Motorsport

I am delighted to have Max Stauffer onboard who spent a few minutes on the phone earlier today having recently joined the Yamaha squad over the off-season alongside the series veteran and 3 x champion Mike Jones ahead of the upcoming ASBK season that will begin as part of the Australian World Superbikes round support bill next month at Phillip Island in Victoria.

We talked about his season from last year when he first stepped up into the Premier Class (Pirelli Superbike category) along with his on-track expectations for the new year of 2025 including some four-wheel crossover talk such as Supercars and Formula 1 like Jack Doohan’s step up into the big time at Alpine-Renault plus many more with his recovery, etc.

SB: First of all, you had some good Top 10 finishes last season including a few occasional podiums. What have you learned last season in the premier ASBK class, which kind of rounds you had & didn’t had success with that would make a huge difference, and how you’re able to pivot towards the front runners in 2025?

MS: Yeah, well 2024 was overall not a bad season for me. Unfortunately, it was injured a lot throughout the year in which I think some injuries might have hindered some performances. I was quite faster at the Queensland tracks that turned out to be really good for me, especially in Morgan Park Raceway – a track that I’ve struggled on on the smaller bike. It should be fast and competitive there, although I was injured on a big bike was quite a big relief. Focusing on 2025, I’ve gotta work on my consistency during races and if I can work that out, then I think I’ll be there to fight for the front row. The raw speed seems to be quite good as I seem to be pretty fast at one lap but I just need to try working on limiting the crashes and be a little bit more consistent throughout the year and throughout the races.

SB: Before you stepped into the premier class, what was the one thing you missed the most as a rider but also still keeping tabs as a spectator when it comes to the ASBK’s list of support categories? Even when World Superbikes & Supercars come over?

MS: One thing I missed is probably not really understanding how to manage a tyre when it’s easy in the smaller classes such as tyre life at the end of the races. That was probably the biggest thing when I stepped up into the premier class was just to managing the tyre and working out when to be fast in the race which was challenging & it didn’t really come too easy for me. But having the support categories there looking back, you can see that I probably could have worked on those things a little bit earlier still. And it’s great to have the World Superbikes out there because when you’re a support category to them, you can watch and learn so much just from what they’re doing by implementing it into your own weekend, so you can try and adapt in order to learn a little bit quicker as well as speeding up the process a bit more.

SB: When the World SBK Australian Round returns at Phillip Island next month, which world class riders you would like to meet in-person?

MS: Not in particular. I think all the World Superbike riders are quite cool – I’m just a big fan of all of them, really. I’m just excited to be in the paddock and sort of just be a part of the atmosphere and the atmosphere in the paddock and throughout the whole weekend, which is quite massive & cool to be part of and also a whole lot different compared to a traditional ASBK meeting. It will be cool to see Toprak (Razgatlıoğlu – reigning riders’ champion for the BMW Motorrad team) do well around Phillip Island and of course, it will be good to see Johnny Rea on the Yamaha be up front as well.

SB: Any Supercars driver you’re looking forward to see later in the year as well (at Ipswich’s Queensland Raceway as part of the support bill in early August)?

MS: The Supercars is a championship that I followed a lot & I’ve always been a bit of a fan of the Red Bull team. Not necessarily keen on meeting or talk to them but it’ll be nice to see the Red Bull team do well on it & just in general, be actually nice if I sort of be getting into the Supercars a bit more & start following the Championship a bit more closely than I do.

SB: How much do keep in touch with some riders who are now living in Europe? Also wondering if you’d be at least keen to race a the Australian MotoGP support race like the Moto 2/3 someday or have any other one-off rides lined up?

MS: I do keep in touch with the few of the riders overseas like Harry [Harrison] Voight in particular. We’re quite good mates & pretty much throughout the season, we message message each other a lot and talk about anything to do with bikes, really – Bikes and training. It’s pretty good that it’s nice to have a relationship with people over there because you always sort of kept in the loop as such and you sort of know what’s going on a little bit. But, yeah, it will be definitely be cool to do a Moto2 wildcard one day – whether that opportunity comes up, I don’t know. But for now, I don’t have really have anything else lined up at the moment as I’m just focusing on doing the best job I can for Yamaha in this year’s Australian Superbike Championship.

SB: Any race tracks would you like to race overseas like Silverstone in the UK for example?

MS: So I’ve written Assen TT (a track located in the Netherlands) before, that was a cool track. A track I would like to ride now would be Jerez which was a bucket list one – I’ve written there now. I’ve always sort of liked Valencia (Circuit Ricardo Tormo), Silverstone would be cool with a track that has a lot of corners but I think any of the European tracks are pretty awesome to be quite honest with you. They’re all so fast and flowing which is a lot different to the traditional Australian tracks, so to go over there and experience all those tracks and layouts and what not would be a fantastic experience nonetheless.

SB. Thoughts on Jack Doohan’s debut Formula 1 last month at Abu Dhabi for Alpine-Renault who is the son of motorcycle legend Mick Doohan with his home Grand Prix coming up in March at Albert Park? Any messages you would like to say to Jack? Also wondering if perusing a career with four wheels would be make sense from a safety point of view? Or why not be better off sticking with two wheels just for the thrill for it?

MS: Yeah, it’s pretty awesome that there’s another Aussie in the Formula One paddock where the Aussies seems to be quite strong. At the moment, it seems they have a strong presence anyway in the paddock with Oscar’s [Piastri – McLaren-Mercedes] doing quite well. And it’s pretty cool to see Jack [Doohan] in there now; so hopefully, he can sort of burst onto the scene and have a good year. It all comes together for him, in particular with his home round, if he could turn up & be straight on the pace by having a good race in front of his home fan base.

But yeah, Im I’m not really sure about the safety aspect of four wheels where they go as just as fast really. I’ve never really been that interested in cars as for me, it’s always been bikes and two wheels – that’s just what I like. But I know there’s plenty of other people think the opposite who just enjoy driving a car more than what they do riding a bike. So yeah, I’m not too sure about any of that as I’ve never driven a car competitively & I can’t really comment on that that too well.

SB: I wish we could see some more two and four wheel crossovers often from John Surtees to Valentino Rossi and even Casey Stoner too?

MS: Yeah, there’s definitely been a lot of great motorbike riders that have sort of made the switch which is something I’ve never really thought about. I suppose I’ve always just thought about trying to be as good as motorbike riders as possible. But one day, it’d be nice to definitely give it a go like jumping in a V8 Supercar or whatever race car and have a scoot around in order to sort of understand and appreciate more what it takes to be good in that field.

SB: Also wondering if you’re into Tennis? Especially at this time of January at the Australian Open with Alex De Minaur coming off on his career best performance to date lately other than being eliminated in the Quarter-Final the other day by Jannik Sinner? Your favourite bike & four-wheel car also? – it can be an everyday road legal or a racing-spec chassis. And like how Tennis players go off to recover after a long few hours match, how’s your own recovery holding up from race to race & season to season?

MS: I don’t really follow the Tennis that much. But my favourite sort of motor vehicle would definitely gotta be the [Yamaha] R1 for road use & for racing use – it’s just so versatile and its strengths are so strong.

For me overall, this is probably one of the best bikes out there that I’ve ridden anyway – definitely my favourite. And in terms of recovery, I just try and do a lot of stretching and eat the right foods and when I am resting, I just rest – not keep up and keep doing stuff. So just rest and let the body heal by coming out the next day to try and be better.

SB: Better than taking part in a five-set Tennis match?

MS: Yeah, for sure.