ASBK 2024
Round Two – Sydney Motorsport Park
Australian Superbike Race One
Most riders used the brief ten-minute warm-up session on Saturday afternoon to bed down their machines ahead of the 13-lap opening contest. Some, such as Anthony West, used the brief time to evaluate wholesale changes to their package. Westy told us he was having to fight the bike somewhat yesterday, especially with excessive wheelie over the crests, and had pretty much turned the bike upside down overnight with a host of changes. Matt Walters had been struggling with the fine-tuning of the MoTeC electronics set-up he has on the Aprilia; thus, warm-up was also of vital importance to him.
Nothing separated the Ducati triumvirate of Josh Waters, Harrison Voight, and Troy Herfoss in qualifying, but Josh Waters came out on top. He scored the important point for pole position, which also gave him the inside run towards the daunting turn one at Sydney Motorsport Park.
While less than a tenth covered that front row, less than two-tenths covered the entire top five, underlining how close the contest would likely be here tonight. The YRT duo of Cru Halliday and Mike Jones only a breath behind those front row starters on qualifying pace and sure to have a strong race package for the night ahead.
Alongside them on the outside of the second row was Broc Pearson, which made it four Ducati V4R machines in the top six.
Max Stauffer headed the third row, two-tenths behind Pearson, while his even younger Penrite Yamaha team-mate started from the outside of that third row. Sandwiched between those two youngsters was seasoned veteran Glenn Allerton on the GT Racing BMW. A hefty crash on Friday had put the three-time champ on the spare bike and on the back foot.
Young Dunker had put in some decent sustained pace across some of the sessions on the weekend, and his best of 1m29.926s in qualifying was followed on the very next lap by a 1m29.927s. How’s that for consistency…
Heading the fourth row after battling some problems early on Friday was Bryan Staring.
The Sandgroper had Anthony West and Arthur Sissis for company on that fourth row of the grid.
If you tallied how many different motorcycles across how many different categories that triumvirate had raced both here and around the world, that list would be very long and distinguished indeed. Westy alone has a massive 239 Grand Prix race starts under his belt across the 125, 250, 500, Moto2 and MotoGP categories…! Let alone his World Supersport, Superbike and World Endurance starts… Staring also has MotoGP, Moto2, 125, World Supersport and Superbike experience, while Sissis spent a couple of years as a Red Bull Rookie before then also gaining 44 starts in the Moto3 World Championship. Then, if you look at other disciplines, there are the numerous dirt track titles won by Westy, motocross titles won by Staring, and a trio of Speedway Championships won by Sissis as a youngster.
Troy Herfoss’s morning warm-up didn’t go smoothly. The DesmoSport Ducati rider suffered a spill at turn four. Most riders got three or four laps in the ten-minute warm-up session. On top again was Josh Waters, a 1m29.811 topping the session ahead of Mike Jones on 1m30.055 and Cru Halliday on 1m30.446.
Josh Waters went 1-1-1 at Phillip Island last month, and last time out here at SMP, the McMartin Ducati rider also dominated with a perfect score. In the lead-up to this year’s contest at SMP, Waters has done less laps around the circuit than any of the other top Superbike riders. Where most have contested multiple rounds of the St. George Motorcycle Club’s popular Summer Series, Waters only completed the practice sessions at one of those events but did not take to the grid to race. Always a wily character of few words, Waters plays his cards close to his chest; how much of his potential has he shown us so far this weekend?
Cru Halliday has shown absolutely scintillating one-lap pace around here many times and set a new qualifying lap record here last year at 1m28.970. Halliday has plenty of experience racing here under lights when contesting the recent St. George MCC Summer Nights Series. His YRT team-mate, Mike Jones, generally saves his best for race day. Would Jones bring that A-game to SMP tonight?
There was plenty of consternation on the grid for the DesmoSport Ducati boys after Troy Herfoss suffered some issues on the warm-up lap and those problems could not be fixed on the grid despite the best efforts of the crew. The Ducati V4 R pushed off the grid. Herf’s race was over before it had begun.
Josh Waters got a great launch off the line to lead his young team-mate through turn one. A great start for Broc Pearson, shooting up to third place to make it a Ducati 1-2-3. Max Stauffer also showing great early pace to move up to fourth before both Mike Jones and Cru Halliday sorted out what they thought was the pecking order, relegating Max to sixth.
Cru Halliday moved up to fourth after Mike Jones ran wide early on lap two. Up front it was still Waters, Voight and Pearson. The YRT duo were still right there though as that top five were covered by a second. Pearson was looking fiercely determined and willing to get his elbows out as he chased the McMartin Racing duo.
Pearson then ran wide early on lap three, opening the door for Halliday. The YRT man needed no second invite. Little separated the top six after those first couple of laps, but Matt Walters then crashed at turn one, which interrupted proceedings. The stricken Aprilia was in a precarious and very fast part of the circuit which saw officials brought out the red flag. Matt Walters was taken to hospital for precautionary scans.
