SEASON-BEST ASBK FINISHES FOR WALTERS AT MORGAN PARK

Swann Insurance Kawasaki’s Matt Walters has turned in his best performance of the 2018 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli (ASBK) with an encouraging seventh overall at Morgan Park Raceway on Sunday.

Walters was clearly top of the privately-operated entries at the technical 2.967-kilometre circuit near Warwick, Queensland, qualifying eighth on the grid with a 1m14.223s lap-time following Saturday’s pair of 30-minute sessions.

In the opening Superbike race – reduced from 16 laps to 14 due to a restart – Walters was engaged in an entertaining dual for position, circulating as high as fifth in the early laps. Despite dropping to seventh in the mid-stages, he clawed his way back to sixth place at race’s end in an impressive effort.

Later that afternoon in the 16-lap second race, Walters was again right in the mix, moving his way forward from eighth to seventh on lap three and that’s where he would remain. He also improved upon his qualifying lap-time with a 1m14.113s.

Those results placed Walters seventh overall on count-back after tying on points with sixth, currently ranked ninth in the championship standings with two rounds remaining this season.

“It was quite a good weekend for us and I’m really happy to bring home seventh overall,” Walters commented. “In practice we had a few little set-backs, trying different tyre choices to see if they worked for our bike. They kind of did, but didn’t, so we went back to our base and that was great.

“I’d have liked to qualify a little bit further up the grid, so everything was 50/50 at that stage, but come the races everything really sorted itself out. We had a good battle in the last 10 laps or so of each race, which was really good and a lot of fun.

“It’s always positive to be first privateer home and ahead of some riders within the factory teams. It’s good for our shop-based team and happens every so often, which is great, so that’s something we have to keep working towards and keep moving on from this point.

“Following the set-backs we had in Darwin with a bit of an up and down weekend, since we’re not a factory team but not a small effort either, it’s nice to come away with this sort of result. From here we can only build upon this and move on to Winton now!”

The Swann Insurance Kawasaki team and Walters will now set their sights on Winton Motor Raceway’s penultimate round of the championship, to be contested between 7-9 September in Victoria.

Like Matt Walters Racing on Facebook and visit www.asbk.com.au for further information on the series.

Image Credit: Russell Colvin