ASBK Saturday round up and form guide ahead of race day | Qualifying Results

ASBK 2022 Round Two – QLD Raceway
Alpinestars Saturday Round Up #1

Clear blue skies lit Queensland Raceway this morning which was a stark contrast to the sultry and cloudy day we experienced here yesterday.

Mike Jones put in by far the most quick laps here on Friday, the YRT man was immediately quick in FP1 and didn’t really let up throughout the day. He topped every session but that only told half the story.  In one of the sessions he put in 11 x 68s, he also topped the day outright and was the only man to dip in to the 67s on Friday.

Of course YRT had, like most of the field, done quite a few test days up here at Queensland Raceway.  Cru was also quick on Friday, ending the day third fastest overall, but he wasn’t as consistently fast as Mike was here on his home turf.

Wayne Maxwell and his Boost Mobile Ducati squad had only had half-a-day up here before the race weekend and thus started a little behind the eight-ball but were still quick enough to finish second quickest on Friday.  This was despite them also having to shake down a completely new motorcycle after the previous #1 bike pretty much ended up in the skip bin after his race one crash at Phillip Island.

Bryan Staring did a little bit of damage to one of his DesmoSport Ducati machines with a crash at turn six in FP2 on Friday.  They have done plenty of laps here and are confident ahead of this weekend in their package, and Bryan’s speed.

Josh Waters had a better Friday than his Maxima Oils BMW team-mate Glenn Allerton, but the pair ended Friday P5-6 to underline their potential for Sunday’s two 16-lap races. 

Troy Herfoss and Penrite Honda have made significant headway after what can only be described as a disastrous performance at round one.  Herf’ came out of the blocks with decent speed, although a problem with his timing transponder meant that the FP1 time-sheets didn’t reflect that speed, but he was in the 1m08s in both FP2 and FP3 to suggest that he potentially has podium pace here this weekend. 

Arthur Sissis had some problems with the wheelie control system cutting the power violently enough to see the South Australian head-butting the screen of the Unitech Racing YZF-R1 hard enough to actually break it!  He tested here early this month and arrives with fresh motors and a confident approach to the weekend. 

Superbike rookie Broc Pearson was a second slower than he has been during testing here so has the pace to be inside the top ten.  It was a similar story for Lachlan Epis, who was also much slower than he had been in testing.  The BMW Alliance squad discovered a glitch in the electronic settings overnight that when fixed would hopefully put Lachlan back on track this morning and see him move up the pecking order.

Daniel Falzon is not present here today but was P12 on Friday. Daniel is getting married in South Australia today and thus will miss qualifying and have to start from the back of the grid. The plan had been for the entire Falzon family to fly out last night back to Adelaide to prepare for today’s nuptials but those plans were trashed when their Friday night flight got cancelled! There were no available seats on other flights so they all booked the first flight out this morning, making what was going to be a last-minute rush to make the altar into a last-second affair…. Daniel was lucky enough to fly out last night when somebody failed to make their flight, but the rest of the family were stranded in Brisbane until this morning… 

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However, they did make it to the wedding! The next hurdle will be making it back here in time for the race tomorrow as it will be a bit of touch and go and depending on whether their Sunday morning flight out of Adelaide is on time… 

Anthony West is looking much happier with the new bike that has been prepared for him and is looking to make some real progress back towards where he should be in the field. 

Matt Walters was suffering a recurrence of brake problems that had plagued him in similarly hot and humid conditions at Darwin last year. Yesterday he had the full gamut of brake problems, from fade, to locking to complete brake failure, just what you want for your confidence when heading down Queensland Raceway’s fast back straight towards turn three…

There was a pleasant breeze taking the edge off the temperature when riders took to the track for the 35-minute Timed Practice session on schedule at 1045.

Up and down pit-lane though there were a few people letting off some steam at various times as many had missed the memo about the bike having to stay in pit-lane once it had been ridden, and once ridden it was not allowed back under the annex at any time during the session. This was so officials could better keep an eye on proceedings to ensure marked tyres were being used and that teams were operating above board.   When refuelling a team member had to oversee operations with a fire extinguisher in hand. Obviously there can be some resistance to such instuctions when under pressure…

Due to the fact that tyre wear is unlikely to be an issue this weekend, many riders did a lot more laps in Timed Practice than they normally would.  This also showed who was happy with their set-up already, and those that were still chasing balance from their motorcycles.  It was clear who had tested here and who hadn’t.

The Boost Mobile squad had only spent half a day at the circuit prior to this race weekend and it showed. I counted three fork spring changes during the 35-minute session.  Towards the end of the session I spoke to team owner Craig McMartin who said so far they have found a lot that hadn’t worked.  Despite that, Maxwell ended the session in P3, but to do that had put in way more laps than any of the other front runners, 18 in total with his fastest coming on lap 12, a 68.195. Maxwell struggling most in the first sector of the circuit when examining the split times.

Both YRT riders only turned a few laps to register a time and then seemed happy to spend the majority of the session in pit-lane. Jones topping the session with a 67.897 and completed five laps, while Cru went P4 on 68.283 and only completed four laps.  Jones has more time to find in the middle sector but was quickest in the first and third sectors to top the charts.

Bryan Staring and the DesmoSport Ducati squad have also tested here extensively and seem pretty happy with their package. Staring going P2 on the back of a 67.908.

Funnily enough Bryan’s worst sector was also, like fellow Ducati rider Wayne, to the first split, but he was quickest in the middle sector.

Arthur Sissis was fifth quickest in Timed Practice to comfortably earn automatic promotion though to the Q2 session. Like Jones he has time to find in the middle sector, but the South Australian was second quickest in the first sector. Sissis only completed four laps in the session so had fresh rubber for Q2.

