Cru Halliday race one victor at Winton as ASBK Title chase goes down to the wire
Troy Herfoss got away cleanly ahead of Josh Waters while Jamie Stauffer, Cru Halliday, Daniel Falzon and Glenn Allerton tussled over third position throughout the opening lap.Â
On the second lap championship leader Wayne Maxwell moved up to eighth place ahead of Mike Jones.
Cru Halliday then took third place from Jamie Stauffer while Daniel Falzon tumbled out of contention. Beau Beaton had also gone off a little earlier.
Three laps into the race and Herfoss could still not shake Josh Waters, the Mildura rider right in the mix for the win. Halliday had his head down after claiming third place, and put in a 1m21.844 fastest lap of the race on lap four to start closing in on Waters and Herfoss.
Wayne Maxwell had moved further through the field to sixth place, while Allerton had drifted back to seventh place and was tussling with Mike Jones for that position with 12 laps to run.
Herfoss upped his pace with 11 laps to run to start pulling away from Waters, who was starting to fend off the advances of a charging Halliday.
As the race broached the halfway mark Herfoss had not managed to completely shake Waters, the gap ebbing and flowing between half-a-second and a second, as Halliday tried to get on equal terms with Waters in order to claim second place.
Jamie Stauffer was running in fourth place with a clear buffer over fifth placed Brayden Elliott, the Tumut rider putting in a good performance on the Knobby Underwear Suzuki. Importantly that pair was ahead of title contenders Wayne Maxwell and Glenn Allerton.
That Yamaha pair all too aware how vital that extra point would be if they could get past Elliott. Â Maxwell was all over Brayden, piling the pressure on to try and steal that fifth position. Maxwell finally made a pass stick on lap 11.
Cru Halliday squeezed past Waters with six laps to run, and quickly started reeling in race leader Troy Herfoss. If Halliday could put his YRT YZF-R1 ahead of Herfoss he would be a hero in the Yamaha pit garage after this race, that five points potentially won from Herfoss, could likely decide who is crowned 2016 ASBK Champion later this afternoon…
Halliday pulled alongside Herfoss with five laps to run, the Honda man now had to respond… Throwing another spanner in the works was that the leaders had also now started to encounter lapped traffic… Nail biting stuff..
Halliday took the lead with four laps to run, the pair almost touching as they tussled for position. That tussle allowed Josh Waters to reel that leading duo right back in, all of a sudden Waters was back in the game for the race win, and all over Herfoss. Further back Wayne Maxwell had got past Stauffer to claim fourth position, and more championship points…
With two laps to run Halliday enjoyed a full-second lead over Herfoss, who in turn had managed to edge away from Waters. Â Herfoss will be frustrated that Halliday looked set to get one over him here today, and that the Camden rider might essentially play a hand in deciding this championship.
Halliday went on to do exactly that, Cru Halliday the race one victor here at Winton. With that victory he prevented Herfoss from taking the championship lead from Wayne Maxwell. Herfoss was gracious in defeat though and shook Halliday’s hand on the cool down lap, a nice gesture considering what Halliday had just cost him.
Josh Waters rounded out the podium ahead of Wayne Maxwell on the Mildura riders successful return to the ASBK ranks.
The championship has closed right up now as Herfoss claws those few points back on Maxwell, the difference between the two men now down to only three points… Â
Glenn Allerton still in the mix, but that eighth place result does make the job harder for him this afternoon. 218 points to Allerton, 230 for Herfoss and Maxwell still the championship leader with a tally of 233. Â Cru Halliday’s win catapulted him up the points ladder and is now in a strong position to claim fourth overall from Mike Jones, only two-points separate them.Â
ASBK Winton Race One Results
- Cru Halliday
- Troy Herfoss 1.42
- Josh Waters 3.88
- Wayne Maxwell 4.57
- Jamie Stauffer 12.96
- Brayden Elliott 15.67
- Mike Jones 17.31
- Glenn Allerton 21.88
- Sloan Frost 52.56
- Ryan Hampton 71.28
- Adam Senior 75.88
- Peter Berry +1 lap
- Brendan Schmidt +1 lap
- Nathan Spiteri +1 lap
ASBKÂ Championship Points Standings after Race One
- Wayne Maxwell 233
- Troy Herfoss 230
- Glenn Allerton 218
- Mike Jones 151
- Cru Halliday 149
- Daniel Falzon 137
- Brayden Elliott 135
- Jamie Stauffer 131
- Ben Burke 114
- Sloan Frost 110
