Troy Herfoss fights back in second bout at Wakefield

ASBK 2021 Wakefield Park

Superbike Race Two Report

Mike Jones was hot to trot in the second and final 20-lap bout of the Wakefield Park ASBK weekend, taking the hole-shot ahead of Wayne Maxwell and Troy Herfoss. Better starts for Cru Halliday and Glenn Allerton this time around saw that pair fourth and fifth respectively ahead of Lachlan Epis, Bryan Staring and Oli Bayliss.

Maxwell was through for the lead before the end of lap one and was the first man in the 56s, a 56.966 on his first flying lap. Jones and Herfoss stayed with him over those opening few laps as once again the trio started stretching away from the field.

Five laps in and still nothing separated the leading trio but they now had three-seconds on Halliday and Allerton. A disappointed Josh Waters returned to the pits to report bike problems to team personnel to effectively end a soul destroying weekend for the three-time Australian Superbike champion.

As the race passed one-third race distance Maxwell started to break away. Herfoss could not find his way past Jones, the DesmoSport Ducati man more consistent in this encounter and making no mistakes.

Cru Halliday was still in fourth place with a few bike lengths over Glenn Allerton. A few seconds further back the battle for sixth was a tense affair between Bryan Staring, Lachlan Epis, Oli Bayliss and Arthur Sissis.

By half-race distance Maxwell had 1.5-seconds over Jones. Herfoss didn’t get through on Jones until early lap 12 when he finally made a slightly risky but very clean move to take second place. Once past, Herfoss streaked away from Jones – he had eight laps to claw back almost two-seconds on Maxwell. Surely that was not possible, was it…?

Herf’ had a crack but started running a little deep in to some of the left-handers and had to throw caution to the wind somewhat but it was not until five laps left that he finally started to pull a little ground back on Maxwell. Did Maxwell have more speed in the bag should he require it in the final couple of laps?  Lapped traffic was also starting to be encountered.

With four laps to go Oli Bayliss had moved to the front of that battle for sixth place, ahead of Staring, Epis and Sissis.

Herfoss had got the gap down to a second with three laps to run after putting in a 57.284 to Maxwell’s 57.671…. Two laps to go and the gap was now eight-tenths, then half-a-second at the next split, then two-tenths as they started the final lap, a tenth at the first split on the final lap…. What the cameras had missed though was Wayne getting seriously held up by a lapper entering turn one and that was the crucial break that allowed Herfoss to get on terms with the defending champ.

Herfoss was under him at the fish-hook and pushes Maxwell wide… Herfoss runs an inside line to the final double-right, covering the line almost too much and it looked like Maxwell would be able to drive out and around him on the run to the flag but that new Fireblade proved to have the grunt and the grip to bring it back.

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This time around the pair stopped out on the circuit to have their chat away from the microphones of parc ferme…. They had a long chat on the circuit then Herfoss did a victory lap across the grass right next to the spectator fence in front of his home crowd after what was a very hard earned victory with a truly incredible finish.

Mike Jones took third place almost three-seconds behind that leading pair but 11-seconds ahead of fourth placed Cru Halliday who managed to break away from Glenn Allerton over the final laps.

Bryan Staring pipped Oli Bayliss for sixth while Lachlan Epis scored eighth ahead of Arthur Sissis. Anthony West rounded out the top ten on what I reckon would be one of the least competitive bikes in the field. We look forward to seeing what Westy can do as the series progresses.

Wayne Maxwell was the round victor courtesy of that extra point for pole position and will take a ten-point lead over Herfoss to Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway on the weekend of June 20 alongside the V8 Supercars round in the NT. That’s right we have a full two-months to wait before ASBK swings back into action! That’s too long!!

Superbike  Race Two Results

Alpinestars Superbike Championship Standings

2021 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar