Robbie Bugden placed his Kawasaki BCperformance Ninja ZX-10R on the 3rd step of the overall round podium, cementing himself in 3rd position on the championship leader board, a mere 17 points behind the series leader.
The temperamental Goulburn weather was inconsistent throughout the entire weekend, testing the adaptability of competitors and demanding strategic gameplay.
Robbie Bugden was the fastest and teammate, Kyle Buckley was in the top ten for the first Superbike practice session of the weekend. The promising session paved the way for Robbie who called on his experience and talent to finish the first Superbike race in 2nd and follow through with a safe 6th place in race two.
“It’s been a pretty tough weekend where the results didn’t come easy and we really had to work hard,” said the 2016 Australasian Superbike champion.
“We haven’t competed here as a team before with the Ninja ZX-10R so it was challenging early on. We tipped one over on Friday and the weather conditions didn’t help at all with the dry and the wet.”
“Massive credit to the team, we sat down each night to discuss our strong and weak points so we could work out how we were going to get it done and we just kept believing in each other. We took a couple of risks with tyres in the first race which paid dividends and in the second race we brought it home in one piece so a great weekend all-round.”
“To take home 3rd overall is a good results and now we go to Winton to get that number one,” commented Robbie.
Kyle Buckley continued to progress by leaps and bounds in what was only his second round of Superbike racing. The Queenslander was granted 10th place overall after finishing the first race in 15th place due to tyre selection and 8th in race two.
“We got off to a really good start on Friday. It was a bit wet in the morning but we locked away some good times by the end of the day,” said Kyle.
“I went back out and lost the front with a bit of style which put us on the back foot with only one bike for the racing on Sunday. I made the call to put on wet tires for race one and not having a spare bike meant I couldn’t come back in to swap so I stayed out on the wet tyres to salvage what I could which was 15th place and one point.”
“The weather was easier to predict for the last race so we threw the slick tyres on and went for gold. It was good, I got some good lap times in and got my best ever Superbike result which was 8th so I was pretty happy with that. I’m starting to feel really good on the Ninja ZX-10R. I am still building my Superbike racecraft but give me a couple of more months and I’ll be able to give it some more stick!” commented Kyle.
BCperformance Kawasaki Team Manager, Kelvin Riley was pleased with the weekend’s rewards saying, “We had some unfavourable weather over the weekend so both boys had a crash each in practice and the team worked really late on Friday night to prepare the bikes, but we got them going for Saturday morning.”
“We had a wet first qualifying and a dry second qualifying session on Saturday. In the wet we weren’t quite there with set-up but we were better in the dry so we worked on the bikes and they came together for Sunday morning.”
“I’m very pleased with the overall result of Robbie taking 3rd and Kyle being the top Superbike Rookie!” Kelvin exclaimed.
24 year old, Matthew Walters held his ground in the erratic weather to polish of the round in 9th place overall with his Kawasaki Connection Ninja ZX-10R, thanks to finishing 14th in race one and 7th in race two.
“I hadn’t had a lot of seat time to begin with in the wet so it was fairly difficult but then we got a dry track and I didn’t have much time there either so it was really hard to pick the bike set-up and the right tyres.”
“In the first race we went out on wets and we suffered badly with losing a lot of time before we changed bikes so I just had to take that one on the chin. We changed a fair amount on the bike for the second race so we moved forward and we weren’t too far off. So, confidence is building but we need to find some pace to get to the top,” commented Matt.
Crazy Dog’s Motorcycle’s pilot, Jack Baker navigated his Ninja ZX-10R with commendable proficiency in his first Superbike effort at Wakefield Park Raceway. 15th place overall was the result of 10th in race one and 17th in race two.
“The weather disrupted our testing program, especially in qualifying but overall I’m pretty happy to achieve the lap times I did with my first effort here,” commented Jack.
“I was one of a handful of riders to go into the pits and swap to slick tyres in race one which helped me get to 10th position in that race and even beat some factory bikes home so that was a bonus.”
“Hopefully when we go to Winton Raceway for round three, we will go a bit better. We have already done a bit of testing there and the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R is excellent, it handles really well there. We have developed the bike well and now it’s about getting some track time, learning circuits and getting the bike set up so that we can utilise all of its power,” said Jack.
Kawasaki’s Ninja ZX-6R supported rider, Sam Muldoon experienced a taxing round following multiple crashes in each outing which diminished his chances of salvaging championship points at the meeting.
Notable results from non-Kawasaki supported riders included Cube Racing’s Tom Toparis who claimed his first Supersport overall round win after he tucked away 1st in race one and 4th in the second race due to a restart that saw him line up at the back of the grid.
“I was lucky to get one dry qualifying session in and I had a little crash in the first qualifying outing but ended up on pole which set me up well for the rest of the weekend,” commented Tom.
“It was raining heavily in race one and a few guys came off in the first lap so we were all cautious for the rest of the race. I was passed in the last lap but ended up getting it back for the win. I’m stoked to get my first win in my second Supersport race meeting, the team worked really well and the Ninja ZX-6R was perfect in the wet and dry so I’m excited for the next round and aiming for the win again,” Tom said.
Kawasaki riders will now begin to ready themselves for round 3 of the 2017 Australian Superbike Championship to be held in just over a month at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria from 28th to 30th April.
