Maxwell and Herfoss share the Saturday AFX-SBK Superbike wins at Winton
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Race One
Glenn Scott high-sided at turn one during the first running of the opening bout of Superbike action triggering a red flag sending the field back to the pits.
On the re-start Wayne Maxwell got the best run through the kink and set about trying to build a lead while Josh Hook and Glenn Allerton gave chase.
Allerton used the superior acceleration of his BMW to get the better of Hook for second place late on lap one.
Early on lap two Sean Condon went down on the Kawasaki ZX-10R but walked away seemingly unhurt.
Linden Magee got the better of Hook for third place but then left the circuit after losing the front at turn one.
Troy Herfoss then worked his way forward to third place ahead of Robert Bugden and Josh Hook, who looked to be struggling in this race.
Maxwell had the pace to prevent Allerton from mounting a challenge, putting in a string of 1m23s in the very cold, but fine, conditions at Winton. A track temperature of 14-degrees; a 9-degree ambient temperature.
Troy Herfoss closed in on Allerton and by lap five was all over the back of the BMW and made his move on lap seven to make it a Honda 1-2 up front.
The top running Yamaha rider was Robert Bugden, running a strong fourth place for most of the race, only a couple of seconds behind the leading trio but with a huge advantage over the fifth place battle being waged between Josh Hook and Cru Halliday.
Maxwell backed off the pace with a few laps to run, perhaps unaware of the progress of Troy Herfoss, who on lap nine put in the fastest lap of the race with a 1m23.45 lap record, undercutting Maxwell’s 1m23.582 from a few laps earlier. Just as Herfoss caught Maxwell he slowed his pace markedly and decide not to challenge his team mate and put at risk their chances for tomorrow’s main game. So many of the top riders treat the Saturday competition as practice sessions for Sunday.
Maxwell the winner by 3.0 seconds over Herfoss with Glenn Allerton rounding out the podium. Robert Bugden fourth while Cru Halliday got the better of Josh Hook for that fifth place. Chris Trounson finished a highly creditable seventh place ahead of Paul Byrne, who seems to have found some speed here at Winton. Mike Jones the first Kawasaki rider home ahead of Matt Walters, who rounded out the top ten.
Race Two
It was Herfoss and Maxwell the prime combatants again in race two but this time around it was Herfoss that came out on top after the two traded new lap records four times with the final marker set by Herfoss with a 1m22.778 on the penultimate lap which set him up for the race win by half a second over Maxwell.
Robert Bugden brought the Yamaha home in third place, 4.8-seconds behind the leading duo but with a 5-second margin over teammate Cru Halliday.
As we so often see in the Saturday AFX-Superbike series, a lot of the top riders chose to use today for nothing but practice with Glenn Allerton coming and Jamie Stauffer both coming in to the pits for some set-up changes during the race before rejoining the circuit.
Race Three
In the third bout Robert Bugden made a mistake and ran off the circuit causing a red flag. At the re-start Chris Trounson went down at turn one causing another red-flag and thus that was the end of the racing for the day in regards to the Superbike category.
Thus both Wayne Maxwell and Troy Herfoss take 47-points with Maxwell retaining his 47-point lead over Herfoss in the Saturday AFX-Superbike series. Robert Bugden is 20-points further behind on 177 points.
The main game is tomorrow however and thanks to Troy Herfoss’ new Winton benchmark he will start from pole position with Wayne Maxwell alongside. Robert Bugden and Glenn Allerton will round out the front for Sunday.
ROUND 4 RESULTS:Â
1) Troy HERFOSS (NSW) (22, 25) 47
2) Wayne MAXWELL (VIC) (25, 22) 47
3) Robert BUGDEN (QLD) (18, 20) 38
4) Cru HALLIDAY (NSW) (16, 18) 34
5) Chris TROUNSON (VIC) (14, 16) 30
6) Mike JONES (QLD) (12, 14) 26
7) Paul BYRNE (IRE) (13, 13) 26
8) Glenn ALLERTON (NSW) (20, 5) 25
9) Beau BEATON (NSW) (10, 12) 22
10) Ben HENRY (QLD) (9, 10) 19
OVERALL STANDINGS:
1) Wayne MAXWELL (VIC) 244
2) Troy HERFOSS (NSW) 197
3) Robert BUGDEN (QLD) 177
4) Glenn SCOTT (NSW) 169
5) Mike JONES (QLD) 167
6) Cru HALLIDAY (NSW) 165
7) Sean CONDON (NSW) 136
8) Jamie STAUFFER (NSW) 111
9) Matthew WALTERS (NSW) 103
10) Chris TROUNSON (VIC) 100
Supersport
Maxima Yamaha rider Aaron Morris has had a perfect day out at Winton in the Supersport class of the 2014 YMF Loan Australian FX-Superbike Championship.
Morris recorded three wins from three races to extend his lead at the top of the overall championship standings – the gap now stretching out to 47 points with two rounds of racing to go.
Wagner Soil Testing’s Aiden Wagner recorded three consecutive second placings to finish the day second overall, while Queenslander Callum Spriggs (Allsite Concrete Cutting) finished the day in third outright with three third place finishes.
In the opening race of the day, it was a battle between Wagner and Morris – with Wagner taking the lead early.
His time at the front was short-lived however, with Morris passing to get out in front on lap two – a lead that he never surrendered.
It was a tight, tense tussle, and Morris kept his head to keep Wagner at bay – finishing .201 of a second in front as the pair were fought all the way to the chequered flag.
Third place in the opening race went to Spriggs who had a great ride after a less than desirable start.
Spriggs finished the opening lap in seventh position, but rode well over the next nine laps to work his way through the field and claim a podium finish.
Michael Blair (Campbell Home Hardware) and Luke Mitchell (JNL Racing) finished the race in fourth and fifth spots respectively.
Despite claiming the fastest lap in qualifying on Friday, Mason Coote (Dynoverks Racing) registered a DNF after coming unstuck on lap eight at which point he was in third place.
The second race turned into a mere formality for Morris, who took the lead into the first turn and began to streak clear of his rivals.
After the opening lap, the Yamaha rider was nearly two seconds clear of his closest competitor in Spriggs, and after posting a 1:26.917 on the second lapped had blown that lead out to 4.5 seconds.
The third lap saw Wagner move from fourth into second spot with some intelligent riding, but by the end of the lap he was still six seconds behind Morris.
While Wagner managed to make some of the time up, Morris had done more than enough to claim his second consecutive race win and he again had to settle for second.
As he did in race one, Spriggs finished on the podium in third place.
Coote rode his way into fourth place after overtaking Blair on the penultimate lap of the race, with Blair finishing in fifth.
In the final race of the day, Morris again took an early lead, with Wagner moving into second off the line from Spriggs and Blair.
That is how the riders finished up at the end of the race, and despite some changing of positions for the minor podium placings throughout the race, Morris was never really threatened.
In the outright standings, Spriggs is 47 points behind Morris, and has a slender two-point lead from third placed Wagner.
