With the Australian Superbike Championship heading to Tasmania 's Symmons Plains for the first time in many years, SD Racing was looking for a strong performance from Darren Sciberras in the 5 th round of the GYT-R Australian Superstock Cup. The fast layout of Symmons Plains had been revised for the return of Australia's premier motorcycle road racing circus, with a tight new section through turns 2 & 3 designed to slow the two wheeled fire breathing missiles.

Upon arrive and inspection of the track, it was quiet obvious that the modifications would not only slow the bikes down but also provide for some interesting moments as the 20+ strong fields would try to negotiate the unforgiving flip-flop section. The return to the apple Isle also raised questions as to what mother nature would produce weather wise in Australia's most southern state, but initial signs were good with sunny, although chilly, conditions greeting the teams as they setup up the pit paddock.

A sleepless night followed for the SD Racing rider as he tossed and turned trying to find answers to the lack of pace and praying for dry conditions so he could better his current grid position. As morning dawned conditions were dry but the wind had gathered momentum, the team was well aware the extremely cold and blustery conditions were far from ideal for improving lap times. With some extra changes Darren gave his all aboard the TW-Performance R6 but he wasn't able to improve his time and would subsequently start all three Superstock races from 14th on the grid. Still struggling for setup the team was now faced with making untried changes before the first of three races, however these efforts would be greatly assisted by the help and experience of suspension guru Trevor Manley from TM-Performance.

Whilst on the warm-up lap for race one Darren realized that although the changes had helped, the bike was still not working to his liking. Feeling frustrated with the knowledge that his lack of experience was hampering his ability to relay the setup issues back the boys in the pits, Daz was determined to do his best for the team. The first attempt at the race start was aborted due to a couple of incidents in the new tight section that had brought the red flags out so the field regrouped for a restart. Super Daz made a not so super start losing a few places by the time the field reached turn one but knowing that once the field settled down he would struggle for pace, he put his head down and went for it. On completion of the first lap Darren had made his way up to an impressive 7th place with a few aggressive passes but as the field settled into a rhythm attack quickly turned to defense. Darren fought hard and held 7th position until the very last series of corners on the last lap but circum to pressure to finally finish race one in 8th position.

Many setup changes were the order of the weekend

Saturday evening saw more changes to the bike, with the help of Ian and Trevor, in search for better performances in Sunday's two races. Once again the warm-up lap for Race two showed the bike setup was better again but still not quiet right. Another strong start saw Darren move up to 8th in the opening couple of laps before a mistake saw the two riders behind, Michael Fraser and Craig Nicholson, close up. As they headed to the tight hairpin Craig out broke himself and thudded into the side of Daz sending both riders onto the tarmac. After assisting the marshals with clearing the bikes off the racing line, Darren remounted but would finish last and two laps down.

Rather then spitting the dummy for being taken out, the team got to work on repairing the bike and using Darren's feed back to find that allusive setup. This time on the warm-up the bike setup felt a lot closer to what the team had been searching for and Darren was raring to go. This time he couldn't manage such a good start but managed to work his way up to 9th setting his fastest lap of the weekend in the process. Still with half the race to run Darren had got to the front of the group he was dicing with and set out to catch the next string of riders before yet another setback, lucky the weekend started off with such a good luck omen! As Darren exited the ultra fast 6th gear sweeper he lost control of the rear tyre but kept the bike upright and on the tarmac for as long as possible before hurtling off the track and across the dirt on a wild motocross ride. Darren called on all his motorcorss experience before realising that he didn't have any, the phase up the creek without a paddle came to mind. Somehow he stayed on board and managed to pull up the bike before the tyre wall. Aware that something was a miss with the bike Darren returned to the pits were the team observed a belly pan full of water and a pair of undies full of.well yeah.

Darren Sciberras: "Wow, what a tough weekend! I am really disappointed not only for the poor results but also because I couldn't reward Ian, Trevor and Lisa with a result that matched their great efforts throughout the weekend. We learnt a lot this weekend both on setup issues and improvements needed in my riding but ultimately I would have to say my lack of experience and a bit of bad luck cost us this weekend. All credit to the boys out the front they set a cracking pace and showed us all the way around. We have lots to improve on before Winton if we want to run on the pace but you can bet that we will be throwing everything including the kitchen sink at it."

The team now switches it focus to this weekend's MotoGP at Phillip Island with Ian Wilshire to tackle the National support events in the Supersport class.