Australian Superbike 2006 - World Superbike Support Events

Joe Rocket Honda’s Glenn Allerton made an impressive debut for the Team in the Aussie support races at last weekend’s non-championship round of the World Superbikes at Phillip Island.

The 24 year old rider was clearly hungry to make his mark early on in the season, showing gritty determination and race nous that earned him a second place on the Superbike podium.

Glenn put his CBR1000RR through extremely close competition to finish the day with two seconds and one third, setting the fastest lap of the meeting (1:35.383) in race two in the process.

Adam “Krusty” Fergusson was also on the pace, battling it out alongside his team mate as well as Jamie Stauffer and Shawn Giles, the top four providing the majority of thrills for each of the three races.

Superbike race one on Saturday saw both Dynamite Red bikes take the lead over Giles and Stauffer, but with only half a second between the fastest men on the track for the majority of the 10 lapper, Krusty and Allerton had to settle for 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The second race – a 5 lap sprint – gave Allerton the opportunity to show his might as he aggressively worked his way up to the lead until the final moments when a slight mistake allowed Stauffer to come through.

In the third outing, Glenn kept his mind on the job at hand which was primarily keeping fellow Honda privateer Russell Holland at bay. He again claimed second to give him an overall excellent result.

“I really should have won that second race,” Allerton said. “I have to give it to Jamie for getting by me but overall I’m happy with my racing today.”

Fergusson was also extremely quick in the third race, however, just as the 31 year old veteran was pulling a sizeable gap, a short unscheduled ‘off’ at MG Corner left him scrambling to regain as many places as possible.

Adam finished the weekend on equal points for third, but just shy of the podium from Holland based on placings.

“This weekend was okay for me,” Fergusson said. “I had the pace but just found it hard to keep the other guys off my tail which is always the nature of good racing.”

On the Supersport front, the factory Honda riders including 19 year old rising star Bryan Staring (Jardine Honda), also gave it 100%, keeping their proddy 600’s up near the front.

As always, the Supersport class was one of the tightest competitions in the weekend line-up, and the Honda riders were able to muscle their way to the front of the pack a number of times during the relatively short races.

Race two, in particular caused the crowd to stir more than usual as four riders, including Staring, Allerton and Fergusson, came across the line in tandem with the youngest Honda rider crossing just ahead of his team mates.

Unfortunately 30 second penalties incurred over an unforseen tyre issue meant that the factory Honda riders were relegated down the ladder in the overall points.

“It was good to get out and race today,” Staring said.

“Every bit of time on the track is valuable so even if it didn’t turn out how I would have liked in the points, I still enjoyed the weekend.”

“This weekend was challenging on the riders and the Team as we had to continually chase an optimum set up for the front suspension in the Supersport class,” Team Manager Paul Free said.

“Considering these difficulties, I was extremely impressed with all of the rider’s efforts, particularly young Bryan as he is the least experienced in the Team and was still able to finish with some fantastic results.”

“Barring all the challenges we had, I feel that our speed was still quite good as some of our riders achieved personal best lap times around the Island. With this in mind, I’m very confident going in to the Eastern Creek round.”

In regard to the Superbike class, Free was all smiles in regard to Allerton’s performance.

“Glenn surprised a lot of people straight away, and I have no doubt he will continue to surprise more as the year goes on. I think he was a bit shocked himself as he beat some of the guys that in the past, he’s considered to be the best in the country.”

“This was a good showing for the first outing on the CBR1000RR6 as we’ve only just started development on this new model. I’m extremely happy with the bike’s performance at this early stage.”

The Team will now concentrate on preparing for the first round of the Australian Superbike Championships at Eastern Creek in April, including a testing session.