Rounding up the Saturday SBK/SS action from Phillip Island ASBK – Qualifying

ASBK 2024
Round Five – Phillip Island – Saturday

Images by RbMotoLens

The opening 20-minute Qualifying session got underway just after 1530 on Saturday.

Harrison Voight was hot to trot right from the off. The teenager reeled off a 1m32.257 on his first lap, then immediately backed that up with a 1m32.060, only for Cru Halliday to then displace him from the top spot seconds later after recording a 1m31.941 on his first flying lap.

With those markers set both riders then returned to the pits safe in the knowledge that it was very unlikely that they could be knocked out of the top 12 that would go on to contest the Q2 session.

Josh Waters didn’t exit the pits for his first lap until halfway through the session and shot straight to the top, a 1m31.787 right off the bat.

With all the heavy-hitters safely inside the top 12, very little action happened on track over the final few minutes of the session.

Superbike Q1 Times

Superbike Q2

Only ten minutes after the conclusion of Q1, pit-lane opened again for the top 12 to contest the 15-minute final Qualifying session.

At the end of their first flying lap it was Mike Jones on top with a 1m31.699 ahead of Josh Waters, Bryan Staring and Harrison Voight.  Waters then pushed his way to the top on his second lap, setting the new target at 1m31.606 and pushing Jones back to third.

Most riders then returned to the pits for some final fettling before their final time attack, some also slotting in a new rear hoop for their final tilt at pole.

Arthur Sissis didn’t join the track until the final half of the short session, the South Australian not putting in his first flying lap until there were only five-minutes remaining in the session. He made it, though, the Stop & Seal pilot catapulting from dead last all the way up to the provisional pole with four-minutes left on the clock! A 1m31.458…

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However, now there were red sectors lighting up the timing monitor everywhere and it looked as though there was plenty of shuffling yet to play out..

Harrison Voight to provisional pole, only to be displaced seconds later by Cru Halliday… Three-minutes to run…

Josh Waters on top with two-minutes left on the clock… The provisional front row at this late juncture Waters, Halliday and Voight.

Waters was going quicker again next time around and looked on course for the first 1m30 of the weekend, only to lose some time through the final sector that saw him fail to improve, a 1m31.128 compared to the 1m31.126 he recorded on the previous lap.

And that was it… Waters taking his 15th pole position in ASBK, and his seventh at Phillip Island.

A somewhat scary statistic is that Waters has 16 race wins under his belt here.  Glenn Allerton has the next best record in this field with eight wins here, while Bryan Staring has four and Cru Halliday a single win here late last year. No other rider on the ASBK grid here this weekend has won a Superbike race at this venue.

The pole time of 1m31.126 nowhere near the 1m30.379 that Waters set pole with at the season opener back in late February, and also slower than the 1m30.790 race lap record set the same weekend by Harrison Voight.

A second covers a top ten headed by Josh Waters ahead of Cru Halliday and Harrison Voight. The make-up of that front row would be a surprise to few.

Arthur Sissis heads row two, flanked by Mike Jones and Glenn Allerton.

The wind caused riders plenty of problems in that session; it was unpredictable and ever-changing.  Unfortunately, the forecast predicts even stronger winds for race day tomorrow.

The wind could be further complicated by showers that are predicted to sweep across Phillip Island late tomorrow afternoon, their arrival forecast to coincide with the second Superbike bout at 1435 on Sunday afternoon…

Superbike Q2 Times

Supersport Qualifying

Archie McDonald had to overcome some adversity to top the opening qualifying session after officials cancelled his lap-times from the first half of the session. This was the penalty for not visiting the Technical Checks after entering his pit garage to get work done on the bike after experiencing shifter issues out on the circuit a few laps into the session, while the work should have been completed in the pit-lane itself.  McDonald then went back out on track to drop in a 1m35.346 on the final lap of the session, displacing Jonathan Nahlous from provisional pole. Olly Simpson was also on the provisional front row at the end of Q1, ahead of Mark Chiodo.

By the halfway point of the final 20-minute qualifying session Chiodo and Simpson had pushed Nahlous off the provisional front row. With ten-minutes remaining in Q2 McDonald was still on provisional pole without even turning a wheel in the session.

With five-minutes remaining, Nahlous pushed Simpson off the front row, then on the following lap Nahlous went one better again, pushing Chiodo back to third, then on his next lap managed to push McDonald out of pole position with two-minutes left on the clock.

With just over 60-seconds left Olly Simpson then gazumped them both, shooting to the top with a 1m35.187 for pole position.

Simpson’s pole time a new qualifying lap record but actually still slower than what a few riders managed during the Supersport races at the season opener here back in February. There were a few 34s recorded during the races here back in Feburary, the fastest of which was a 1m34.682 by Nahlous.

Riders reported that the track still felt a little ‘green’ and that the blustery conditions made it quite challenging on track this afternoon. The winds are predicted to be stronger tomorrow.

Supersport Combined Qualifying Times

ASBK Superbike Championship Points

Supersport 300 Championship Points

Supersport Championship Points

ASBK Round Five Schedule