MITCH REES
ASBK SUPERBIKES
For Mitch, who’s only been road racing for two
seasons but has a long history in MX, this year
has been an endless learning curve. Aside from
Phillip Island, all the tracks are new and the
team is still looking for some baseline settings
on the big Honda. A couple of recent crashes
that he attributed to not being able to feel when
the bike was at the limits of grip meant there
was a lot of work to do on setup to get the bike
to where he’d feel really comfortable riding at
the edge.
Settings that worked well for Mitch at Tailem
Bend, which were necessary to manage tyre life
on the new smooth but abrasive surface, didn’t
translate well to Morgan Park which has some
bumpy sections that work the suspension very
hard. Right from the outset and throughout the
weekend Mitch found it hard to dial in settings
that were a good compromise for the whole
circuit, and the fast sections from T7 through
to T10 were particularly hard. Despite making
numerous changes to settings, nothing gave
Mitch the feel he needed to give him confidence
to push as hard as he wanted to. The windy
conditions at Morgan Park didn’t help as they
affected the Fireblade quiet noticeably, making
it harder to hold a line in some sections.
For much of Race 1, Mitch was following Ted
Collins on the NextGen BMW until a mistake at
T2 lost him a handful of places. Mitch was able
to rejoin and finish in 16th which is a solid result
given the number of factory supported rider
in the series. With the feeling that there wasn’t
much to lose, the team made a few changes
ahead of Race 2 and Mitch had another strong
run keeping ahead of current NZ Superbike
champion Sloan Frost until ‘Snowflake’ Frost
was able to make a pass to give Mitch another
16th place finish.
Morgan Park is nothing if not all-Australian
and the track is probably unique in having a
flag at every marshal’s post to warn riders that
there are kangaroos ahead watching the action
– quite possibly from the middle of the track.
After a small off track excursion at T4 during the
second qualifying session, Mitch saw the ‘Roo’
flag was waving and, although the wildlife had
nothing to do with his off track moment, his
return to the track across the grass was enough
to chase the Roo back over the tyre wall into the
bush.
ASBK Round 6 is at Winton, another tight and
technical track. The Rees boys will both be
looking to use the upcoming test day to get a
base setup that will give them a good starting
point for race weekend. Mitch and the team got
some useful advice from Shaun Clarke, Team
Manager for championship leader, Penrite
Honda rider Troy Herfoss, which gave the team
some insights about setup for the Fireblade
they can leverage going into the Winton test.