Image: Foremost Media.

Yamaha Racing Team’s Cru Halliday is reflecting on the positives after completing his premier class comeback season in the 2019 Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).

Halliday, who lifted the Supersport crown in 2018, remained in title contention until a season-first blemish at Phillip Island’s penultimate round, which put him on the back foot heading into Sydney Motorsport Park’s title-decider last weekend.

Starting from the front-row in Sydney, the New South Welshman recorded 5-3 scorecard for fourth overall and fourth in the championship rankings.

“Looking back over the year, there are a lot of positives to take away from it,” said Halliday. “There were times I had the championship lead and I proved to be consistent at nearly every round which is vital when there are so many riders capable of winning a race in ASBK this year.

“My downfall was a crash at Phillip Island which was entirely my fault. Losing points there was disappointing and was the difference between being on the podium for the championship and not.

“Still, it’s been a strong year for me, and I can’t thank the Yamaha Racing Team for believing in me and giving me such great equipment. Everyone has been awesome to work with and I really wanted to reward them with a championship this year. Congratulations to Mike, Troy and Wayne on a great season and that final race was a fitting end to an exciting championship.”

It’s understood Halliday is likely to remain at Yamaha Racing Team for the 2020 season.

Image: Supplied.

Fabio Quartararo has described his top 10 finish at Sepang as a ‘tough race’ after he was unable to match the pace of the leaders despite starting from pole position.

The MotoGP rookie admitted he struggled to stop bike during the opening stages of the 20-lap outing, which saw him salvage seventh after what looked to be a really promising weekend.

“It was a really tough race, and I struggled a lot,” Quartararo declared. “My first lap was a disaster, and I couldn’t stop the bike – which is an issue we haven’t had all weekend. We couldn’t make the result we wanted despite having the pace to fight for much better, and we have to figure out why that was the case.

“We’ve got one more race to go this year and we need to focus on that so that we can go out well at Valencia, especially as we’re going there much more experienced than we were twelve months ago when we tested there.”

The Frenchman is ranked sixth in the championship and continues to lead the Independent standings as the series heads to Valencia in Spain on 17 November.

Image: Foremost Media.

The dream winning result for Wayne Maxwell on return to Suzuki didn’t quite eventuate at Sydney Motorsport Park’s final round of season 2019 on Sunday, but he’s vowed to return for more next season.

Maxwell was one of the leading starts in a memorable Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) battle, which was finally won by newly-formed rival Mike Jones in a clutch performance.

At 37, the ever-determined Maxwell was left puzzled yesterday afternoon in Sydney after being unable to factor in the race for the title across both 13-lap premier class races on his way to P3 overall, however, positives were evident over the course of seven rounds.

“We definitely didn’t have what we needed to today,” Maxwell told CycleOnline post-race. “It’s easy to say that we were in it and that we lost it at the final round, but we really lost in with two DNFs early in the year – two things that we couldn’t control.

“Everything else that we could control, we did pretty well, so I’m super-proud of everyone at Team Suzuki Ecstar and proud of myself to come to a new team, get some strong results and improve my riding again. We have a lot of positives to take, even though we’re gutted. It’s hard to swallow.”

With Team Suzuki Ecstar understood to be considering downsizing ahead of 2020, despite both Maxwell and teammate Josh Waters being contracted through next year, it would be Maxwell in the box seat to retain a factory-supported GSX-R1000R if the team does scale back. He plans on getting to work on the project as soon as next week.

“After next week we’ll have a decent debrief and come up with a plan to tackle 2020 head-on,” he added. “I knew after race one that we needed something, but it’s difficult to make too many improvements between races. We tried something, but it wasn’t what we needed and we probably went a little bit in the wrong direction, to be honest.”

Image: Supplied.

LCR Honda fill-in Johann Zarco is extracting the positives from a strong showing at Sepang’s penultimate round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship, despite crashing out after being taken down by Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar).

Zarco, who’s standing in for Takaaki Nakagami, qualified a promising ninth before battling well inside the top 10 during Sunday’s 20-lap encounter, however an aggressive manoeuvre by Mir saw the Frenchman crash suddenly out of the race.

Mir was handed a long-lap penalty for the incident, and while Zarco was evidently frustrated, the race proved to be one of his strongest of the year in just his second time out aboard the RC213V.

“I must be happy about the race,” Zarco stated. “I had good pace and I was back fighting with good guys. I still need to make another step to understand the bike better and ride this Honda better, but I feel there’s good potential that I can go faster and be with the top guys.

“Today has been a good race, it’s always difficult in Malaysia with the warmth, but I was giving my best and controlling things quite well. I had a good fight with Jack Miller for eighth position, I was a bit faster than him and tried to overtake him many times, but he was fighting hard.

“Then I tried to overtake him again three laps from the end and Joan Mir on the Suzuki tried an extreme overtake and totally pushed me away and I could not control the bike. It’s a shame, but what I keep in mind is that I was back in a good feeling and in a better position, so I need to keep pushing and learning and hopefully we’ll get a good result in Valencia.”

Zarco scored a fill-in ride with the satellite Honda squad after being benched by Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, the number five cutting his two-year deal short less than a season in.