Herfoss wins opening Superbike bout as Mike Jones crowned champion

ASBK 2022

The Bend finale – Superbike Race One

Daniel Falzon’s weekend had not got any better this morning as he crashed at turn six during morning warm-up.  That ten-minute warm-up session saw his fellow South Australian Arthur Sissis top the time-sheets ahead of Wayne Maxwell and Mike Jones.

Qualifying yesterday had been a bit of a disaster for all Ducati riders apart from Jack Miller. Both DesmoSport Ducati riders had problems and failed to fire on track, Bryan Staring will start from 13th today and Broc Pearson from 16th.  Defending champ Wayne Maxwell will start from the outside of the fourth row after going much slower in qualifying than he had in any practice session, which clearly indicated that the Boost Mobile Ducati was distinctly not on boost yesterday afternoon.  It was firing this morning in warm-up though with Wayne putting in a 1m51.539 in a ten-minute warm-up session that saw almost the entire field use every second in order to maximise their time on track.

Herfoss also has more speed in the bag than he showed in qualifying, a small change on the bike in the bars felt unfamiliar and that stunted his effort at a quick lap.  Clearly, those aforementioned four have far superior pace than what they showed during qualifying, and today is a new day…

Glenn Allerton is feeling pretty strong in fourth and Arthur Sissis will certainly be a podium contender from fifth on the grid.

Then there is of course Josh Waters…  An improving Billy McConnell might be a danger and Marcel Schroetter is sure to work himself further up the order once the lights go out.

Starting from pole is Mike Jones and alongside him on the front row is Jack Miller and Glenn Allerton. Miller has not yet managed a decent start on the V4 R and will be hopeful of turning that around here today, less he be swallowed up by half the field heading towards turn one…

The tension on the grid was palpable. Mike Jones can wrap the championship up in this one, and only total disaster could prevent him becoming champion today.

Despite the race distance here today being shorter than in previous years, with the riders only contesting 11 laps rather than 16, tyre longevity will play a huge part in how this race takes shape. Go hard from the start, or play the long game…?  Some riders didn’t even ride the out lap to the grid in order to save even a slow lap on the tyres. Even on the warm-up lap it is a gamble, do enough to get them just warm enough, but don’t push them too hard and start to tear them up.

The lights go out!

Jack Miller hopped and graunched off the line but was fifth into turn one ahead of Wayne Maxwell while Arthur Sissis got the early lead from Glenn Allerton and Mike Jones, Josh Waters fifth.

Miller up the inside of Waters late on lap one to move up to fourth place.  Sissis retained the lead throughout the entire opening lap. Mike Jones tried to take second place off Allerton into turn one on lap two, but that opened the door for Jack Miller and the MotoGP man walked straight through to move up to third.

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Red flag!

Billy McConnell and Bryan Staring both down at turn one…  The disastrous weekend for DesmoSport Ducati continues…  McConnell deemed at fault in the incident which means Staring would be allowed to re-start the race.

Riders came back around to form up on the grid. Who would have meted a little too much abuse on their clutch in the first start and might suffer from that at the re-start…?

There was some delay while the stricken motorcycles were recovered which saw team members putting tyre-warmers back on the bikes while they were on the grid.

Would the race distance now be reduced?

Or would we run the full scheduled 11 laps? 

The tyre question becomes even more hazardous…  And for some, even fuel range… We might see the Ducati riders do a very slow warm-up lap ahead of the re-start.

The answer came a couple of minutes before the re-start, we would have a warm-up lap and then race over a reduced ten-lap distance.

You could cut the tension with a knife… Even I had to head for a nervous pee before the action got underway again…

Bryan Staring completed the warm-up lap from the grid but then pulled into the pits for some repairs and started from pit-lane. He eventually retired though.

A perfect start for Glenn Allerton but that man Arthur Sissis again takes the advantage into turn one.  Troy Herfoss slotted the Penrite Honda, Mike Jones fourth and Jack Miller was fifth but then halfway through the opening lap he slowed and pulled off the race line with some sort of driveline problem.

Wayne Maxwell had started from the outside of the fourth row but was up to seventh place by lap two.

At the front Sissis continued to lead from Allerton, Herfoss third and Jones fourth ahead of Josh Waters and Cru Halliday.

Herfoss pitched the Penrite Honda up the inside of Allerton with just over eight laps to go to claimed second place but three laps in Sissis had still not been headed and was looking in command.

Wayne Maxwell then took fifth place from Mike Jones but little separated a leading group of seven.

Maxwell then went up the inside of Allerton, his tyres teetering at both ends in order to make the move, the defending champ up to fourth…. A few turns later he then moved up to third place after passing Boost Mobile Ducati team-mate Josh Waters as the race reached the halfway mark.

Herfoss had reduced Sissis’ lead to two-tenths, and Maxwell was more than half-a-second further behind. But not for long…

Maxwell closed in fast on Herfoss and Sissis. Took Herfoss for second place with apparent ease next target Sissis.

Maxwell then took the lead from Sissis at turn three, Herfoss then followed him through, then Allerton added further insult to the South Australian as he relegated Sissis to fourth.

Once at the front Maxwell started to stretch away from Herfoss. Allerton was looking good in third place while Arthur Sissis was coming under attack from Josh Waters.

Herfoss came back at Maxwell though. With three to go Herfoss and Allerton were all over the back of Maxwell.

Troy Herfoss through to the lead with two laps to run.  And then started to pull away…

At the last lap board Herfoss had more than half-a-second on Maxwell who still had Glenn Allerton for close company, and Josh Waters rejoined that party on the final lap…

Troy Herfoss takes a great victory to end this difficult, and what had been at times very frustrating season, on a high that put his potential and speed on display for all to see.

Also a great result for Glenn Allerton crossing the line just behind Wayne Maxwell to take the final step on the rostrum.  Josh Waters fourth and early race leader Arthur Sissis fifth.

Crossing the line in sixth place though was our 2022 mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Champion, take a bow Mike Jones.  This is the third title for Jones, and the first championship win for Yamaha since Jamie Stauffer won in 2007. That is a long time between drinks for the bLU cRU.

It could be, and has been, said that the previous two titles for Jones were tainted. His first coming on a Kawasaki when the ASBK was in a diabolical state and all the top talent were riding in the rival FX series. The second coming on a 1299 cc Ducati which, in my, and plenty of other people’s opinion should never have been legal to race, but this one has no taint to it at all. A brilliant season ending with a very deserving champion.

Mike Jones – 2022 ASBK Champion

“Stuck for words.  Third Australian Superbike Championship, and on a third different manufacturer. A special thanks to Yamaha and to my team of Dylan, Joel, Kev and my partner Chrissy.”

Unfortunately these days the TV camera takes primary focus above everything else in parc fermé so photographers were robbed of the opportunity to capture the instantaneous raw emotion of the event on their faces so these are a little delayed.  Disappointing, but that is how it is.

Anthony West crossed the line in seventh, ten-seconds behind the winner while Cru Halliday drifted back to eighth late in the race but crossed the line ahead of Daniel Falzon.

German wildcard Marcel Schroetter rounded out the top ten ahead of Joel Kelso and Jed Metcher.

After that technical problem in this bout Jack Miller be out for redemption in race two this afternoon.

Superbike Race One Results

Alpinestars Superbike Championship Points

The Bend ASBK Schedule