Josh Waters and Onyabike McMartin Racing with K-Tech continue winning run in ASBK Championship.

Josh Waters and McMartin Racing with K-Tech continue to lead the 2024 ASBK championship with another round win, this time under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park on Saturday night. Harrison Voight, having another guest ride with the team before leaving for Europe only missed the round top three by a single point after another highly impressive performance.

With only very minor changes required to the base setup of the Onyabike McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati V4R due to competing in multiple rounds of the summer night series, both Josh and Harry were immediately on the pace from the first practice session of the extended Friday programme that also, in this two-day meeting, included qualifying.

Both riders successfully progressed through Q1 to challenge for the top grid positions in Q2 under lights. Josh managed to go within .007 of completing the fastest ever ASBK Superbike lap to ensure pole position with Voight securing his first ever front row in the class, only .054 behind in second. 

Josh and Harry both got a great jump from their front row grid positions with Harry taking the lead as the huge field of Superbikes funnelled their way into turn two for the first time. Josh was able to use the slipstream to draft Harry first time down the straight to take the lead. Not long after the race was red flagged and a restart over ten laps scheduled. 

The pace was on from the outset of the re-start with Josh leading the field through turn two, Harry right on his tail. Josh and his Onyabike McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati V4R weren’t able to make a break over the first few laps with Harry sticking with his much more experienced teammate. By lap three Josh had a half second break, that had disappeared over the next two laps as Harry closed to within .2. On lap seven, local gun Cru Halliday managed to get past Harry with a move at turn five. At that stage the gap from Josh back to battling Halliday and Harry was .7, by the end of the next lap it was down to .3 and on lap nine Halliday made a successful bid for the lead. Josh and Harry held on riding the wheels off the Onyabike McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati V4R’s over the final stages to secure second and third for another double podium for McMartin Racing with K-Tech.

In a carbon copy of last year light rain started to fall as the riders set off on the warmup lap for race two. Once the race started the rain increased causing a red flag due to track conditions. 

Josh and Harry both launched confidently in the tricky conditions in the restart and were third and fourth as the field negotiated the slippery first sector. Race leader Troy Herfoss crashed his Ducati V4R at turn six on lap two and two corners later Josh slipped the Onyabike McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati V4R up the inside to take the lead over Broc Pearson. Pearson responded immediately but Josh was also not prepared to sit behind, passing Pearson back on the straight. The duelling Ducati’s had opened up a five second plus lead by lap three as they continually changed positions several times per lap. But by lap five, Josh had broken the back of Pearson’s challenge opening up a one second plus advantage. Harry Voight was in the middle of a huge tussle with the highly experienced Glenn Allerton, dicing for fourth position. Voight was able to get past on the straight at the start of lap seven to secure fourth with Allerton trying desperately to hang on to the seventeen-year-old prodigy. Josh was able to dominate the last laps to secure a comfortable victory ensuring the round win with Harry just losing out to Halliday in the battle for fourth right on the line. 

Josh Waters now leads the 2024 title race by an extended margin of 25.5 points over race one winner Cru Halliday.

“It was great to get the round win at Sydney Motorsport Park in round two for McMartin racing with K-Tech” commented round winner Josh Waters. “On Friday we had a great plan, and we stuck to it improving the bike in each outing due to a great base setup for this track. Come qualifying, the team were able to give me a bike that I was able to secure pole position with. Race one was close, and I had a great battle and was just pipped by Cru for the win coming in second. Unlike race one, race two was held in wet conditions, and my feeling was positive. I was able to get into the lead and make a gap winning the race and round which was great for myself, McMartin Racing with K-Tech and all of our sponsors. A massive thank you to my team who worked so hard all weekend to give me the bike I needed, a huge thank you to all the team sponsors as well as my personal sponsors that make this possible”.

"The entire McMartin Racing with K-Tech team worked hard all weekend to have Josh's and Harrison's bikes ready to fight for the wins in both races” said Team Owner Craig McMartin. “In the first race both Josh and Harry rode extremely well but we didn't quite have the speed to win so congratulations to Cru for a great ride at a circuit we knew he would be strong at. Josh was just simply amazing in the wet again in race two, due to the very quick turnaround for the restart we simply didn't have enough time to fully change Harrison's bike to a full wet setting, so he rode extremely well with a dry setup on wet tyres. I am extremely grateful to the extended team for all their hard work over the weekend, having two riders massively increases the workload and without every single person in the team doing their job so well we wouldn't be capable of getting these great results”.