SMSP Night Series saw Waters debut with BMW

If Shane Kinderis gets his way the BMW presence in Australian Superbike might be the strongest ever come 2022 as he works to secure enough funding to run Josh Waters alongside Glenn Allerton next season.

While half of the NextGen BMW squad recently went their separate ways after long-term team backers Wayne Hepburn and Nathan Webb formed a new BMW Alliance Racing squad, the main man behind the spanners and electronics throughout recent history on the BMW Superbikes in ASBK, Shane Kinderis, chose to continue on without his previous partners and race under the Maxima Racing Oils BMW and his S1K Racing banners with Glenn Allerton.

That paid dividends as the pair wrapped up second outright in the Australian Superbike Championship after carding two second place finishes behind Wayne Maxwell at the ASBK finale staged at The Bend.

We covered the separation in some detail while it was still quite raw here, but chose to run a conciliatory line rather than amplified clickbait headlines as the dust settled and the respective teams set about finalising their plans with BMW Motorrad HQ, and their respective sponsors. Do no harm and all that… But there certainly does seem to be some animosity going on behind the scenes between the new BMW Alliance squad and the Kinderis managed outfit.

In that piece on the split we mentioned that Kinderis would love to run another rider alongside Glenn Allerton in 2022, if enough finances could be raised to make that a viable possibility for the Maxima Oils backed squad.

After the BCperformance Kawasaki squad lost their backing from KMA in the lead up to the 2021 ASBK finale and Josh Waters was thus left without a ride, the three-time Aussie Superbike Champ, and Kinderis started talking about Waters testing the M 1000 RR.

Consequently Waters rode the BMW for the first time at Wakefield Park the Tuesday before the ASBK finale to help run in a new bike for the team and get a feel for the M 1000 RR. Josh loved the bike.

At the invitation of Kinderis he then had his competitive baptism of fire at Sydney Motorsport Park on the weekend when he contested the second round of the St. George Motorcycle Club Summer Night Series with the squad.

A third place in the opening bout behind Allerton and Halliday was followed up with a second place in the following race.

Unfortunately the team was not completely set-up for a two-rider effort as it was a bit of a last minute arrangement and with such a quick-fire race schedule they missed getting Josh out on the grid for the final race after having to change a wheel speed sensor due to a lack of spare rims, that meant Josh had to start the final bout from pit-lane. He still came through the field for seventh which was good enough to tally enough points to score fourth overall on the night.

Josh Waters

“It was great to battle with the guys that got second (Allerton) and third (Halliday) in the Australian Superbike Championship after not running up front for a fair while, really enjoyed that part of it for sure.

“100 per cent I would love to race with Shane and Glenn in 2022 and a big thanks to Shane for putting me on the bike this weekend, it’s so great to be competitive again, I would love to be part of the journey with the team in 2022.”

Glenn Allerton set the fastest lap of the Friday night at 1m30.879 in the final race after switching to the harder W spec’ Pirelli, while Josh carded a best of 1m31.584 in race two. Racers remarked that the V8 Supercars have really knocked the track around of late and the surface now has more ripples than before and is not in the best of shape.

Glenn Allerton

“I really enjoy the format of the night racing, the racing is short, fast and exciting under lights in front of a really great crowd. Even a lot of my mates come out after work on Friday with their kids and really enjoy it.

“I had a great weekend, pole position, and then the overall on the night, but I have found in the night racing it can be hard to lead from the front, as the guys have you as a target to follow.

“It was really good to have Josh there and get a different opinion on the bike, he picked up a couple of things in regards to the rear when trying to put that 200 horsepower down to the ground, and we made some good headway today on the back of his feedback. He will only make the team stronger and having another champion level rider in the team will only make ours and BMW’s presence in ASBK the strongest it has ever been.

“In the racing it was really close but to come out on top was really great, with the races only being five laps, it comes down to who can hold it on the longest and brake the deepest, to see who can come out on top.”

There was a ride day at SMSP on Saturday where the team stayed on for three sessions in 40-degree heat and made some big chassis changes to the motorcycle which Allerton and Waters could both evaluate by swapping between motorcycles. The pair providing plenty of testing data for Kinderis to process when back at his SKR workshop and Alpine Performance Centre at Whorouly in Northern Victoria.

Shane Kinderis

“I have to try and find some serious sponsorship to make it happen, but my intention is to have Josh on my bikes with Glenn in 2022 and I will move heaven and earth to try and make that happen.”

Josh Waters is expected to join the team again when they contest the next round of the St. George Motorcycle Club Summer Night Series on January 8th, again under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Pirelli Unlimited Race One

1. Cru Halliday / Yamaha YZF-R1
2. Glenn Allerton / BMW M 1000 RR
3. Josh Waters / BMW M 1000 RR
4. Oli Bayliss / Ducati 959
5. Matt Walters / Kawasaki ZX-10R
6. Ben Burke / Kawasaki ZX-10R
7. Mark Vaartjes / Kawasaki ZX-10R
8. Yanni Shaw / Suzuki GSX-R1000R
9. Dominic DeLeon / Kawasaki ZX-10R
10. Nicholas Marsh / Aprilia RSV4 RF

Pirelli Unlimited Race Two

1. Glenn Allerton / BMW M 1000 RR
2. Josh Waters / BMW M 1000 RR
3. Cru Halliday / Yamaha YZF-R1
4. Oli Bayliss / Ducati 959
5. Ben Burke / Kawasaki ZX-10R
6. Matt Walters / Kawasaki ZX-10R
7. Yanni Shaw / Suzuki GSX-R1000R
8. Mark Vaartjes / Kawasaki ZX-10R
9. Tim Griffith / Kawasaki ZX-10R
10. Nicholas Marsh / Aprilia RSV4 RF

Pirelli Unlimited Race Three

1. Glenn Allerton / BMW M 1000 RR
2. Cru Halliday / Yamaha YZF-R1
3. Oli Bayliss / Ducati 959
4. Ben Burke / Kawasaki ZX-10R
5. Mark Vaartjes / Kawasaki ZX-10R
6. Matt Walters / Kawasaki ZX-10R
7. Josh Waters / BMW M 1000 RR
8. Yanni Shaw / Suzuki GSX-R1000R
9. Brendan McIntyre / Suzuki GSX-R1000R
10. Nicholas Marsh / Aprilia RSV4 RF

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Pirelli Unlimited Round Two Points

Source: MCNews.com.au