Maxwell takes pole with fastest ever lap of Winton

Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship 2017
Round Three – Winton Motor Raceway – April 28-30

Saturday ASBK Wrap from Winton – All Classes

Wayne Maxwell takes pole with fastest ever lap of Winton

Troy Herfoss had topped proceedings on Friday, and also led the way in first qualifying this morning, the defending champion was in no rush to take to the circuit when final qualifying got underway at 1548 this afternoon. Neither was the second and third ranked riders from Q1, Josh Waters and Wayne Maxwell, also content to keep their powder dry in pit lane. 

After his crash in first qualifying, Daniel Falzon was keen to make up for lost time and was the first rider to better his Q1 result, only a marginal improvement however, and the South Australian returned to the pits for some tweaks to the JD Racing Yamaha. 

Robbie Bugden improved on his morning time 10-minutes into the 30-minute Q2 session, notching a 1m21.817 on the BCperformance Kawasaki to move past Halliday into seventh place on combined times. 

Josh Waters exited pitlane for the first time this afternoon with 18-minutes remaining in the session. 

Daniel Falzon was back on track and as the session broached the halfway marker got down to serious business, a 1m20.975 promoting him onto the provisional front row, pushing Wayne Maxwell back to the second row. 

Herfoss and Maxwell left pitlane with 15-minutes remaining in the session. Sloan Frost then went down at the final double right-hander but was uninjured.

Falzon then topped the field with a 1m20.652 to take provisional pole only for Herfoss to take that position straight back seconds later, the defending champion recording a 1m20.658. before returning to pitlane. Bryan Staring went down for the second time today after bettering his morning time, a 1m21.049 to the #67 Honda.

Cru Halliday then made a massive improvement to leap on to the provisional front row with a 1m20.934. 

Wayne Maxwell then declared his hand after a visit to pitlane by notching a 1m20.290! The fastest ever motorcycle lap of Winton Motor Raceway!  Maxwell then put in a 1m20.702 a couple of laps later to underline his pace. 

Josh Waters bettered his Q1 marker with four-minutes remaining in the session, a 1m20.881 to the Ecstar Suzuki man. However, it was still not good enough to get him back on the front row, that came a couple of minutes later when Waters went one better with a 1m20.641, pushing Falzon off the front row.

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Herfoss went out in the dying stages of the session, but was not out in time to put down a flying lap, the Crankt Protein Honda man running out of time before the chequered flag to start a final flyer, thus pole position and the vital championship point awarded for that honour goes to Wayne Maxwell. 

Herfoss and Waters join Maxwell on the front row, making it three different brands of motorcycle at the front of the grid. 

Tyre wear has been a concern for all Superbike runners here this weekend. A slightly warmer temperature tomorrow might improve things a little in regards to tyre longevity, but tyre management will be crucial throughout tomorrow’s two 16-lap races.  The first of which is scheduled to get underway at 1110 before the second and final bout kicks off at 1440. 

Wayne Maxwell

“The guys from the Yamaha Racing Team have given me a great package for today. We’ve been hanging around the top three for the majority of the practice sessions. We’ve just been chipping away at getting the one lap pace to where it needed to be. Braking around Winton Motor Raceway is such a critical aspect to get right and our bike excels around the back of the track in that respect. We have a great bike for the long distances but we’ll have to find out what transpires tomorrow. I feel we’re back to the position we were last year in terms of competitiveness, hopefully we can build momentum from now on.”

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Troy Herfoss

“I’m never happy to be second but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, its not over until the final second of qualifying! Hats off to Wayne he’s done a great job and its great to have the old mates up the front. It’s been a nervous weekend tyre wise and no one knows what to do tomorrow but as you’ve just seen the pace on new tyres is very quick. Hopefully we get some great weather for tomorrows racing.”

Josh Waters

“Huge thanks to Team Suzuki ECSTAR, I’m really enjoying the brand new bike. Step by step we are improving the package and improving session by session. We’ve made huge improvement with the balance of the bike in particular. I’m going to try my hardest for a great result. It’s really important to get on the front row as it won’t be easy to pass.”

