Ride Tailem Bend onboard with Troy Herfoss | ASBK

First Time around the Bend for ASBK

The Bend Motorsport Park onboard footage

Tailem Bend Track Map and corner speeds

Australian Superbike competitors met a new challenge this morning as they started to try and get their head around the intricacies of the ‘International Circuit’ layout at The Bend Motorsports Park. This brand new facility is situated just outside of Tailem Bend, a little over an hour East of Adelaide, near the junctions of the Dukes Highway and Mallee Highway.

Riders were blessed by the weather gods today with brilliant blue skies and very little wind to whip up all the sand still around the circuit from ongoing construction work.

The complex is still very much a work in progress with workmen and machinery everywhere. Even when we are back here in a couple of weeks, for the third round of the 2018 ASBK Championship, it will present only the initial almost blank canvas surrounding the tarmac that will eventually host a hotel complex and a level of infrastructure that will put every other motorsport facility in the country to shame, when it is finished…

Even with the almost perfect conditions the track was still very dusty, and this morning the cleaner line was not the line that will eventually become the ideal race line when these two wheel gladiators really start getting down to serious business.

Tyre wear is clearly going to be a massive issue. It is early days yet, but even at what are the modest speeds the riders are running now, compared to what the true race pace will be, tyres are degrading massively. Sand on the surface of the circuit will be part of the issue and the new surface will also be playing a part, but early indications suggest the circuit is going to torture tyres.

Of course, most teams have not even touched a clicker or changed a spring today, that might come later this afternoon, this morning was just for riders to get their heads around which way the circuit goes, and to start nutting out the fast way around the very testing 18-turn lay-out.

Penrite Honda were kind enough to run an onboard camera for us in the opening session of this morning. The camera was not quite parallel to the horizon, but is good enough to give you a bit of an idea.

I then sat down with Penrite Honda Team Manager Shaun Clarke to look at the data trace and worked out a very rough initial guide to the corner speeds around The Bend.

Glenn Allerton clearly likes the place! The NextGen BMW man shaded all comers in the opening practice session with apparent ease. However, in the second session the honour of the first sub two-minute lap around The Bend Motorsport Park went to his young teammate Ted Collins!

Clearly the NextGen squad have got something worked out here very early on in the piece.

After the opening two sessions though it is Ecstar Suzuki’s Josh Waters atop the timesheets. Full results are listed further below.

And the honour of first one to bite the dirt at the new South Australian circuit this morning was none other than Troy Bayliss! The three-time World Superbike Champ’ was quickly back out and at it though and none the worse for wear after testing the run-off at turn one.

Troy Herfoss on Tailem Bend

We had a quick chat with Troy Herfoss immediately after the opening session this morning to get his initial feedback on The Bend.

Trevor Hedge: We’re here with Troy Herfoss who’s just had his first laps at The Bend Motorsport Park, what are your first thoughts on the circuit?

Troy Herfoss: Many thoughts, we’re going to race here in a couple of weeks, but for what you guys want to know, I haven’t raced everywhere around the world where it has a mixture of everything like this. That first sector of turns two and three remind me of a slower Silverstone, coming up into that first hairpin in turn six and it’s sort of a bit like Valencia, when you come flying around the fast left hander and brake heavily in there. It’s like a reverse Sachsenring down to the right there too. And this section down here at turn 14 and 15 is just like Red Bull Ring. You sort of come down the hill on the throttle, on the edge of the tyre, it’s extremely fast. It’s really incredible, it’s too much to take in, in 25 minutes. But apart from that it is very dusty out there, so the track is extremely green, so there’s no grip at all. It was just a lot of fun that first session, and I wanted to give Clarky something to do, but I was too busy having fun out there sliding around, enjoying a new track.

Trev: Talking about sliding around, everyone is toasting tyres here this morning, so we might see half a season’s tyre budget gone in a couple of days….

Herfoss: I just joked with the guys I’m glad Deon (Deon Coote, Penrite Honda Team owner),  is flying in a bit late today, as there’s a few tyres going in the bike… We’ve really got no choice. In the past we’ve seen tracks which just really ruin tyres. I don’t think it’s that case here, I think it’s the amount of sand on the track, like sandpaper. So once that clears off, it should be a lot better on tyres.

Trev: Of course to clarify things for people out their on the internerd reading this, you’re not going out on new tyres, you’re going out on rubber with a few laps on it. As you can’t throw money away just to learn the new race track.

Herfoss: That’s right we’ve learnt over the years that a new race surface is very different. So we’re just putting whatever old tyres we have on at the moment. We’re going to be 10-seconds off at the moment, so there’s no reason to waste new tyres.”

