Australian Superbike Musical Chairs
By Trevor Hedge
While nothing is ever certain until the ink on the contracts are dry, the drawn out game of musical chairs for Australian Superbike seats in 2009 appears to be settling.
At Team Joe Rocket Suzuki it seems almost certain that Shawn Giles and Josh Waters will ride Superbike. The surprise addition to the team looks set to be freshly crowned AMA Supermoto Champion Troy Herfoss. The youngster will swap his dirtbike clothes for a set of Joe Rocket leathers and pilot a GSX-R600 in Australian Supersport.
Kevin Curtain is expected to ride a ZX-10R for Team Kawasaki. Ben Attard has returned from AMA duties and will ride an improved ZX-6R for 2009.
Over at Honda the dust has settled with Glenn Allerton set to defend his title onboard a Fireblade. Wayne Maxwell will line up alongside Allerton in the Paul Free managed squad. In Supersport Honda look likely to offer satellite support to selected riders but will run no official Supersport effort out of HQ.
Team Yamaha looks set to be another Stauffer affair with Jamie and Dan hoping to continue their excellent 2008 form into the new look 2009 season. Bryan Staring will ride an R6 in Australian Supersport. Young Pat Medcalf is tipped to saddle up alongside Staring to inject some new blood into the Supersport ranks.
Craig Coxhell is currently a free agent and investigating the possibilities of running a privateer effort in Superbike.
Shannon Johnson looks increasingly likely to be trying his luck overseas in 2009 and a move to the new Superbike competition in America could be on the cards.
