Cru Halliday makes it an AFX-SBK Saturday double at SMP
AFX-SBK 2015 – Round Three – Sydney Motorsports Park – Saturday Superbike Race Two Report
By Trevor Hedge
The start of the second 14-lap AFX-SBK encounter at Sydney Motorsports Park this afternoon saw both Wayne Maxwell and Jamie Stauffer judged to have jumped the gun, but neither took any benefit from that infraction as race one winner Cru Halliday led the tightly packed field through turn one as fast starter Matt Walters gave chase while fending off Troy Herfoss, Jamie Stauffer, Wayne Maxwell and Glenn Allerton.
Herfoss moved past Walters before then taking the lead from Halliday at turn nine. Jamie Stauffer then moved past Walters to move up to third place.
As they started lap three, Herfoss still led from Halliday and Stauffer, the Goulburn based Honda rider actually started to stretch away from his pursuers and it started to look as though he might run away with it.
His pursuers had other ideas, however, and it was Matt Walters who put in a determined effort to reel Herfoss in and pass him for the lead on lap four. Stauffer then took second place from Herfoss and top eight were now virtually nose to tail once again.
Matt Walters ran a little wide at turn five, and was duly sandwiched between two Team Honda Racing CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machines as they sought to take advantage. Jamie Stauffer came out the other side as the top slice, and Walters the filling. The battles close behind were also starting to hot up with Glenn Allerton taking fourth from Wayne Maxwell.
Down the chute however Walters looked as though he had a supercharged H2R underneath him rather than a ZX-10R, such was the way he sucked the paint off the fairings as he blew past the Honda men to take the lead once again.
Walters’ reign at the front of the field was short lived, presumably his tyres shot from that early rush of speed. From there on in the Cessnock 22-year-old slowly drifted back through the field, eventually crossing the line in ninth, but credited with a seventh place finish after the 15-second jump start penalties were applied to Jamie Stauffer and Wayne Maxwell.
Jamie Stauffer had suffered with arm pump during race one after he taped his hands up in a different way, which affected his circulation. With no such problems this time around Jamie could show his true speed. Behind the Honda men the Yamaha battle was hotting up as both Wayne Maxwell and Glenn Allerton pushed past Matt Walters in quick fashion. Cru followed through shortly thereafter and it was time for the Yamaha triumvirate to try and chase down the Team Honda duo.
Glenn Allerton looked the hungriest of the Yamaha riders and was the first to get past Herfoss and set his sights on Stauffer. Wayne Maxwell and Cru Halliday then also squeezed past Herfoss on the straight. Coming from behind was Sean Condon, the Bikebiz Kawasaki rider had closed right up on the leading group and with five laps to run nothing really separated the top six. The order was Stauffer, Allerton, Maxwell, Halliday, Condon and Herfoss.
Wayne Maxwell ran wide at turn four with three laps to go, costing him his chance to challenge for the race win, on the track at least. Maxwell suspected he had a jump start penalty anyway, thus was not going to take any undue risk for no gain.
As they started the last lap the gap between the leading protagonists was the largest it had been all race. Jamie Stauffer leading from Glenn Allerton, Cru Halliday and Troy Herfoss.
Jamie won the race by half-a-second, as Cru Halliday got Glenn Allerton on the line for second. Once the penalties were applied however Cru Halliday was credited with the race win, Allerton second and Herfoss third. Stauffer was relegated to 8th and Maxwell 9th once 15-seconds were added to their race time. This promoted Condon in to fourth, ahead of Mike Jones, Ben Burke and Matt Walters.
The Saturday overall round win went to double victor Cru Halliday. Glenn Allerton and Troy Herfoss tied on 40-points apiece. Allerton credited with second due to finishing higher in the second bout. That order also decides the grid for tomorrow’s two Swann Australasian FX Superbike Championship 14-lap bouts. Wayne Maxwell rounds out the front row for tomorrow thanks to his 34-point haul for the round.
While Troy Herfoss was perhaps a little frustrated with his results today, the Goulburn based 28-year-old can be content with the fact that he extended his lead in the Saturday AFX-SBK series. Herfoss came into this round with a narrow two-point lead over Maxwell, but thanks to that start line mistake by the defending champion, Herfoss now enjoys an 8-point advantage over Maxwell, 145 points versus 137. Cru Halliday moves up to third place on 126 and Glenn Allerton into fourth on 121 points. Full results, round and series points, and the grid sheets for tomorrow’s races can be found further down this page.
