Josh Waters leads Maxwell on Friday morning at Phillip Island

ASBK Friday Morning Practice

2022 Round Six – Phillip Island

This weekend’s opening practice session for the Alpinestars Superbike category got underway beneath beautiful blue skies this morning at Phillip Island. Things are looking likely to change tomorrow though with 20-40 mm of rain forecast! Thankfully it is not expected to arrive until later in the day on Saturday, then on Sunday we are expecting windy conditions with showers.

Today though we are heading for a top around 23 degrees and almost perfect conditions, the calm before the storm so to speak… When the Superbikes hit the track for their opening 30-minute practice session the temperature was nudging past 16-degrees at 0945 this morning.

Penrite Honda Superbike debutante Senna Agius was one of the first riders out of the blocks while team-mate Troy Herfoss was hot to trot early on with a 1m33.299 but then red sectors were lighting up everywhere.

It didn’t take long though for it to be a Boost Mobile Ducati 1-2 with Josh Waters and Wayne Maxwell the first men in the 1m32s. Waters dropped in a 1m32.515 on his fifth lap then lowered the benchmark to 1m32.356 on his next lap.

Waters had been more than half-a-second quicker than Maxwell until just under ten-minutes remaining when the defending champ ramped his game up with a 1m32.395.

Josh Waters lowered the marker to 1m32.297 with seven-minutes left in the 30-minute session. With five minutes remaining it was still only Boost Mobile Ducati riders in the 1m32s. Cru Halliday was third quickest on 1m33.208, Troy Herfoss fourth on that 1m33.299 he set on his second lap out and Glenn Allerton fifth ahead of Bryan Staring, Mike Jones, Anthony West and Broc Pearson while Senna Agius rounded out the top ten on 1m34.117.

With four-minutes to run Anthony West then joined the 1m32 club, a 1m32.822 promoting him into P3. It has been a long time since Westy has been able to muster that sort of pace and indicates that they must have made some massive leaps forward with that machine.

There were no more real improvements in the final minutes of the session thus Josh Waters starts the weekend on top ahead of team-mate Wayne Maxwell and Anthony West third quickest and top Yamaha ahead of Cru Halliday.

Troy Herfoss fifth ahead of Glenn Allerton, Bryan Staring, championship leader Mike Jones eighth ahead of Broc Pearson while Senna Agius rounded out the top ten this morning.

The second 30-minute practice session for Superbike, which is the only support category to get two practice sessions, is slated to start at 1405 this afternoon. Then it will be a cool qualifying session early on Saturday morning, a 30-minute qualifying session scheduled to start at 0850.  The opening 12-lap Australian Superbike race is expected to take place at 1140 on Saturday. Race Two is scheduled for 0950 Sunday morning before the final third bout just after the WorldSBK Superpole race, with ASBK Race Three expected to start at 1340. A full weekend schedule can be found at the bottom of this page.

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Superbike FP1

mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance
Alpinestars Superbike Championship Points Standings

Supersport

As for the Superbike category, there are also three Supersport races this weekend which could make or break the top contenders in the Michelin Supersport Championship.  John Lytras brings a six-point lead over Ty Lynch in to this penultimate weekend for the series. With so many points still up for grabs though Scott Nicholson, Tom Bramich and Tom Drane are certainly not out of the chase.

Jack Passfield got out of the right side of the bed to set the pace early on and started reeling off 1m37s, getting quicker with each lap, putting in a five-lap stint early on with a best of 1m37.029. Halfway through the session that was the benchmark ahead of Tom Bramich on 1m37.717 and John Lytras on 1m37.887 while Ty Lynch was fourth on 1m38.098.

For the latter half of the 25-minute session many riders went out on fresher rubber.  Lytras went up to P2 then with five minutes to run Scott Nicholson pushed Ty Lynch down to fifth.

Tom Bramich then pushed Lytras down to P3 and moved closer to the leading pace still being set by Passfield. Bramich was continually doing very well through the first sector, but then losing time to Passfield through the remaining sectors, however his 11th lap was still strong enough to top the time-sheets with the first 1m36s of the weekend, a 1m36.905.

That was good enough for Bramich to take morning honours ahead of Passfield, Lytras third, Nicholson fourth and Ty Lynch fifth when the chequered flag came out.

A 20-minute Supersport qualifying session is scheduled to start at 1335 and the next time they will be on track after that is at 1015 Saturday morning for their opening 10-lap bout of the weekend.  A full weekend schedule can be found at the bottom of this page.

Supersport FP1

Michelin Supersport Championship Points

 Supersport 300

The Supersport 300 category was the first to take to the track this morning for a 20-minute FP1 session that saw 24 riders on track.

Championship leader Cam Dunker was the first rider to sneak under the 1m50s barrier this morning, a 1m49.905 giving Dunker top spot ahead of Cam Swain, who returns from international duties to join the domestic ranks once again.  Sam Pezzetta was third ahead of Peter Nerlich and Hayden Nelson.

In the latter half of the session though Peter Nerlich went to the top of the time-sheets with a 1m49.488 ahead of Hayden Nelson and Cam Dunker and Taiyo Aksu moved up to claim fourth ahead of Cam Swain.

Supersport 300 competitors will be back on track at 1305 this afternoon for a 20-minute qualifying session ahead of their opening race of the weekend, an eight-lap contest that is scheduled to begin at 1705. A full weekend schedule can be found at the bottom of this page.

 Supersport 300 FP1

Dunlop Supersport 300 Championship Points

Live Broadcast Information

On Sunday, both SBS and Stan Sport will air a highlights package from 1300-1500 that will show the opening two Australian Superbike and Supersport races in replay, before then airing the final Superbike encounter of the weekend live.  We believe that the Supersport 300 category will not get TV air-time.

Phillip Island WSBK/ASBK Round Schedule