SPRING Terrace superbike gun Ben Burke has enjoyed a strong return to the Australasian Championships with a string of consistent performances for team SA Kawasaki BCperformance.

Enjoying a strong tussle with Cru Halliday and Matt Walters for the majority of the meeting’s opening race, Burke overpowered the duo to come home in sixth before becoming caught in a three-way battle for fifth in the second race of last weekend’s meeting.

Unfortunately for Burke, however, Halliday got the better of the Central West export in race two, as did Sean Condon, with Burke left to finish seventh.

Burke then lost his front end at turn three during the third race after a “love touch” by a fellow competitor, bringing his weekend to a premature ending.

Still, Burke was more than happy with the way his Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championships unfolded, especially for a fledging team that’s made plenty of changes to its operating procedures prior to the race meting at Mallala, a 2.6km bitumen motor racing circuit in South Australia.

“I was very pleased with my weekend’s racing,” he said, the team working beautifully together.

“We were able to bridge the gap to the leading group and the developments the team made between rounds one and two have made the whole package much better. 

“I’m now looking forward to round three with some more developments coming to help run with the leaders more consistently.

“I’d like to thank my sponsors for all of their support.” 

Burke and the SA Kawasaki BCperformance team will now head back to Sydney where they will regroup and prepare the bikes for the next round at Sydney Motorsport Park from June 26-28.