2014 ASBK Championship – Round Two – Phillip Island
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By Trevor Hedge
Superbike Race One
The track was mainly dry as competitors gridded up for the opening Superbike stoush of the ASBK Championship finale weekend at Phillip Island.
Jed Metcher’s team were busy changing his tyres on the grid, while a number of other riders were doing it in pit lane as they prepared for the warm-up lap. On the initial out-lap some riders had gone out on tyres other than slicks, but after viewing the drying track surface, and the small dry line now available around the 4.4km circuit, they chose to swap to slick tyres. Chris Perini didn’t manage to get out again in time for the warm-up lap thus was forced to start the race from pit lane.
Pole sitter Glenn Allerton experienced clutch problems which wrecked his getaway in the Evo race earlier on in the day, but there were no such problems for the two-time ASBK Champion as he blasted his way off the front of the grid this time around. However, it was Linden Magee that scored the holeshot ahead of both Allerton and Metcher as the 16-rider field streaked towards turn one.
That trio quickly got down to business and cleared out from the rest of the field, Ben Nicolson by far the best of the followers but the remainder of the field were not in the same game.
The race was a fairly unexciting affair over the first half of the race, to an onlooker at least, as Jed Metcher and Glenn Allerton sat behind race leader Linden Magee. Almost as though in formation, the leading trio remained together for the first six laps, rarely separated by more than a few tenths of a second, seemingly all keeping their powder dry for the final stages of the race.
With four laps to run however Metcher struck first, taking Magee for the lead after he had been baulked slightly by a back-marker, Allerton then also slipped past Magee to relegate the fellow BMW rider back to third place in the still tightly knit group. Nicolson was more than 25-seconds adrift in fourth place with the next best rider, veteran Phil Lovett, 36-seconds behind with four laps still to run.
Allerton nosed ahead of Metcher’s ZX-10R with three laps to run, the fast boys all dipping into the 1m34s on the now ‘mainly’ dry track.
At the last lap board Allerton led Metcher by a bike length but the pair had gapped Magee to the tune of half-a-second.
Metcher was all over the back of Allerton on the run to the stripe but his 1m33.89 fastest lap of the race was not good enough for the win, Allerton crossing the stripe with a nose lead of 0.075 of a second for the win.
Superbike Race Two
Jed Metcher led the field away in the final ASBK Superbike bout for 2014 and kept his nose in front until early on lap two when Linden Magee took charge up front. Series leader Glenn Allerton looked content to play safe and watch on from close behind in third place, as that is all he was required to do today in order to take home his third ASBK Superbike Championship.
With eight laps to run Magee made a mistake and slipped to third place, 8-seconds adrift of Metcher and Allerton. Allerton was right behind Metcher, seemingly happy to follow the Kawasaki rider around until perhaps aiming for a last lap BMW horsepower pass down the main straight to the flag. Allerton recording 300km/h speeds down the Phillip Island main straight.
Glenn Allerton took the lead a couple of laps from the end but on the last lap Allerton’s BMW started to starve of fuel which allowed Metcher to blow past and take the race win. The major prize was what Allerton had on his mind, and today it was his, the BMW rider taking his third ASBK Championship.
It’s a wrap… Now to the future…
The 2014 ASBK Championship has been run and won. Arguably it was the poorest quality Superbike field to ever contest the series. The vast majority of the top Australian talent choosing to contest the Swann Australasian FX-Superbike Championship, run by Terry O’Neill, rather than compete in Motorcycling Australia’s ASBK competition.
The ASBK series has been plagued by problems in recent years which in 2014 was brought to a head with the series going close to not going ahead at all. Instead, we got a fairly lack-lustre and poorly attended two-round series which was not really deserving of Australian Championship status.
There has recently been a change in personnel at senior levels within Motorcycling Australia, as such it has been a case of let’s get this year out of the way and build for next.
We believe there are a series of mooted plans being decided upon for 2015, be that with a new promoter; Motorcycling Australia running the series themselves in conjunction with local clubs staging their home rounds to form the ASBK Championship; or a meeting of the minds and Motorcycling Australia nutting out a deal with Terry O’Neill to run and promote the ASBK series once again.
In my opinion, anything but that last option will be a complete failure on all levels. Motorcycling Australia and Terry O’Neill must find middle ground, compromise, sort out any differences and get back together for 2015. The past has to be buried, the blame game forgotten and everyone must look to the future. The ball is in the sport’s administrators hands, make it happen guys. Competitors, teams and sponsors deserve nothing less.