Riders came back around to the grid, and team personnel frantically rushed to get warmers on the tyres. If they heat cycled, performance would reduce dramatically. Riders were informed that they had a shortened ten-lap distance in front of them when the lights went out again.
Josh Waters got a perfect launch this time around to lead his McMartin Racing team-mate through the opening turns as the YRT men gave chase.
Max Stauffer fifth, Broc Pearson sixth, Cam Dunker seventh, Glenn Allerton eighth, Bryan Staring ninth and Anthony West tenth.
Waters was looking smooth out front while his young team-mate looked a little ragged at the rear. The entire top four put down 1m29.5s on the first flying lap, in fact Halliday was the fastest of the quartet with a 1m29.453. The only other riders in the 29s Broc Pearson in sixth and young Cam Dunker, who used that speed to push his Penrite Yamaha team-mate back to seventh.
The leading four then started to break away a little. Less than a second covered that quartet, but they had now broken away from Pearson, who was now being challenged for fifth position by 16-year-old Cam Dunker. A couple of lengths further back Bryan Staring was challenging Max Stauffer for seventh place.
Cru Halliday made his move on Voight for second place with four laps to run with a move up the inside on the change of direction for turn five. Does the YRT man have the pace to run down Waters…? Three laps to run and the gap was just under eight-tenths. Bryan Staring had taken seventh place from Max Stauffer and was now hunting down Cam Dunker and Broc Pearson.
Mike Jones looked out of podium contention with two laps to go, that was unless the riders in front of him made a mistake or tripped each other up. At the front little separated Waters, Halliday and Voight. Halliday then through to the lead halfway around the penultimate lap, got a brilliant run around the final turns to then maintain that lead down the chute, the Ducati men didn’t have an answer….  Halliday continued to inch away from the McMartin Ducati duo over the course of the final lap, not only that his YRT team-mate was now closing on Voight and Waters….
Cru Halliday went on to take a relatively comfortable win thanks to that sensational late race pace. Josh Waters took the flag just over half-a-second after Halliday, but a couple of bike lengths in front of Voight.
Mike Jones couldn’t quite get in a position to challenge the Ducati men on that final lap but was only three bike lengths behind at the flag. If it was a few laps longer the story might have been different, and that was a shortened race…
1. Cru Halliday
2. Josh Waters +0.526s
3. Harrison Voight +0.797s
Cam Dunker a sensational fifth place ahead of Broc Pearson and Bryan Staring. Nothing separated that trio across the final lap, but Dunker held his composure to get the drive he needed off the final turn to score that fifth-place finish.
Superbike Race One Results
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Cru HALLIDAY | Yamaha | 15m03.371 |
| 2 | Josh WATERS | Ducati | +0.526 |
| 3 | Harrison VOIGHT | Ducati | +0.797 |
| 4 | MIke JONES | Yamaha | +1.082 |
| 5 | Cameron DUNKER | Yamaha | +7.649 |
| 6 | Broc PEARSON | Ducati | +7.737 |
| 7 | Bryan STARING | Yamaha | +8.004 |
| 8 | Anthony WEST | Yamaha | +11.577 |
| 9 | Max STAUFFER | Yamaha | +11.982 |
| 10 | Glenn ALLERTON | BMW | +17.563 |
| 11 | Arthur SISSIS | Yamaha | +28.922 |
| 12 | Paris HARDWICK | Kawasaki | +31.947 |
| 13 | John LYTRAS | Yamaha | +34.379 |
| 14 | Josh SODERLAND | Yamaha | +34.458 |
| 15 | Ty LYNCH | Yamaha | +39.617 |
| 16 | Ryan YANKO | Ducati | +51.968 |
| 17 | Declan CARBERRY | BMW | +58.112 |
| 18 | Michael EDWARDS | Yamaha | +1:01.401 |
| 19 | Michael KEMP | Yamaha | +1m12.024 |
| 20 | Tim LARGE | Yamaha | +1m12.902 |
| 21 | Paul LINKENBAGH | Yamaha | +1m28.379 |
| DNF | Leanne NELSON | Yamaha | +52.997 |
ASBK Superbike Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Josh Waters | 84.5 |
| 2 | Cru Halliday | 67 |
| 3 | Harrison Voight | 66 |
| 4 | Broc Pearson | 51.5 |
| 5 | Anthony West | 51.5 |
| 6 | Mike Jones | 49.5 |
| 7 | Cam Dunker | 48.5 |
| 8 | Troy Herfoss | 47 |
| 9 | Bryan Staring | 43 |
| 10 | Max Stauffer | 42 |
2024 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar
Round 1: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC Feb 23-25- Round 2: Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW Mar 22-23
- Round 3: Queensland Raceway, QLD Apr 26-28
- Round 4: Morgan Park Raceway, QLD Jul 12-14
- Round 5: Phillip Island GP Circuit, VIC Sept 7-8
- Round 6: One Raceway, NSW Oct 4-6
- Round 7: The Bend Motorsports Park, SA Nov 8-10
