Saturday

PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin have completed their very first WorldSBK race as full-time entries in the 2024 Superbike World Championship, taking place at the Phillip Island Circuit in Australia this weekend.

The riders were out for a short final practice during the morning, in which they made additional modifications to the bike setup before returning to the track for the 15-minute Superpole, which ran as scheduled at 1pm local time (CET+10). A best of 1’31.133 for Tarran meant that the Brit qualified in twenty-first position for Race 1, while Adam set a quickest time of 1’31.888 to place twenty-second.

The first full-length Superbike race of the season got underway in cool and cloudy conditions at 4pm local time (CET+10). It was a race of two halves, with all riders obliged to make a pitstop and change tyres mid-way through the action. With Tarran and Adam lining up on rows seven and eight of the grid, both got away well and made up a couple of positions over the first few laps, with the Brit placing seventeenth and the Malaysian nineteenth by lap five. Both riders pitted to change their tyres on lap ten, with Norrodin gaining a little ground as they returned to the track, lapping just in front of team-mate Mackenzie. Lying nineteenth and twentieth, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda riders held these positions to the line after exchanging places in the final stages.

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will be back out at Phillip Island tomorrow for the Superpole race and final 20-lap race of the weekend.

Tarran Mackenzie

“I struggled this morning, and in yesterday’s Superpole to be honest, and I really wanted to make a more dramatic change to the bike in order to be able to make a comparison, good or bad. So we did that for today’s race and I immediately improved on my lap times when the race got underway. I felt good on new tyres, and the first part of the race went well, but then I had more trouble in the second half. I made a small mistake during the pitstop which caused me to lose a little time, so I’ll try to improve on that tomorrow. Hopefully we can use tomorrow’s warm-up to understand a little more and then we’ll do our best to improve in the two races, of course.”

Adam Norrodin

“The first race was tough, but I want to thank my whole team as the tyre change went smoothly and everyone’s worked really hard. In the first part of the race I was setting quite good lap times, a little faster than my previous references, but in the second half I started to struggle physically and couldn’t really keep up the pace. At least we completed the race and collected more data, so now we’ll try to use that to our advantage to prepare and improve in Sunday’s races.”

Sunday

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team has concluded the opening round of the 2024 Superbike World Championship with riders Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin.

The SBK field enjoyed much warmer weather on Sunday with air temperatures of around 25°C and a track temperature of 39°C for the lunchtime Superpole race. Mackenzie unfortunately suffered a problem during the warm-up lap and returned to the pits before the race began. From row eight of the grid, Norrodin held twenty-first place through the first laps before making up one position on lap five. Unable to really build on his pace in the limited time available, the Malaysian focused on running a consistent race and reaching the line so as to provide his team with more important data, crossing the line twentieth.

Sunday afternoon brought the second and final 20-lap Superbike race that, like yesterday, involved a mandatory pitstop and tyre change. The race began an hour later than scheduled as the track had to be cleaned after one of the ASBK riders suffered a technical issue in an earlier race. An incident for Jonathan Rea just four laps in caused the race to be suspended with a red flag and restarted a short time later, reduced to just eleven laps and with no pit stop requirement. Mackenzie and Norrodin lined up for the restarted race in eighteenth and nineteenth place and actually concluded the race in the same positions. Although it proved to be a largely uneventful eleven-lapper for the duo, the riders did their best and the team was able to collate useful information which is crucial at this early stage of the season.

The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team now have approximately three weeks in which to prepare for the second WorldSBK round that will take place at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit on Spain on 22-24 March.

Tarran Mackenzie

“Unfortunately, when I went out for the morning’s Superpole race I had a technical problem and so had to come back into the pits already on the warm-up lap. Later in the day, when race 2 started for the first time, I was almost on the back of the group but then the race was red-flagged. In the restarted race, I had slightly better feeling on the bike, but it was only a short race of course. I set my best lap of the weekend anyway, and was a little more consistent, feeling the best I had all weekend actually, so that’s a positive sign as we head to Barcelona.”

Adam Norrodin

“My first ever Superbike weekend has been quite a tough one, what with the weather and the pitstops in the races. But I’ve gained some really valuable experience and admit that In didn’t come here with any real expectations, also because we haven’t had much test time as yet. We’re still finding the way, which is only normal, but I hope we can be productive during our two-day test in Barcelona so that we’re better prepared for round 2.”