Troy Herfoss Interview
Ride Rage Radio talk to Troy Herfoss
RRR: Troy, congratulations first of all on your first round victory for the year and essentially third place in the championship, it’s been a fantastic year for you and I think what you did on Sunday apart from a tick on that one box that you were really looking to do was prove to team Honda that they made the right decision when they put you on full time after the first round, where you filled in for Josh Hook who was out injured.
Troy: “Yeah, thanks Phil, I ticked that box for the win like we talked about, I think last time I was just wanting to get that overall win and yeah, it did feel good, it was sort of a bit of a surprise, because there were so many guys fighting up front, going into the final race.
“You know you don’t usually go two-three and then have a good chance of winning overall if you’re not winning the last race. So when I crossed the line in the last race I didn’t realise that I had enough points for the overall, but yeah, it’s all sunk in now and I’m extremely happy, considering it was one of the toughest rounds of the year and with so many guys going at such a hot pace, to come out top and finishing the year so strong, I couldn’t be happier.”
RRR: All of the four guys in Team Honda Racing won races throughout the year, I think you’ve all won at least one round each as well and they say that the first person you’ve got to beat is always your teammate, that’s a pretty hard task when you’ve actually got three of the best riders in Australia competing against you and then you throw in the likes of Glenn Allerton and Mad Mike Jones and all of those other guys and everything as well. It was certainly one of those years where going into a race there were a lot of people that could have won each race, that have come out with a round victory and even race wins over the year, is a pretty big ask.
Troy: “Yeah, that’s right. I mean this year, I’ve never been in a team so competitive. Really, all four of us, there’s a real, honest chance that anyone of us could win a race and any race, no matter where we qualify, we’re always fast enough to win and it made it that much more exciting.
“I mean you’ve got Jamie, who’s just rock solid and who can put out a blistering lap, Hooky is capable of who knows what at the moment ,and then Wayne who in the last few years has just really cemented himself as the championship favourite, so it’s been exciting, and it’s made it a lot better getting them wins and doing it in such a competitive team.
“And the best part about it is we all genuinely get along really well, we have a joke about it all weekend and we race really hard and no one’s done anything silly, and we’ve all raced hard the whole year, it’s been great.
RRR: The other thing that’s probably up for grabs too was the Team Honda Racing piss taking champion, because that’s what you guys all seem to do the entire time I’ve seen you, you are all hanging in on each other and ribbing each other and essentially I suppose that’s what drove each other on, because you all wanted to beat each other but then so you could give it to them back in the pits when you got back after each session.
Troy: “Yeah, that’s right. If it all goes bad or something, they decide to pick on me, I handball it on to Hooky no worries; Jamie and Hooky wind each other up, they’re kind of like big brother, little brother. But yeah, we all get involved and have a laugh and are always one-upping each other all weekend really, on and off the track.”
RRR: But how important was it for you to put on a great performance at that first round that we spoke about down at your home circuit at Wakefield Park and then get the invite I suppose you could say to join Team Honda for the rest of the year and I guess probably the other big thing is to have your good mate and Goulburn local Jason Kain beside yourself for a majority of this season would have also given you a lot of satisfaction as well.
Troy: “Yeah, it did. At that first round at Wakefield, I went out and practiced three weeks, four weeks before that. I had done three days on a friend’s bike, Damien Murphy his name is, he’s an ex-racer, I rang him up and I knew, well actually Kainy said to me, ‘You know, Damien has probably got a lot of spare parts for you, maybe you should call him and you might have some spare parts I could use on my personal bike.’ And I called him and he said, ‘I’ve got a bike here and you can take it and practice, use it as a spare bike if you’d like.’ And if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have even got any practice before the first round.
“We went out to Wakefield and he was there with me, Damien and Kainy, and I went out and came in and I said to him, ‘What lap time?’ and I said to him, ‘1m06s,‘ just thinking that’s what it felt like. And Kainy said, ‘One minute eight.’ And I said, ‘Oh, no. it just felt so fast going round the track for the first time in 18 months.’
