McLaren-Wood dedicates head-turning ASBK debut to fallen friends
From the back of the grid to brushing the podium in the wet, the Cambridge 21-year-old's wildcard weekend carried more weight than most watching realised.
By Kent Gray
The results alone from Morgan McLaren-Wood’s wildcard debut at the ASBK finale are eye-catching without need for any deeper scrutiny. When you do learn the sobering backstory, though, his weekend is altogether more impressive.
After qualifying 14th on Saturday and riding up to 12th despite a bout of arm pump in the first of Sunday’s two races at Queensland Raceway, the Cambridge 21-year-old briefly flirted with the podium positions in a brilliant ride from the back of the grid in a wet sign-off to the 2026 championship.
A fogged up visor and an overshot corner a couple of laps from the chequered flag conspired to send McLaren-Wood tumbling from the giddy-heights of 3rd down to 6th, and then 7th when he was pipped on the last corner by none less than Cameron Dunker.
But 12th and 7th was nothing to be sniffed at given this was his maiden ASBK Superbike weekend. On a bike – a Yamaha YZR-R1 - he’d never ridden before and for a team, Patrick Li’s MotoGo Yamaha Racing, that took a punt on the Kiwi after he’d put the feelers out for a last round ride.
The performance won’t have done his bid for a full-time seat in the new, six-round 2026-27 ASBK summer season any harm whatsoever.
More than that, the weekend is a massive confidence boost after what has been an emotionally fraught year for McLaren-Wood.
The NZSBK campaigner doesn’t like relitigating the crash he was involved in at Oulten Park in May 2025 that cost his mate Shane Richardson and Englishman Owen Jenner their lives.
He’d hate to think anyone might see any reference to his fallen friends as disrespectful as it’s still very raw. He does hope his inspired ride in the wet at Willowbank would have done his former BSB mates proud, though, and “really just carry on their legacy, man, just do it for Shane and Owen.”
“It’s just…it’s hard to explain. It’s been a rough few years with injuries and that crash at Oulten Park, it’s really dampened my confidence, being out there fighting, you know, for positions,” said McLaren-Wood.
“This is the first time I actually had some proper full-on battles back and forth, diving and just taking risks. Because usually I play it quite safe, so it was good to be back to peak performance, I guess.
“I was just treating each rider as an obstacle in my way, looking through them. And it was awesome really. I was just locked in. Just, I guess, it’s in the zone is what you’d call it.”
McLaren-Wood is a low key guy who just likes “spinning laps” on his bike. He does his best to give social media a wide berth so frets that even talking about Richardson might upset some. But as racers, they’d have loved seeing the young Kiwi mixing it with the likes of Mike Jones and five-time ASBK champion Josh Waters.
“I looked up to Shane a lot, especially being over in BSB [together] and how well he’s done and [him] giving me advice. After almost every session, we would catch up and have a quick yarn and that. It helped me out a lot.
“It’s a tough thing to talk about, so I don’t really like mentioning it too much. It’s something I just leave in the back of my mind, really.”
Out of respect for all those involved, The Final Sector will park that chapter here and focus forward. On the evidence of Queensland Raceway, the future looks exciting for McLaren-Wood.
“Race one was good. I definitely made a good step there. Dropped another couple of tenths off my times, and managed to pinch a position from Ty Lynch, who’s a pretty well-rounded rider in ASBK. Sadly just got arm pump, probably three-quarters into the session, which slowed my progress down [just as he was] catching up to Josh [Newman who finished 11th].
“So I kinda just hunkered down and ended up finishing but overall I’m pretty happy with it [12th] to be fair. Like I said, I wasn’t expecting to be fighting at all so where I was, beating a couple of the [established] ASBK boys was good enough for me.”
You clearly like the wet too?
“First time racing in the wet on a Super[bike], so I didn’t know what else to expect I suppose. It’s probably a good thing. Just rode it like a 600 and it seemed to work quite well,” McLaren-Wood said in the understatement of Sunday.
“Honestly, I just woke up from a nap, looked outside, it was raining, didn’t really even compute, just kind of hopped on the bike. I was just like, oh, well, we’ll see how it goes then, you know? We’ll soften it up a bit and we’ll just, we’ll just see. And then the lights went out and three corners in, I’m battling with the likes of bloody Mike Jones and stuff, and I was like, well, there you go.
“Sadly, my visor fogged up, so when I was going down the back straight to turn three I was sticking my head out the side, trying to open up the lid to get some air through it, and I just missed my braking marker and ran on into the gravel. But still managed to bring it back into about 7th because I’d built such a big gap. So yeah, it was overall pretty good, in my opinion.”
It was better than good in anyone’s language.
“It’s definitely a huge confidence boost, man,” McLaren-Wood continued before conversation inevitably turned to his future in ASBK.
“I’m looking into a few options right now. I can’t really go too much into it…I don’t want to be that guy that promises the world and then ends up with nothing but it is looking like I will try and do full-time in ASBK next year.”
And the Suzuki International Series and NZSBK?
“Yeah, I think NZSBK doesn’t clash at all with the [ASBK] rounds, so it will be full-time NZSBK. And I think the Suzuki Series only clashes with one round over here, so it should be at least two rounds I’ll be doing Suzuki Series.”
What bike will you ride?
“Not 100 percent sure yet. I’m talking to a few different manufacturers and trying to work out stuff. I will be on the grid. Just don’t know what on yet.”
What is undeniable is that both Kiwi grids will be better for having McLaren-Wood lining up on them. So too will ASBK which starts its new summer season at Phillip Island alongside the MotoGP alphas in late October.
“I wasn’t really expecting it, to be honest,” McLaren-Wood said when asked for a summary of his ASBK debut.
“But I’m glad I showed what I can really achieve, I guess, in such a small amount of time. I’m really over the moon.”