IEG press release:

Under changeable weather conditions, the Woodstock Bourbon Australian Superbike Championship hit Symmons Plains Raceway in Tasmania today for the first official practice session of round 2.

All factory Superbike and Supersport riders and teams were in attendance and set a blistering pace around the fast and technical 2.4km track.

Looking to assert his dominance over this year’s series, defending Champion Glenn Allerton was noticeably fast on his Motologic Honda CBR1000RR and is pleased with his performance.

“Today has gone really well and we were pretty much on the pace straight away. Since this morning we’ve just been fine tuning, playing with rear shock set-up and rear tyre pressures as the front is working fine”.

“We put a new tyre on and I did about a 53.5s which is under lap record so I’m pretty happy!’

The only thing that will slow Allerton down is the rain which fell intermittently during the day.

“I can deal with racing in the rain and I’ve had some good results but it’d be a shame as it’s the first real hit out for the season and it’d be great to get a big crowd in, especially for the new promoter IEG. Lets hope it stays away so we can put on a good show for all the Tassie fans”.

Standing in Allerton’s way is Team Joe Rocket Suzuki’s Josh Waters. The rookie showed more of the form that saw him take the Round 1 win at Phillip Island by lapping in the high 53s.

Team Yamaha brothers Dan and Jamie Stauffer also showed formidable pace on the new, big-bang engined Yamaha R1. Sounding like no other bike in the field, both Yamahas were suffering traction issues today but Dan Stauffer is confident of ironing out bugs with the new bike in time for Sunday’s race.

“We have made some great improvements with the new bike so far and our speed today is good but all the other bikes, and the level of competition, have moved on so much since last year so it will be a really tough race this weekend. I’m looking forward to it!”

The Supersport riders also took to the track with Staring, Greedy, Herfoss, Attard and Jamie Stauffer all within lap record pace. The competition took its toll on rookie Suzuki rider Troy Herfoss though, suffering a crash at turn 2. Luckily he escaped unharmed and rejoined the action later in the day.

The riders hit the track again on Friday before qualifying on Saturday and racing on Sunday.