“So yeah, we had our work cut out for us really, but once you got down to the race weekend and with the team and on such a fantastic bike like the Fireblade SP, it was just like all the memories come back straight away, it’s only been 18 months, but the feelings come straight back and then I got out there and sort of struggled through the first day, I qualified about 15th or something for Saturday, and then on the last lap of the last race I got that pole position and lap record, I come through the pits and I didn’t have a pit board or nothing, I couldn’t believe it. And yeah, that just got the ball rolling, got the feeling back and just got me really motivated to start getting some good results.”
RRR: I think there’s a couple of things that probably went in your favour. One, the fact that yeah, you were off a motorcycle for 18 months, but you’ve obviously displayed a hell of a lot of talent in the past winning that AMA Supermoto Championship and Australian Supersport Championship. But the fact also too that you’ve maintained an extremely high level of fitness in those 18 months that you’ve been off the bike, I know you do a lot of cycling but you do a lot of other exercise and everything as well to keep yourself fit and I guess if you’re going to race at that level and as it was proven on the weekend, if you’re not fit, you’re not going to be able to deal with the conditions that we saw this year, with Winton, was it minus-13 overnight, to Sydney Motorsport Park pushing 40 degrees on two of the three days.
Troy: “Yeah, that’s right. If you think about it, you put all this time into making your bike, get every last horsepower out of it, you go to the final click of compression and preload and damping, to make the bike work its best, you’ve got the tyre pressures right. Why would you go out there and have your body not in shape?
“Especially when you’re riding for a team like Honda, they invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into racing, and it’s just fair that we go out there and be in tip-top shape. And it’s come easy for me, I enjoy the exercise side of it. Like people say, if you enjoy your job, it makes it a lot easier. So for me, it’s easy to be fit, because it’s the environment I am in, I mean my friends are all cyclists and it just becomes easy.
“So yeah, times like Eastern Creek, that was really hard work. Like after the second race and then the third race especially, when I just I tried my best to run down Hooky, him and I were both digging for them last tenths and if you’re not fit in that weather you just can’t go at that speed all the way to the finish, so yeah, it makes it even better to cross the line and get that win knowing that it was in such tough conditions.”
RRR: So what’s in store for the off season now, Troy? You’ve got a couple of months before I suppose testing and that would start again for next year? How do you keep fit, apart from cycling? I know you don’t mind a little bit of mountain bike riding and that as well, but what else do you do to keep fit over that off season?
Troy: “Yeah, I do a bit of cycling and mountain biking, cycling racing. I’m heading off to the Moto Expo this weekend to do one of Troy Bayliss’s dirt track events and also do the Troy Bayliss Classic. I’ve finished second two years in a row now and I’ve done it both years sort of a bit half-hearted, so my friends Matt Drane and Dave Norris have got a rocket together for me, we’re going to do a bit of practice this year and try to rain on Troy’s parade a bit.”
RRR: You can’t let him win again, can you?
Troy: “It would be good to beat him. It’s a credit to Troy, he puts on an event and he puts himself out there to be beaten, but by God he gives himself some good preparation, so he makes sure if you do beat him, you’ve beaten him at his best, because he’s riding real well at the moment and he’s doing great things for dirt track.”
RRR: I think you made an important point there, though, Troy, in the last two years at the Troy Bayliss Classic, the first two years, you’ve actually finished second, but the two different guys, Mick Kirkness the first year and Troy Bayliss himself the second year, I think it’s only fitting that you win it this year.
Troy: “Yeah, I’d love to win it. I grew up racing dirt track and it is a big passion of mine and I don’t get out to do it much, probably more from my laziness, really, you get caught up doing other things. But yeah, that event definitely is enjoyable and it’s good to get out there and compete against past and present professional motorcycle racers.”
RRR: Yeah and I just hope it’s not as hot as it was this year, Troy, because you don’t want another weekend like last weekend. Even up at the Troy Bayliss Classic, it was ridiculously hot as well.  Troy, congratulations on the round win on the weekend, I know how much it meant to you and glad to see you tick that box and finish the season on a great high and also that top three in the championship, a great year for you and Team Honda Racing, well done!
Troy: “Yeah, thanks, it was a really good year and credit to Team Honda for the effort they’ve put in and hopefully next year brings us some more luck and some close battles.”
RRR: Thanks, mate, we’ll catch up with you soon!
Troy: “Thanks, guys!”