Josh Waters was sixth but his Maxima Racing Oils team-mate had a troubled morning. Allerton did an engine early in the session which left the team to swap wheels and various other bits and pieces over to his spare bike in order to get him on track. Allerton did the business though and managed to go P9 and earn his spot in Q2 on the spare bike.

Troy Herfoss was looking a little pensive in pit-lane but still showed reasonable pace with four 68s amongst his eight laps, the best of which was a 68.624 to place him seventh for the session.

Lachlan Epis is doing very well through the first sector but is losing a little time in the latter two-thirds of the track which saw him go P8, but only three-thousandths off Herfoss.

The likes of Jed Metcher, Anthony West, Mark Chiodo, Broc Pearson, Aiden Wagner and Beau Beaton were all heading for Q2.

Alpinestars Superbike Timed Practice Results

Alpinestars Superbike Qualifying

Jed Metcher topped the Q1 session from Aiden Wagner and Mark Chiodo while Anthony West, Beau Beaton and Broc Pearson missed the cut and will start tomorrow from 13th, 14th and 15th on the grid respectively.

Mike Jones was the early pacesetter in Q2 with a string of low 68s to head the field ahead of Bryan Staring and Josh Waters. Glenn Allerton was fourth halfway through the session ahead of Jed Metcher and Wayne Maxwell. It was around this juncture that most riders were in the pits for a rubber change.

Herfoss experienced a brake failure on the Penrite Honda on his out lap and returned immediately to the pits where the crew were all over the bike trying to rectify the problem. The wheels then came out of it and went into the spare bike so Herfoss could get back out late in the session.

With five minutes to run nothing had changed in the rankings before it then became game-on again in the last few minutes.

Bryan Staring the first to declare his hand, a 67.861 to go top of the time-sheets. Not for long though…. Only seconds later Jones put YRT back on top with a 67.763.  Two minutes to go and it was Jones, Staring, Halliday, Maxwell and Josh Waters rounding out the top five.

With less than a minute to run Jones just missed out on improving his time, setting a 67.868 which didn’t quite best his earlier 67.673. Still it is Mike Jones on pole with Bryan Staring and Wayne Maxwell alongside him on the front row. Maxwell still chasing set-up a little in regards to getting comfortable under brakes.

Heading the second row will be Cru Halliday alongside Josh Waters and Arthur Sissis.

Lachlan Epis heads row three alongside Glenn Allerton and Troy Herfoss managed to get back out late in the session to claim P9.

Jed Metcher rounds out the top ten ahead of Mark Chiodo and Aiden Wagner.

Daniel Falzon will start from the back of the grid tomorrow after taking the day off to get married, as long as his flight back into Brisbane from Adelaide doesn’t get delayed tomorrow that is…

The word is that tyre longevity is not going to be too much of a problem here this weekend. Thus there will be no need to hold anything back in the races to preserve their rubber, so it will be maximum attack from when the lights go out all the way to the chequered flag. 

We had also been told to expect that the race pace could be as low as mid 67s, and to not be overly surprised if a rider or two dips into the 66s, if conditions are right. However, it does seem as though the track has gone away from us a little, and is slower in comparison to the conditions that most tested in here, so the times tomorrow will correspond with the weather conditions that present themselves, and they might be slower than what most had expected as we headed into this weekend. 

Speeds through the trap are registering around 275 km/h and are fairly consistent across all brands of machinery. The straights are not long enough to see the bikes really get wound up long enough for the more powerful bikes to gain any real advantage.  

Compliance over the bumps, along with enough wiggle room in the electronics to not have those bumps trigger parameters that then hold the bike back might be key come race day, along with confidence and bravery under brakes, as that is where the passes will be made here during the race.

Alpinestars Superbike Qualifying Results

Michelin Supersport Qualifying

Tommy Edwards found some late speed in the final qualifying session to displace John Lytras from pole position while Olly Simpson rounds out the front row ahead of Jack Hyde and Tom Bramich. A good start will be key in deciding which of that five prevails to make it back onto the podium tomorrow.

Michelin Supersport Qualifying Results

Dunlop Supersport 300 Qualifying

Dunlop Supersport 300 Race One

The opening Supersport 300 race quickly evolved into a three-way contest, the protagonists Glenn Nelson, James Jacobs and Cam Dunker.

Jacobs recorded a 1m22.599 fastest lap of the race early on, a significant half-a-second quicker than his fellow combatants, but they came right back at him and Glenn Nelson went quicker again to move through to the lead just before half race distance, before then Cam Dunker took his turn to lead the race. Henry Snell then joined the party! With that trio cutting each other up that had allowed Snell to close up and join the contest.

Jacobs, Snell, Nelson and Dunker four-wide down the back straight with a lap and a half to go. Then Liam Waters and Taiyo Aksu then joined to turn it into a freight train on to the straight for the second last time, and coming with them was Brodie Gawith, Jonathan Nahlous and Sam Pezzetta.

On the run to the line though the grunt of the larger engined Kawasaki was a telling factor that helped James Jacobs take the win, but it was still a hotly contested and well deserved win.  Everyone held their breath as Dunker and Aksu went either side of Jacobs, but it was Jacobs the victor, Dunker second and Aksu third.

After running with that early leading trio and starting from pole position Glenn Nelson fared the worst in that final lap battle to be relegated to sixth by the flag. Henry Snell finishing fourth ahead of Jonathan Nahlous.

Dunlop Supersport 300 Race One Results

Yamaha Finance R3 Cup Qualifying Results

Yamaha Finance R3 Cup Race One

Yamaha OJC Qualifying

Yamaha OJC Race One

Sidecar Race One Results

Sidecar Race Two Results

ASBK 2022 Round Two – QLD Raceway Schedule

2022 ASBK Calendar