be a right old sweat box – but we will love it.
A bonus of the switch to a summer championship is that it opens up more media avenues for exposure as there are no clashes with the football codes. As there will be newspaper, internet and free-to-air TV space freed up we might even – heaven forbid – see more of our sport in the mainstream media. However, I won’t be holding my breath.
No matter what, it appears the sun is shining brightly for the future of the ASBK summer championship series.
