Josh Waters wins fiery opening Superbike bout at SMP

ASBK 2023

Round Two – Sydney Motorsport Park

Alpinestars Superbike Race One

Cru Halliday (YRT) dominated every session at Sydney Motorsport Park on Friday, topping FP1, FP2, FP3 and then taking pole position with a new 1m28.970 qualifying lap record. The margins between the top three though are tiny, Mike Jones (YRT) recorded a 1m29.019 and Josh Waters (Ducati) 1m29.020.

Troy Herfoss (Honda) and Bryan Staring (Yamaha) recorded 1m29.710s and 1m29.837s respectively to be on row two alongside Glenn Allerton (BMW), 1m30.062. Herfoss had some rear suspension problems yesterday that maybe blunted his potential so he might have more to bring to the race today than what Friday’s time-sheets indicated.

Arthur Sissis (Yamaha), Max Stauffer (Yamaha) and Broc Pearson (Ducati) started from row three but have plenty of time to find if they are to challenge for a podium.  Ted Collins (BMW) started from row four alongside Matt Walters (Aprilia) and Paris Hardwick (Kawasaki).

A small shower early this afternoon dampened the circuit before the ten-minute warm-up session but the track was declared dry before Superbikes hit the circuit.

Riders wasted no time getting out of the pits and most riders put in six laps. Some scrubbing in a wet before coming back in, and others content to just stay out and do as many laps as they could.

Josh Waters was nearly eight-tenths quicker than the rest of the competition during warm-up. The McMartin Racing Ducati man the only riders in the 1m29s with a 29.387, he also put in a 1m29.567 on his final lap.

The best of the rest was Cru Halliday on 1m30.165 ahead of Glenn Allerton (1m30.215), Bryan Staring (1m30.345), Arthur Sissis (1m30.542), Mike Jones (1m30.576) and Troy Herfoss (1m30.578).

Broc Pearson showed once again that the DesmoSport Ducati Team are getting on top of their mechanical gremlins with a 1m30.640 in warm-up his fastest lap of the weekend. It is fair to say the start of the season has been challenging for the squad but hopefully the worst is behind them.

Alpinestars Superbike Race One

A dry circuit registered just under 30-degrees track temperature when riders started their warm-up lap. The vast majority of the field electing to start the 13-lap contest on Pirelli SCX rubber.

Cru Halliday got a great launch but by turn one that McMartin Racing Ducati V4 R had swept by to lead him through turn one. Glenn Allerton up to third, Troy Herfoss fourth, Max Stauffer fifth and Mike Jones sixth as they negotiated the back section of the circuit for the first time.

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By the end of lap one Waters had just under four-tenths on Halliday while Glenn Allerton was climbing all over the tailpipe of the #65 Yamaha. That top three all in the 1m34s from a standing start on that opening lap.

Mike Jones got the better of Max Stauffer, which made the teenager pick his bike up which then opened the door for Arthur Sissis to demote him further to seventh place, just ahead of Bryan Staring.

A 1m29.001 for Josh Waters on his first flying lap to set a new race lap record but Halliday was only a tenth slower… Allerton did a 1m29.681 to also show much greater speed than we saw from his yesterday.

Troy Herfoss was looking strong in fourth place, well ahead of Jones and a few bike lengths behind Allerton, but a missed gear on lap three blunted his charge and saw the Penrite Honda man slip to seventh position.

Josh Waters had his dead down but Cru Halliday was determined not to let him get away. The pair dropping in 1m29.0s and 1m29.1s to clear away from the rest of the field.

They had left Allerton well behind them after only four laps and the BMW man was starting to come under attack from Mike Jones, the defending champion clawing his way forward after an uncustomary slow start. Bryan Staring was right with them also while Herfoss was starting to recover from whatever that previous issue was to get back in that battle.

Herfoss moved past Sissis to move back up to sixth place and was reeling in Allerton and Staring as that pair tussled over fourth place. This battle was unfolding a huge eight-seconds behind race leader Josh Waters after only six laps had been completed. Halliday was now seven-tenths behind Waters but with a handy six-second buffer over his third place YRT team-mate Mike Jones.

With six laps to run Herfoss moved past Staring to take fifth place and immediately started to attack Allerton. The Penrite Honda man took that fourth place from Allerton early on the following lap and started to pull away.

Herfoss would have to find more than 3.5-seconds if he was to get on terms with Mike Jones and challenge for third place before running out of laps.

Up front Halliday was still keeping the pressure on Waters. The YRT man had the gap down to three-tenths with four laps to run.

Smoke then started bellowing from the exhaust of the YZF-R1M of Mike Jones on the run down to turn two!

The defending champion rolling off the circuit as we all held our breaths in the hope that it had not dumped oil that would cause riders to go down. Once Jones was off the smoking bike it started belching flames… The red flag then came out, probably a bit later than most would have expected as the YRT bike lay on its side and looking like a diesel locomotive smokestack… Race declared…  Wow….

A dejected Jones caught a lift back to the pits on the back of Herfoss. His hopes going up in flames and the loss of important points seeing him slip to eighth place on the championship points tally.

Despite being credited with a second place finish his YRT team-mate also looked a little dejected. Halliday looked confident that he had the speed to take that victory from Waters.  It was not to be however, another 25-points for Josh Waters…

Troy Herfoss was promoted to the podium after the demise of Jones and while he will be buoyed by those 18-points, he will also be ruing his early drift back to seventh due to that missed shift, and the fact that he was 14-seconds behind the McMartin Racing Ducati after only ten laps.

Still, Herfoss is now second in the championship, albeit 30-points behind Josh Waters..

Glenn Allerton was only just over a second behind Herfoss to claim 17-points for fourth place. Bryan Staring only a couple of bike lengths further behind to add 16-points to his tally.

Arthur Sissis another second further behind to finish sixth, 1.5-seconds ahead of seventh placed Max Stauffer, who in-turn had 1.3-seconds on Ted Collins and ninth placed Broc Pearson, the DesmoSport Ducati man briefly ran off the circuit halfway through which cost him at least one position.  Matt Walters rounded out the top ten on the Aprilia a further 13-seconds behind Pearson.

Race two will be staged under lights at 2115 this evening.

Alpinestars Superbike Race One Results

Alpinestars Superbike Championship Points

2023 ASBK Calendar