ASBK Superbike Qualifying Results – Winton – April 29, 2017

1. Maxwell 1m20.290
2. Herfoss 1m20.568
3. Waters 1m20.641
4. Falzon 1m20.652
5. Halliday 1m20.934
6. Staring 1m21.049
7. Phillis 1m21.330
8. Hook 1m21.713
9. Bugden 1m21.817
10. Guenther 1m21.969
11. Spriggs 1m22.086
12. Buckley 1m22.560
13. Turner 1m22.607
14. Blair 1m22.650
15. Levy 1m22.973
16. Frost 1m23.078
17. Walters 1m23.735
18. Senior 1m24.230
19. McIntyre 1m24.528
20. Baker 1m24.546

ASBK 2017 Championship Standings (current as of April 29, 2017)

1. Daniel Falzon 106
2. Troy Herfoss 93
3. Robert Bugden 89
4. Wayne Maxwell 75
5. Bryan Staring 69
6. Beau Beaton 60
7. Josh Waters 58
8. Cru Halliday 48
9. Kyle Buckley 47
10. Michael Blair 44

Supersport Qualifying

Ted Collins continued his domination of the Supersport sessions this weekend by taking pole position at Winton this afternoon, his 1m23.545 on the NextGen Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R600 from Q1 stood throughout Q2, with Collins not even participating in the second qualifying session until there were seven-minutes to go in the 30-minute session. Collins then put in another couple of 1m23s to underline his pace.

Mark Chiodo and Sam Lambert made great strides forward today but it was not enough to topple Collins from the top of the timesheets.

Mason Coote and Nic Liminton both had crashes during the session but were back on the circuit before the session ended.

Coote left the circuit after the session to get some precautionary scans on his right shoulder but expects to be in the thick of it tomorrow. 

The first of the two 13-lap Supersport bouts is scheduled to commence at 1010 Sunday morning, with the second race slated to start at 1400.

Supersport Qualifying Results

1. Collins 1m23.545
2. Chiodo 1m23.901
3. Lambert 1m23.977
4. Quinn 1m24.469
5. Coote 1m24.602
6. Muldoon 1m24.715
7. Liminton 1m24.765
8. Condon 1m24.925
9. Toparis 1m25.044
10. Olivier 1m25.269
11. Rees 1m25.327
12. Scarcella 1m25.467
13. Taylor 1m25.629
14. Pruiti 1m25.813
15. Carlsson 1m26.349
16. Hunt 1m26.404
17. Belling 1m26.420
18. Li 1m24.462
19. Gilding 1m26.555
20. Mitchell 1m26.596
21. Broadbent 1m26.660
22. Hayes 1m27.124
23. Dawes 1m27.486
24. Wilson 1m27.579
25. Rhodes 1m28.306
26. Quinn 1m28.533

ASBK 2017 Motul Supersport Championship Standings (current as of April 28, 2017)

1. Ted Collins 87
2. Mason Coote 85
3. Sam Condon 70.5
4. Jordan Carlsson 66.5
5. Tom Toparis 65
6. Mark Chiodo 54.5
7. Nic Liminton 50
8. Lincoln Gilding 43
9. Ben Burke 41.5
10. Ryan Taylor 41

Supersport 300

The eight-lap opening stanza for the 300 Supersport competitors got underway at 1520 this afternoon but no sooner had it started than a number of riders went down at the first turn bringing the red flag out to halt proceedings as the carnage was cleared up. The fallers, who all looked to be okay, included front runners Jack Passfield, Hunter Ford, Tommy Edwards and Billy Van Eerde.

At the re-start, less than ten minutes after the red flag incident, it was KTM RC390 mounted Max Croker quickest out of the blocks ahead of Jack Mahaffy (Yamaha) and pole-sitter Oli Bayliss (Kawasaki). Croker put in a 1m37.658 from a standing start on that first lap, by the end of which he had seven-tenths of a second over his combatants.

By halfway around the second lap however things had closed up considerably, Bayliss had put in a 1m32.462 to close right onto the tail of Croker, Mahaffy also right there in the hunt for the lead, as that trio started to break away from the rest of the pack.

Croker still held the lead with three laps to run, but could not shake Bayliss or Mahaffy, that pair sticking to the tail of the KTM like glue. The timing system was crediting Oli Bayliss with the best speed on the straight, clocking 163km/h. 

