Tarran Mackenzie made his World Superbike debut this weekend at Phillip Island with the Petronas MIE Racing Honda Team and can see ‘positive signs’ ahead of Round Two.

After the opening round of the 2024 World Superbike season Tarran Mackenzie is left feeling positive despite not scoring a point in his rookie weekend as a World Superbike rider.

The former British Superbike Champion and World Supersport Race Winner spoke after Race One on Saturday about the drastic changes him and his team made to his Honda ahead of the opening race of the season:

“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 (Race One) 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”

After the Superpole Race and Race Two Mackenzie had more thoughts following a technical issue in the Superpole Race and a decent showing in Race Two: “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.”