ASBK, What Racing Used To Be

Australian Superbike is a lot like the racing of old. Small teams and working out of vans is almost exclusively what you see. There are no multi-story hospitalities or paddock scooters racing around with personal assistants, instead it’s a small team of mostly family members that help with the set up of the bike and cleaning leathers. Subsequently everyone is incredibly close. In GP there is a sense of family, almost everyone has been in the paddock for years and knows each other to some degree. But at ASBK it is taken to extremes, at the Eastern Creek round there were several teams who, for a variety of reasons, had a spare bike, bikes that they happily leant to competitors. Imagine Lorenzo lending Cal one of his M1s after Cal broke both of them.

Despite the small scale ASBK is highly professional. Frequent warning horns blast across the entire paddock, warning fans and staff that bikes are on the track and to be careful in pit lane. It’s grassroots racing at its finest. With a huge variety of classes from 250cc production bikes to Superbikes there is always a race or practice session on, it’s almost too much. The majority of races are also incredibly exciting because machinery and teams are on such a limited budget that it creates a very level playing field.

The level of access fans can get is also unrivaled. There’s no paying $500 for a paddock pass, the paddock is freely open to anyone. All the riders and team members are also extremely friendly and open to chatting and in some cases even showing fans around the pit box. This is a polar opposite to the strict rules fans must follow at a GP event and the teams who are too busy to talk to anyone. This open and friendly environment was more reminiscent of a local club race than a national series that produces world champions such as Mick Doohan.

ASBK is much more raw than MotoGP, it’s more pure. It might not have the big names that MotoGP has but ASBK was just as, if not more enjoyable. The racing was close and fierce, the riders all had personalities that were distinct and funny. Going to an event like this makes you think about why you watch the bigger series, is it for the racing, the personalities, the drama or a combination of all three? All of these can be found in national championships and on a much smaller, more personal level. This environment made for a much better overall experience than the somewhat sterile paddock that one encounters in MotoGP.

There's also the bonus of seeing the brothers, sisters and kids racing each other around the track and the paddock. Many a Goberts were seen, but sadly THE Go-Show was absent.

There are obviously advantages and disadvantages to smaller national series, but if you can’t attend a GP a local series, especially ASBK, is a great alternative and gives you a taste of the backstage action without the pressures of the more corporate and high tension Grand Prix circus.