The 2006 YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship is ‘on track’ and looking to build on success and new initiatives from previous rounds as it nears the halfway point of the season.

The nation’s premier motorcycle series has received strong levels of interest from punters nationwide, having already made stopovers in New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia for the opening three rounds.

Crowd figures suggest the sport commands a healthy and growing fan base, supported by increased media interest from local and national outlets.

Sydney’s Eastern Creek International Raceway hosted the opening round of the championship in April, and welcomed 4800 people through the gates across the course of the weekend.

This figure was the highest for the year thus far at the circuit, with the closest crowd attendances coming from the Powercruise and Historic Car Racing events which were almost 3000 spectators shy of the Superbikes.

A typically strong supporter base from West Australian racegoers saw the crowd figure rise by approximately 500 at round two, with in excess of 5300 people flocking to the iconic Barbagallo Raceway.

This number is particularly encouraging for the YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship, showing that the series was able to generate strong interest despite the circuit only having hosted a V8 Supercar round two weeks prior.

Adelaide’s Mallala Motorsport Park hosted the most recent round of the series, once again attracting a healthy crowd across the course of the meet; 5150 people passed through the gates, a figure well in excess of any other circuit run event this year.

A flexible range of ticketing options present the spectator with a number of great value incentives to attend, and the family pass has been particularly well received, with sales increasing by over 200% across the opening rounds. The series has focussed particularly on encouraging family attendance to events, and race meeting surveys have confirmed that more and more are passing through the gates.

An increased and extensive public relations campaign from Series Promoter AUSCO and appointed public relations outlet Fluid PR has generated an overwhelming level of interest, with the editorial media valued at an advertising equivalent of $412,685.79 after just three rounds of the series. This value excludes coverage in industry-based publications, such as Australian Motorcycle News, Two Wheels and CycleTorque.

The editorial campaign has targeted a range of print and broadcast media, aiming to appeal to both regular racegoers and those new to the sport. Since March 2006, the potential audience for the 86 items of press coverage, including pre and post-event articles and interviews, was 7,479,823 people nationwide.

The YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship has also enjoyed increased commitments from television networks SBS and Fox Sports, with the SBS Speedweek show attracting on average an additional 120,000 viewers for each of the two shows that the 2.5 hours of coverage is featured in per round, according to audited figures provided by AVE Productions. The FOX Sports channel audience is on top of the SBS statistics, with the pay channel now in over 1.5 million Australian homes.

The series offers the media a number of interesting coverage angles, ranging from the series as a whole, local interest stories and focus on individual riders and their diverse range of results and personalities. A number of successful print and on-air radio promotions have seen excited listeners given the chance to attend the events with free passes, and a select number of team garage tours.

Season 2006 has also seen the implementation of a number of new initiatives, including AUSCO’s ‘Free Child Admission’ pass, which has been widely distributed across primary and secondary schools in conjunction with rider visits.

Excited students have met the likes of Honda’s Adam Fergusson and Glenn Allerton, Kawasaki’s Shannon Johnson and Josh Waters, Yamaha’s Mark Aitchison and Jason O’Halloran and Suzuki’s Shannon Etheridge as well as a host of privateer riders as they campaign for topics such as road safety, exercise and nutrition and motivation and goals within sport.

The local Japanese motorcycle dealerships have also lent their invaluable support to the promotional activities providing the Child Admission Pass instore for young motorsport enthusiasts who were not able to participate in the schools program.

On track there is action aplenty, with each round consistently attracting over 180 entries so far this year from the 8 headline and support classes.

While Yamaha’s Jamie Stauffer sits clear of the field in both Superbike and Supersport pursuits, there are a flurry of riders quickly finding form and determined to steal the Stauffer-show, highlighted by Honda privateer pilot Russell Holland’s earth-shattering effort at Mallala a fortnight ago.

The battle looks set to continue right down to the final chequered flag at round 4 of the series, which will be hosted by Queensland Raceway from July 7-9.