Anthony West tops Friday Practice at The Bend ASBK finale

ASBK 2024
Round Seven – The Bend

Pirelli Superbike Friday Practice

Local hero Arthur Sissis had put the Stop & Seal Yamaha on top of the time-sheets in FP1 with a 1m51.791 to best Mike Jones.  Anthony West made it a Yamaha 1-2-3 ahead of championship leader Josh Waters.

Troy Herfoss had missed FP1 with bike problems, got a few laps in during FP2, still with some bike issues , only to then have more problems that saw the reigning champ miss the whole of FP3.

It was not until that final practice sesssion on Friday afternoon that the boys started getting serious.

Anthony West on the Addicted To Track entry was the first rider into the 50s, a 1m50.850 on his sixth lap of FP3, almost eight-tenths clear of the rest of the field with five-minutes remaining in the session. Mike Jones then improved to 1m51.134 to close the gap.

With just under four-minutes remaining Westy exited the pits for one last run and was on a flyer, but so was Mike Jones and Josh Waters. All three put in great first sectors but then the laps went away from them.

Mike Jones did improve slightly on his final lap but his best was still quarter of a second slower than Westy, thus the veteran ended Friday practice on top of the board.

Championship leader Josh Waters third quickest today on the time-sheets. The McMartin Ducati rider was seriously fast through the speed trap in FP3, 312 km/h. Next best on top speeds were Max Stauffer and Arthur Sissis, both on 303 km/h.

Arthur Sissis failed to improve on his FP2 time, but that marker still proved good enough for fourth on the combined time-sheets, ahead of Max Stauffer and John Lytras. A fantastic start to the weekend for young Lytras on his Caboolture Yamaha backed entry.

Next was Broc Pearson, Cam Dunker and Ty Lynch.  Troy Herfoss rounded out the top ten on the back of his FP2 time. Herfoss didn’t turn a wheel in FP3 due to machine issues.

The 1m49.889s qualifying benchmark was set here last year by Troy Herfoss on his way to winning the 2023 Australian Superbike Championship that same weekend. The current race lap record is 1m50.529, also set last year by Herfoss on the Penrite Honda.

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Superbike competitors will be back on track for FP4 at 1000 (Adelaide Time) Saturday morning, ahead of Qualfiying at 1220. The first of three 11-lap Superbike races will take place on Saturday afternoon at 1500.  Conditions are forecast to be fine and in the mid 20s for the remainder of the weekend.

With a 26-point buffer over Mike Jones, and 37-points more than Broc, it must be said that Josh Waters heads into this weekend as firm favourite to take the title.

Cru Halliday is currently fourth in the championship but is on the sidelines with a shoulder injury sustained at One Raceway. Glenn Allerton is sitting this one out with knee injuries also sustained at the previous round. Bryan Staring has now retired after a distinguished career, while his young team-mate Paris Hardwick is also on the sidelines.

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