Mike Jones quickest in Timed Practice ahead of qualifying

ASBK 2021 Winton Saturday

Pirelli Superbike Timed Practice

Competitors woke to another brilliant morning of sunshine today at Winton Motor Raceway.

Unfortunately an accident in the second session of the day, Supersport 300 qualifying, saw Patrick Bognar air-lifted to hospital with significant injuries.  His condition is reported to be serious but stable. 

With Patrick being prepared for transport by RaceSafe and the air-fence at turn two needing repairs there was a significant delay in proceedings before that session recommenced. 

When bikes hit the track again it was 13-year-old Carter Thompson standing out from the rest, the young phenom almost a full-second under the previous lap record. Thompson’s 1m30.522 was over nine-tenths quicker than Ben Baker, who himself nearly matched Max Stauffer’s previous lap record. Tom Drane was third quickest, a further half-a-second behind Baker.  It will be interesting to see if things close up this afternoon or whether Thompson will continue to be a class above his competitors.

In the Yamaha R3 Cup it was a similar story, Carter Thompson a second ahead of the rest. It was not all plain sailing this time around for young Thompson though, a crash at turn 12 late in the session leaving his team some work to do. Before crashing though he went quicker than he had in the Supersport 300 session, lowering that benchmark to 1m30.474. 

In Supersport Tom Edwards got one over Broc Pearson. Both riders were more than a full-second below Cru Halliday’s lap record with Edwards coming out on top with a 1m22.264. Max Stauffer was third quickest on 1m23.052 ahead of Ty Lynch and Dallas Skeer. The Supersport pace this morning was impressive as both Edwards and Pearson’s 600 times would have put them 15th on today’s Superbike timesheets. 

The ambient temperature was nudging 30-degrees when Superbike Timed Practice got underway just after 1130 as temperatures headed past 40. 

Mike Jones was quickly down to business, the first rider in the 19s today, a 19.806 which he then backed up with a 20.008.

Wayne Maxwell then joined Jones in the 19s, a 19.916 to the defending champ immediately backed up with a 20.209.

By the halfway point of the 35-minute session the best Herfoss had recorded was a 20.502 and he only recorded four laps in that first stint.  Herfoss destroyed a Fireblade here late yesterday and was shaking down his #2 bike as that is all he is left with to compete with this weekend. We have photos of the bike and a report from Saturday here. 

RelatedPosts

WA joins five-round 2025 Australian Sidecar Championship calendar

December 19, 2024

Max Stauffer confirmed at Yamaha Racing Team for 2025 ASBK assault

December 17, 2024

Lachlan Epis continues to display improving form. Halfway through the session he was in P4 (20.970) and South Australian privateer Arthur Sissis (20.996) was P5. 

Glenn Allerton was on a 1m21.176 ahead of Cru Halliday and Bryan Staring. Halliday then went down at turn five while pushing hard for a time, the YRT man was quick through the first two sectors before going down, indicating that we are yet to see the best from him. 

Herfoss headed back out on track with 11-minutes left in the session. A 20.457 the first result followed by a 20.247 before again returning to the pits and taking no further part in the session. He was the pace-setter here yesterday, lapping seven-tenths quicker than he managed today, obviously still getting comfortable on the spare bike. 

Not much changed in that final ten minutes of the session. Jones remained quickest on that 19.806 from Maxwell on 19.916 and Herfoss on 20.247. Glenn Allerton was the main one to make progress, demoting his young team-mate to P5 and Arthur Sissis to P6.

Aiden Wagner the quickest Dunlop runner in P7 ahead of Halliday, who took no further part in the session after that turn five crash but was uninjured and returned to the pits under his own stream. Privateer Jed Metcher secured the final transfer spot in P9.

Oli Bayliss rounded out the top ten and thus will have to ride in Q1 along with Matt Walters, Bryan Staring, Mark Chiodo, Josh Waters and Luke Jhonston.  The top three in Q1 will then join the top nine from this session in Q2.

Come the 16-lap races things are expect to be much tighter than the practice times might suggest as the Dunlop runners are confident of having competitive race pace, and some might even elect to do the race distances on their softest option, particularly as conditions are expected to be much cooler on race day.

QP1 had been slated for 1500 and QP2 for the top nine at 1545 but we are more than an hour behind schedule here today thus I would expect those sessions to be pushed back.  Race one on Sunday is scheduled for 1100 and race two at 1410. 

Superbike Timed Practice

Supersport Qualifying 1

Supersport 300 Qualifying 1

R3 Cup Qualifying 1

Sidecar Qualifying

bLU cRU Qualifying 1

2021 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar

Round 2 | Winton Motor Raceway | 12th-14th March Schedule