It’s fair to say that the Maxima BMW team hasn’t quite exactly had the start to its 2019 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) season that they would have hoped for. The Victorian based team had decided to use the Pirelli Masters of Morgan Park race meeting, hosted by The Motorcycle Sportsmen of QLD as a ‘shake down’ test ahead of the fourth round of the ASBK series which takes place at Morgan Park Raceway on the first weekend of July.
However, due to both Glenn Allerton and Ted Collins being injured after round three at the end of April, the team enlisted 27-year-old Aaron Morris to step in and give the Next Gen Motorsports team some feedback.
The weekend saw Morris, who has previously raced in the Australian Superstock 600, Supersport and Superbike Championship, faced with the task of learning the technical Morgan Park layout, as well as a new bike and team.
The weekend however proved very positive which has given the team a good direction for the upcoming ASBK round.
According to Morris, who took part in races one, two and three, which saw him winning all three races from pole position, the biggest hurdle of the weekend was getting his head around the 2.967km circuit, which is without doubt not the easiest track to learn.
However, it didn’t take too long until Morris was producing respectful time lap times. Morris expressed that with the guidance from Maxima BMW’s crew chief, Shane Kinderis and Team Manager, Wayne Hepburn, it helped his progress even quicker to adapt to the ‘new’ surroundings.
Aaron Morris: “Firstly I would like to thank both Wayne and Shane for giving me the call to fill in for both Glenn and Ted. It’s been a great few days, While the circuit has been challenging to learn, the Maxima BMW S 1000RR has been great to ride. Every change we have made to the bike has been a positive change and it’s a credit to Shane and Wayne in terms of how they work and understand what I’m asking for. On top of that, hats off to the Pirelli tyres, as the tyres handle this circuit extremely well. With twelve months off a Superbike, fitness wasn’t my strong point. Once again, I would like to thank both Wayne and Shane for having me over the weekend.”
Wayne Hepburn: “Overall, we could not have asked for any more in terms of what Aaron has done over these last three and a half days. It was always going to be an unknown heading into this test and Aaron has quite simply impressed me with his overall speed and feedback which he has been able to give us. We are planning to have Glenn and Ted fit enough to test later at Morgan Park in June, if fit enough. However, for the time being it has been an absolute pleasure having Aaron on board with us here. I would like to thank Aaron for his time and professional valuable input.”