Jamie Stauffer – Honda – 1st on the track but relegated to eighth by a 15 second jump start penalty – “I saw Wayne move in the corner of my vision and that was what tripped me up there. I start with my front brake on and the clutch loaded, and I just twitched my clutch hand a fraction, I wasn’t sure if the bike moved or it just loaded up more, but it is what it is and we got a jump start penalty. That’s the first one I have ever jumped, so that’s out of the way, won’t do that again. We went a lot better there and had a good race, I didn’t know I had a jump start penalty during the race as I couldn’t really tell from the boards, they are all so close together here. It’s a bit of a shame we couldn’t take that win as it would have given us a better start position for tomorrow, but we’ve ended up on the second row and we’ll just have to make the best of it from there.”
Cru Halliday – Yamaha – 2nd on track – Race winner after penalties applied – “I got swamped at the start, I struggled a little bit with the early pace, which is a bit ordinary for me as I normally go well off the start as everyone knows I do go better on new tyres. But we do have two pretty much fresh ones for tomorrow, the qualifier has only done a couple of laps. The bike was great, the team have done unreal. I knew I had to stay in front of Maxwell for the pole, and also keep an eye on Troy, they started attacking me from behind and I thought if I am not careful here I will end up third or fourth on the grid for tomorrow as it is all just so close, I actually got nudged by Condon in one of the corners there, then Maxwell went deep on me into turn 11, there is just so much going on, it’s just unreal racing and awesome fun out there. I didn’t expect it to finish that tight.”
Trev – How did you get that run on Glenn to the line there, he looked to get on to the chute alright but then you were able to power past on the final run to the line?
Cru – “I don’t even know the answer to that one myself. I saw him go in a little tight, which is a little defensive, while I went in a little later, saying that I took a bit of a risk as anyone close enough could have shoved it up the inside of me there, but I just squared it off and stood the bike up and got on the gas and hoped the thing would grab, it was 50-50 really. Glenn got pretty good drive then I pulled out of the slipstream a little early, I was looking across at Glenn, he was looking at me, I didn’t even know who won really but glad I got the double and that’s a great confidence boost heading into tomorrow.”
Glenn Allerton – Yamaha – 3rd on track but 2nd after penalties applied – “I didn’t know I was racing for the win then actually, I didn’t know who was behind me, there was so many of them! That was a great race, seven or eight of us that could have won the race. We ran a different set-up for that one, and it was a lot better. I am still struggling a little out of turn 12, so we need to work on that overnight as I feel if we can get that sorted then I should be on for the wins for sure. It’s encouraging, obviously tomorrow is the big day and we have to keep our focus on that. The bike is getting better and better, the team is doing a great job, we had reevaluated the bike after the first race and they came up with a different setting for the rear shock, trying to find some more edge grip driving off the third gear turns around the back, that is what we were focusing on and it definitely worked better. We still have a few little dramas there, but we just made a step in the right direction.”
Troy Herfoss – Honda – 5th on track but 3rd after penalties applied – “Today has been a hard day but a real good day. Wayne has made a few unforced errors, and I’ve been looking for that out of Wayne for a while, he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, but he made a few blunders there. I’ve ironed a few things out and improved that last sector. I’m really excited about tomorrow, the bike is getting a little bit better and a little bit better, we all know this track is hard for me, and if I can be this close here then when we go to Winton, Wakefield and Queensland then I am really excited on what we can do there.”
Trev – Looking at you and Cru here in parc ferme, your both total athletes in peak physical condition, just animals on bicycles etc. But looking at you two now, the sweat is just running off you guys, it’s not even hot, and you’ve got rivers of perspiration going on. Just how hard is it out there?
Troy Herfoss – “I can only speak for myself but I am on my limit there for the whole race, there is not one corner where I take a deep breath or anywhere to relax. You know these races aren’t the longest races in the world, but you ride the race with the intensity matched to the time of the challenge ahead. For a longer race you might just have to peg it back a couple of per cent, but these distances, around 20-minutes, you can go almost 100 per cent the whole time, therefore the fatigue level and how tired you get comes out the same, as your constant intensity is much higher than if it was a longer race. Like I say, I can only speak for myself, but I put everything I have got into that, and it’s hard work.”
Wayne Maxwell – 4th on track but 9th after penalties applied – “I had a fair idea I had jumped the start there. I was in behind Troy and I could see I was gaining on him so I just rolled the throttle back a little as I was happy to just sit there for a while but then he lost a couple of places and Cru came by and I was being held up everywhere, they rode an awesome race, the last lap, or second last lap was my fastest, so that’s a really good sign that we have the speed and roll on tomorrow.”
