Troy Herfoss tops morning sessions at Mallala Motorsports Park
Swann Australasian FX Superbike Championship 2015 – Round Two
Troy Herfoss topped the morning sessions at Mallala Motorsports Park on a dry but dirty and slippery track. The track had cleaned up from the opening morning practice session, with times correspondingly dropping by a couple of seconds as a result.Â
At the close of the FP2 session, on the last of his nine laps, it was Herfoss on top with a 66.825 from the Team Honda Racing Fireblade SP. The Goulburn based series leader slipped off at turn three as the session drew to a close. While trying a different method of entry to the tricky left-hander at the end of the pit straight, Herfoss’ front Dunlop skimmed across the banding over a crack in the track surface, resulting in a low-side that the 28-year-old walked away from unscathed. The Fireblade SP not quite so unscathed as it tumbled to an unceremonious stop in the undergrowth.
The resulting damage forced Herfoss to miss the third practice session today as Team Honda Racing repaired his Fireblade SP. Despite missing out on that third practice session Herfoss remains the fastest rider so far today.
Wayne Maxwell was the second quickest rider this morning, the Sydney born, but Melbourne residing, defending champion punted the Yamaha Racing YZF-R1M around the 2.6km Mallala Motorsports Park in 67.312 seconds on the ninth of his 11-lap FP2 stint. Half-a-second slower than series leader Herfoss. Â
In the first of the afternoon practice sessions Maxwell dropped another two-tenths off his time and got down to a 67.196 to top FP3. That time still not good enough to eclipse Herfoss on combined times however as the Honda man’s 66.825 remaind the benchmark for the day.
Glenn Allerton finished FP2 in third place with a 67.370, only 0.058 behind Maxwell, and 0.039 ahead of Jamie Stauffer. Those second-to-fourth placed riders covered by less than a tenth-of-a-second. Â In FP3 Allerton failed to go any quicker but his 67.396 still good enough for second in that session, but Allerton remaind third overall on combined time.
Jamie Stauffer was one of many riders who failed to improve in FP3, the 2015 FX-ASC runner-up putting in a 67.689 in FP3, which failed to better his 67.409 in FP2.
Cru Halliday was fifth quickest in FP2 with a 67.890 on the fifth of his nine laps while top Kawasaki honours went to Sean Condon (68.109) ahead of fellow Kawasaki men Mike Jones (68.603), Matt Walters (68.616) and Ben Burke (68.688).Â
Linden Magee (Honda) rounded out the top ten in FP2 ahead of top local rider Evan Byles (Kawasaki) while Matt Harding rounded out the 12-rider all A-Grade Superbike field.
Linden Magee went eight-tenths of a second in FP3 to move past all the Kawasaki men and promote himself into sixth place on combined time. The Kawaski men also all improved apart from Seaon Condon, however Condon’s FP2 times was still good enough to head the Kawasaki horde while Ben Burke moved up to seventh place after making good steps forward in the FP3 session.
There is clearly a lot more speed to come from the Superbike riders as the track further cleans up before their final FP4 practice session this afternoon before they head into the one and only 18-minute qualifying session late today.
The Superbike catgory will have three races tomorrow, and three races on Sunday in what is an action packed Saturday-Sunday programme that sees a total of 34-races run across the two-days. Support classes include Supersport, Formula Oz, Pro Twins, Nakedbikes, Ninja 300 Cup and the eFXC electric bike class.