Bayliss and Croker then went down with two laps to go, with the only thing seemingly injured their pride, and championship points standings… That clash left Jack Mahaffy all by himself at the front of the field, with a six-second buffer over Scott Nicholson and Zac Levy. 

Jack Mahaffy went on to take a clear victory while Zac Levy and Scott Nicholson rounded out the podium. Nicholson was the first Under 300cc competitor home. 

The Supersport 300 category includes two-categories, an U300 class for machines such as the parellel-twin Kawasaki Ninja 300 that displace less than the 300cc in capacity, and O300 class for machines between 300 and 400cc in capacity such as Yamaha’s twin-cylinder YZF-R3 and KTM’s single-cylinder RC390. 

Supersport 300 Race One Results

1. Mahaffy (Over 300cc)
2. Levy 5.80 (Over 300cc)
3. Nicholson 5.92
4. Lynch 6.34 (Over 300cc)
5. Bramich T 6.48 (Over 300cc)
6. Battye 7.46
7. Briffa 7.80 (Over 300cc)
8. Shaw 10.70
9. Demmery 12.29 (Over 300cc)
10. Bramich B 12.50 (Over 300cc)
11. Hocking 19.782 (Over 300cc)
12. Edwards 24.214 (Over 300cc)
13. Taylor 29.273 (Over 300cc)
14. Sells 33.344
15. O’Brien 48.12 (Over 300cc)

Supersport 300 Qualifying

1. Bayliss 1m32.340 / Kawasaki
2. Croker 1m32.559 / KTM
3. Mahaffy 1m32.685 / Yamaha
4. Lynch 1m33.184 / Yamaha
5. Bramich T 1m33.836 / Yamaha
6. Nicholson 1m33.995 / Kawasaki
7. Battye 1m34.211 / Kawasaki
8. Briffa 1m34.277 / Yamaha
9. Bramich B 1m34.364 / Yamaha
10. Shaw 1m34.459 / Kawasaki

Yamaha R3 Cup Race One

1. Jack Mahaffy
2. Corey Briffa 2.84
3. Jack Passfield 3.19
4. Hunter Ford 3.29
5. Tommy Edwards 5.754
6. Ben Bramich 16.259
7. Boyd Hocking 16.697
8. Andrew Hannan 23.871
9. Dan Thomas 30.509
10. Talya Relph 39.780

GP Juniors Cup Race One

Ben Baker capitalised on his pole position to get the jump from Joel Kelso and Tommy Edwards but Kelso hit the front on lap two after bettering his qualifying pace, his first flying lap in the race a 1m47.994, the first sub 1-min-48 for the weekend across the GP Juniors class.

Baker took the lead back on the next circuit but nothing separated him from Edwards, Kelso and John Lytras. Edwards then hit the lead as the four-rider freight train made their way around the tight section around the back of the 3km Winton circuit. 

Kelso again took the lead as they started the last lap but the top four were still virtually nose-to-tail. Edwards then took another turn at the front, followed by Kelso gaining the advantage yet again, positions changed again into the final turn but as they crossed the stripe it was Tommy Edwards the victor by 8-hundredths of a second over Kelso with Lytras rounding out the podium. Less than a tenth-of-a-second covered the top trio at the line, with Baker three-tenths behind in fourth. 

GP Juniors Cup Race One Results

1. Tom Edwards
2. Joel Kelso 0.079
3. John Lytras 0.096
4. Ben Baker 0.320
5. Jack Cousens 9.768
6. Max Stauffer 19.797
7. Harry Khouri 20.128
8. Reece Oughtred 42.254
9. Luke Power 42.325

GP Juniors Cup Qualifying

1. Baker 1m48.104
2. Kelso 1m48.111
3. Edwards 1m48.501
4. Lytras 1m49.396
5. Cousens 1m50.504
6. Stauffer 1m51.688
7. Khouri 1m51.887
8. Power 1m55.736
9. Oughtred 1m57.477

Sidecars Race One

1. Joyce / Blackman
2. Goldie / Crass 11.17
3. Ford / Menzies 13.86
4. Boughen / O’Kane 15.330
5. Collins / De Angelis 23.886
6. Brown / Sheldrick 30.684
7. Alton / Clancy 32.639
8. Goodale / Goodale 33.971
9. McKinnon / Cummings 64.583
10. McLeod / Matthews 1 lap