Tailem Bend ASBK Test Times Session 1

1. Glenn ALLERTON (NSW) BMW S RR 2:00.604
2. Troy BAYLISS (QLD) Ducati Panigale FE 2:01.337
3. Wayne MAXWELL (VIC) Yamaha YZF-R1M 2:01.705
4. Mitch REES (NZ) Honda CBR-RR SP 2:03.490
5. Ted COLLINS (VIC) BMW S RR 2:03.612
6. Josh WATERS (VIC) Suzuki GSXR-R 2:03.959
7. Daniel FALZON (SA) Yamaha YZF-R1M 2:04.181
8. Troy HERFOSS Honda CBR-RR SP 2:04.868
9. Mathew HARDING (NSW) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:05.614
10. Mark CHIODO (VIC) Suzuki GSXR-R 2:06.685
11. Michael BLAIR (NSW) Yamaha YZF-R1 2:06.743
12. Brendan MCINTYRE (NSW) Suzuki GSXR-R 2:07.210
13. Matt WALTERS (NSW) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:07.959
14. Jay PRESEPIO (SA) Suzuki GSXR 2:08.554
15. Sam LAMBERT (NT) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:08.576
16. Bryan STARING (WA) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:08.579
17. Mitchell LEVY (NSW) Yamaha YZF-R1 2:09.622
18. Kyle BUCKLEY (QLD) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:12.041
19. Adam CHRISTIE (SA) Suzuki GSXR-R 2:12.460
20. Ashley MANUEL (SA) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:12.606
21. Alex PHILLIS (VIC) Suzuki GSXR 2:13.258
22. David BARKER (SA) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:13.328
23. Phil CZAJ (VIC) Aprilia RSV4 F 2:14.003
24. Patrick LI (VIC) Yamaha YZF-R1 2:14.066
25. Scott MCGREGOR (VIC) Yamaha YZF-R1 2:14.219
26. Lucas VITALE (NSW) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:14.593
27. Mason COOTE (VIC) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:15.565
28. Nathan SPITERI (VIC) Suzuki GSXR-R 2:15.901
29. William STRUGNELL (SA) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:16.388
30. Con KOKKORIS (NSW) Ducati Panigale 2:16.416
31. Trent GIBSON (VIC) Suzuki GSXR 2:17.192
32. Simon GALLOWAY (NSW) Yamaha YZF-R1 2:17.680
33. Kieran HURRELL (SA) Honda CBR RR 2:18.440
34. Donald OWEN (VIC) Suzuki GSXR 2:22.400
35. Evan BYLES (SA) Kawasaki ZX10R 2:23.239

Tailem Bend ASBK Test Times Session 2

1. Josh Waters 1m59.165
2. Ted Collins 1m59.567
3. Daniel Falzon 1m59.782
4. Wayne Maxwell 2m00.510
5. Michael Blair 2m00.589
6. Glenn Allerton 2m00.673
7. Mitch Rees 2m00.956
8. Troy Herfoss 2m01.020
9. Troy Bayliss 2m02.134
10. Arthur Sissis 2m02.486
11. Mark Chiodo 2m02.584
12. Matt Harding 2m02.597
13. Sam Lambert 2m02.822
14. Matt Walters 2m03.103
15. Brendan McIntyre 2m03.103
16. Alex Phillis 2m05.906

Australian Supersport Session 1

1. Max CROKER (NSW) Suzuki 2:06.509
2. Giuseppe SCARCELLA (NSW) Kawasaki 2:07.435
3. Zac JOHNSON (VIC) Yamaha 2:08.541
4. Tom TOPARIS (NSW) Kawasaki 2:09.089
5. Cru HALLIDAY (NSW) Yamaha 2:09.387
6. Thomas BRYDEN (NSW) Yamaha 2:10.712
7. Jack PASSFIELD (NSW) Yamaha 2:11.340
8. Rhys BELLING (VIC)Yamaha 2:12.084
9. Campbell RUSSELL (VIC) Yamaha 2:12.712
10. Damon REES (NZ) Honda 2:13.264
11. John HUNT (SA) Suzuki 2:13.614
12. Dallas SKEER (SA) Suzuki 2:15.010
13. Scott NICHOLSON (VIC) Suzuki 2:16.403
14. Meri MALENA (NSW) Yamaha 2:35.292

Australian Supersport 300 – Session 1

1. Oli BAYLISS (QLD) Kawasaki Ninja 2:19.391
2. Harry KHOURI (NSW) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:19.423
3. Tom BRAMICH (VIC) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:19.629
4. Ben BRAMICH (VIC) KTM RC 2:19.915
5. Tayla RELPH (QLD) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:20.232
6. Mitchell KUHNE (QLD) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:20.436
7. Yanni SHAW (NSW) Kawasaki Ninja 2:21.030
8. Dan THOMAS (NSW) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:23.123
9. Ben BAKER (NSW) Kawasaki Ninja 2:23.493
10. Hunter FORD (NSW) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:23.801
11. Travis HALL (QLD) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:24.878
12. Troy RYAN (NSW) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:27.626
13. Oliver SIMPSON (SA) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:28.312
14. Zane FORD (NSW) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:29.493
15. Austin BARNES (VIC) Kawasaki Ninja 2:32.299
16. Bronson PICKETT (WA) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:32.329
17. Mitchell SIMPSON (SA) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:34.351
18. Jack COUSENS (VIC) Yamaha YZF-R3 2:51.536