Maxwell wins red-flagged race one at Wakefield Park

ASBK 2021 Wakefield Park
Superbike Race One

Riders were greeted by a foggy start to the day this morning at Wakefield Park but still got down to business in morning warm-up. Troy Herfoss was certainly fired up and gave Mick Edwards a kick-start to his day…

Superbike Race One

Wayne Maxwell scored the holeshot ahead of Mike Jones in Race 1 but Troy Herfoss was soon past the DesmoSport Ducati to sweep through to second place before turn three.  

Lachlan Epis was in fourth ahead of Cru Halliday, Bryan Staring and Glenn Allerton.  Oli Bayliss was screwing the gas on hard in eighth place, wagging the tail of the Panigale V4 R on lap one to stick with that well credentialed group. 

As they started lap four Maxwell led Herfoss by half-a-second after putting in a 56.787 lap record on lap three, with Mike Jones staying with the duo.  

The second group then got a shake up with a jump-start penalty for Lachlan Epis while Oli Bayliss returned to the pits after the bike started cutting out. 

Troy Herfoss and Mike Jones then dipped into the 56s to stay in touch with Maxwell. 

Cru Halliday broke away from the second group and was running a somewhat lonely fourth place, fast enough to break away from the Allerton, Staring and Epis but not enough speed to run with the leading trio. 

As the race progressed Maxwell and Herfoss started to pull away from Jones.  With ten laps to run Herfoss was piling the pressure on Maxwell, showing the Ducati man a wheel here and there just as they started to encounter the first of the lapped riders.

Herfoss pulled out of an overtaking effort as he saw a yellow flag and had to bide his time a little longer. Before that could happen though the red flag came out so Brendan McIntyre could receive medical attention in a dangerous part of the circuit and as a dozen laps had been completed the race was declared. 

Herfoss was fully fired up coming into the pits and calling it ‘amateur hour’, venting his spleen at Maxwell in frustration who just soaked it up to placate the fiery Herfoss in Parc ferme. The smile was still there but behind it there was next level angst at the disappointment of not trying to make his move earlier and the points lost to Maxwell as a result.

His frustration not stemming so much from the red flag but the fact that the race had been declared rather than being re-started and giving him another chance at taking the victory. Thus are the vagaries caused by live television schedules unfortunately.

With the race result declared at the end of the previous lap that gave Maxwell the win from a disappointed Herfoss who was confident he had the speed to take the win. Maxwell already had the championship point for pole and with the win now had 26-points for the round already to Herf’s 20 and Maxwell’s championship lead was now 15-points. 

Mike Jones collected good points in third but will be somewhat frustrated at not quite having the speed to run with that leading duo once again.  He is equal-second on points with Herfoss but has yet to display the speed and consistency to match Herfoss or Maxwell this season.  He needs to find a bit more if he is going to challenge for the championship this year and prevent that pair making it a two-man race to the title. 

Cru Halliday is further away from race winning pace and on current form looks like fourth place, as he scored this morning, is going to be as good as it gets unless he finds more speed in the following rounds. He has been under the weather here this weekend so if you asked him on Friday I reckon he would have thought fourth a great result. His fastest lap was a 57.227 though so if he gets a good start in the next one he should be closer to the podium action. As the season progresses a fit Halliday though will not want to settle for fourth. 

Glenn Allerton put in a blistering 56 on Friday but I believe that was while following Wayne Maxwell and he is yet to replicate that sort of speed in any other session. He finished four-seconds behind Halliday in this opening bout and his fastest lap of the race was a full-second slower than Maxwell’s best, and on a sub-minute track that is a huge margin. They need to find some more speed and consistency from that NextGen BMW. 

Bryan Staring and BC Performance will be somewhat buoyed by their progress as they come to grips with the new ZX-10RR but they are still not in the main game. Josh Waters needs to find some confidence with the bike as a 12th place finish, behind a teenage rookie on a privateer bike, is not where he should be.  The ZX-10RR actually turned off at one point during that race and wouldn’t turn back on as they develop the bikes on the fly. 

The privateer father-son duo of Carl and Matt Walters continues to show up a litany of riders that have resources far superior to their small outfit.  A seventh place in this field a simply brilliant result and their results so often overlooked as there is no flash pit bay or pizzazz, just Matt getting on with it with the help of his dad as best they can. As they do during the week in their country Cessnock Kawasaki dealership along with mum Cherie.

Anthony West will be somewhat relieved to get a race under his belt after a four-year absence from the sport.  It must also be noted that the MotoGo Yamaha he is on is far from a well-sorted racebike and he lost almost the whole of Friday with teething problems. It is a credit to him that he kept at it instead of spitting the dummy. Respect. We will see him up front before this season is out. 

Lachy Epis will be frustrated at that ten-second penalty for jumping the start as he demonstrated enough pace to be in that battle for fifth. Going to be interesting to see what he can do if he keeps his nose clean in race two.

Mark Chiodo kept Jed Metcher at bay to secure the final spot in the top ten. Kudos also to young Luke Jhonston for his 12th place only a few metres behind that hugely experienced pair. Arthur Sissis had been in that battle before getting in too hot on lap 11 from a false neutral and lost touch with the group.

Superbike Race One Results

Superbike Championship Standings

2021 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar