Factory teams shape up for season opener
By, Trevor Hedge

All four factory backed Australian Superbike Championship teams had their first outing together for 2007 during a test session at Eastern Creek last month but the real acid test will come this weekend as they do battle in the opening round of the 2007 YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship.

The new look Honda squad has been busy in the off season with adapting their Fireblade Superbikes to new Pirelli tyres. The choice of rubber is not the only thing new for the Honda camp this year. A new naming rights sponsor has joined the 2004 and 2005 champions with Teknic replacing the previous Joe Rocket moniker. Complicating things further on the machinery side of the equation is that Team Manager Paul Free is the only mechanic to continue with the team this year. Two of the most experienced spanner twirlers from Honda HQ have headed to Europe to support Josh Brookes’ assault on the 2007 World Superbike Championship. Free has been on a recruiting drive to secure new staff and ex Crescent Suzuki British Superbike mechanic Shaun Olsen is currently being courted for a senior position in the team.

One thing for the new season that was sorted long ago was the identity of the riders that will pilot for Honda. Western Australian teenager Bryan Staring has stepped up to a full Superbike ride for 2007 and in doing so becomes WA’s first factory backed Superbike rider since Bunbury’s Michael Dowson was part of the Marlboro Yamaha Dealers Team with Kevin Magee and Michael Doohan more than two decades ago.

Staring was joined at the Eastern Creek test session by Shogo Moriwaki, the son of legendary tuner Mamoru Moriwaki and grandson of the equally famous ‘Pops’ Yoshimura. The Japanese rider brought to the session a vast wealth of experience from the ranks of Japanese Superbike and Suzuka 8 Hour competition onboard CBR1000RR Fireblades. Moriwaki was invited to the test session by Honda Australia and will be a starter at the season opener this weekend.

Staring’s team mate this season is 2006 Championship runner-up Russell Holland. The Sydneysider did not ride at the Eastern Creek test session. He has been busy rehabilitating himself from a shoulder reconstruction. Holland was the only factory Superbike rider not present at the test as Yamaha (Dunlop), Kawasaki (Michelin) and Suzuki (Dunlop) teams all shook down their organisations in preparation for the season ahead.

Craig Coxhell has returned from Europe to rejoin with the same Suzuki squad that helped him to victory in the 2003 Australian Superbike Championship. The Shepparton youngster will carry the same #11 on the front of his GSX-R1000 that he wore in 2003. Giles will also wear a number that has brought him luck before as he ditches the #3 plate that he smashed into the wall at Wanneroo early in 2006, putting paid to his 2006 championship chances. Giles will again sport #19 on his Suzuki, a number that adorned the cowling of the 916 Ducati he rode to wins in the famous and much missed 2+4 series in 1995. Shawn also wore #19 when he took his first Australian Superbike Championship in 2000 onboard the FIM specification GSX-R750. Superstitious lot these bike racers…

Team Suzuki boss Phil Tainton has been under the pump to get his package together for the season opener. His PTR business has been preparing all the GSX-R600 and GSX-R750 machines for the Australian Superbike School while his recent weeks have been 100 per cent full with the running of the GSX-R1000 World Launch at Phillip Island. In fact the team will be traveling directly from the World Launch straight up to Eastern Creek for the round.

New Kawasaki Team Manager Dave ‘Radar’ Cullen oversees Shannon Johnson and Wayne Maxwell in Team Green. Kawasaki will be the only factory Superbike team to run Michelin rubber in 2007. While most race fans see Radar as synonymous with Yamaha the diminutive Queenslander has experienced much success under the Kawasaki banner on both the Australian and World Championship scenes with riders like Robbie Phillis and Aaron Slight.

Adam Fergusson left the factory Honda team to form a new team of his own dubbed DVS Honda and after initial plans had the two-time Australian Superbike Champion running on Michelin rubber, a late fly in the ointment forced a late last minute switch to Dunlop.

Glenn Allerton will also be onboard a satellite Fireblade team headed by Geoff Winzer and after a troubling 2006 the young Sydneysider also returns to Dunlop rubber in 2007.

Another top rider with satellite support and capable of upsetting the high profile factory teams is Robbie Bugden. The Queenslander will have at his disposal a fully prepped GSX-R1000 and has been busy winning plenty of races in the New Zealand Superbike Championship in the Australian off season. There is no question he will be quick out of the blocks at Eastern Creek.

Anthony Gobert is back in Australian Superbike this year with a Kawasaki ZX-10R at his disposal. The Go Show has not yet thrown a leg over the machine but has had some help from Muzzy Exhausts, Kawasaki Australia and Dunlop Tyres to get back on the grid through Melbourne dealer Pro Kawasaki. With no pre-season preparation apart from a recent trackday at Broadford on a 600 Anthony will have his work cut out for him. Anthony will almost certainly be doing a rain dance come Sunday morning.

Scott Charlton is aboard a privateer Yamaha once again and will be hoping to enjoy better luck this season after mechanical gremlins often kept him out of the running last season.

2006 dominators, Team Yamaha, are showing no signs of slowing with reigning champion Jamie Stauffer by far the quickest rider at the test on both Superbike and Supersport machinery. On current form the other teams will only be battling for second place come this weekend. Jamie was the form rider of 2006 while his brother Dan struggled to achieve a set-up he could work with on the R1-SP. Hopefully Dan has got on friendlier terms with the machine for 2007 and can challenge his brother much in the same way we saw the pair do battle against each other when they were team-mates in the Bio-Magnetic Sport Yamaha team managed by the Trinder brothers.

On paper though it certainly looks as though Jamie will have a much harder task this season. Although from the outside looking in it would appear that Yamaha have had the least distractions to contend with in their early season preparations and that could certainly be a telling factor in the opening rounds.

A dozen riders in the field have won Australian Superbike races or at least gone damn close to doing so. That is something that no other domestic Superbike field can claim that I know of. Certainly not the British or American Superbike fields that’s for sure. We might not have the massive profiles enjoyed by British Superbike or the mega dollar team budgets of American Superbike but we generally do get to enjoy some damn fine racing. Hopefully this weekend at Eastern Creek will produce a cracker and really kick off the new 2007 season with a bang.

For those of you who can't make it to the track we will run our normal live update page throughout Friday's practice and qualifying sessions.

You can also download this pre season form guide as a PDF complete with the schedule and entry list to print and take with you to the track by clicking here. (82Kb PDF).

Or check out our pictorials from 2007 pre season testing - Gallery A - Gallery B - Gallery C - Gallery D