Troy Herfoss Interview | Ride Rage Radio speak to Troy Herfoss
RRR: Troy Herfoss, congratulations on a fantastic weekend of racing at Wakefield Park recently at the Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship. One small hiccup, but I guess there were so many positives that once more hiccup piles into insignificance at the end of the weekend, at your home round, massive crowd to come out and watch you.
Troy: “Yeah, g’day lads! Yeah, it was a massive weekend for me. At the start of the year it was all sort of pretty new, but this time there was a bit sort of a build-up to it and definitely a lot of pressure to win, which I enjoyed actually, and yeah, it was a mixed weekend, but it’s so much fun to go there and win some races and break some records. But yeah, like I said, a mixed weekend.”
RRR: You started the Saturday racing from pole position after setting a brilliant lap on Friday afternoon, and once again you and Wayne seem to be the guys that really took the racing on Saturday more seriously than seemingly anybody else, but for the first time ever, your teammate Jamie Stauffer actually got in on the act as well.
Troy: “Yeah, I knew that Jamie would obviously be strong, he’s actually trimmed up a little bit since, like obviously he had the foot injury, and he wasn’t at his best at Winton and he looks fit and you could tell that he was ready to go. And yeah, it was hard racing on the weekend, really hard and fast and you could see that by the times were putting in compared to the start of the year. So yeah, it was enjoyable and great to see Jamie out there and someone’s got to give Wayne a bit of a fight at Eastern Creek, so it’s up to Jamie now.”
RRR: But the important thing on the weekend come out on Sunday, unfortunately you had that crash in race one but I guess what it goes to show you is your absolute determination, the great work by the team and also your physical fitness, which meant that you bounced back straight away, with pretty much no issues at all physically, to come back and win the last two races and also set a lap record, I think it was on the penultimate lap of the last race and walk away once again with the lap record and the pushbike lap record at Wakefield Park, which is a massive effort to be able to do the two of those and set that lap time so late in the weekend.
Troy: “Yeah, it was a huge, huge effort by the team, that’s why I got on the bike as soon as I crashed, I knew that it was bad enough that if this thing starts, I’ve got to get it back as soon as possible, because there’s going to be a lot of work. And once Freebie (Paul Free) saw Jason and Indy working on it he realised pretty quickly that that wasn’t going to be fixed, so I was sort of… Like I don’t actually have a spare bike, there’s three spare bikes and they’re there for anyone to take really so Freebie got the spare one out and it was a brand new bike and it had never been ridden off the dyno and they managed to get it together, and not only get it together but it was exactly the same as my other bike setup-wise and I was able to get out there and get straight into it and then also that lap record in the last race. Obviously my crash at that first set of tyres, I didn’t want to use them again, so I was actually on the Friday tyres for race 2 and 3, so yeah, it’s a real credit to the guys, they worked above and beyond to get me out there.”
RRR: Well, the fact that not only Jason and Indy, your mechanics, that did, apparently the whole team was involved in getting that ready as well and as we spoke to Wayne we said there just seems to be such a great team spirit between four riders and also all the mechanics and Freebie’s got it running like a very well-oiled machine.
Troy: “Yeah, that’s right. Everyone dropped what they were doing and obviously Freebie was working with Jamie on some set-up and things, and Wayne and Warren, Shauun and Josh and everyone dropped what they were doing and made sure the bike was exactly the way I’d left at the start of race 1 so yeah, it obviously makes you want to do well as well to see how hard they’re working and yeah, I’m happy to be able to bounce back and be competitive again.”
RRR: And the crowd out there on Sunday, did it surprise you, it was such a lovely day that, what a better thing to do on that beautiful Goulburn Sunday like that than to go out and watch the local hero race around the home circuit?
Troy: “Yeah, it was good to have all my friends and family out there. I actually had a lot of family, there’s not a lot of Herfoss’ around in Australia, but a lot of them have travelled to watch me and some of them hadn’t even see me race before, so yeah, we had a big of a shindig on Sunday night and caught up with the family and yeah it was good to see everyone out there enjoying the day. So hopefully we can build and just get bigger and better.”
RRR: Thanks for the pointers to the Mountain Bike track, I was actually thinking that I don’t know how you manage to get up there and spend so much time doing the mountain biking, because you clock up an unbelievable amount of kilometres on the road bike as well. You seem to be putting in 60, 70, 80km efforts pretty much evert day, and holding down a full time job as well.
Troy: “Yeah, at the moment it’ been full-on, sort of trying to stay in shape. So working out of town, so I just got home just now, so once I finish talking to you guys I’ll put the light on the helmet and tonight I’m heading out to Rocky Hill to do a few efforts on the pushbike. So yeah, trying to keep in shape. I am enjoying it but it’s a bit different than how it was a few years ago, it it’s not the pressure of making a living out of it at the moment, I’m enjoying it and I’m even paying for a bit of my racing, so yeah, it’s really, really enjoyable so I really hope I can continue. And the results I’m getting at the moment are obviously helping me, so I’ll just stay on the bike and if I can secure a ride with Honda next year, I’ll be wrapped.”
RRR: What’s the aim for the final round at Sydney Motorsport Park? Are you just going all out for victories and let Wayne and Jamie sort the Championship out themselves with the minor placings?
Troy: “Yeah, that’s the plan. I’m feeling good on the bike at the moment and obviously I know everyone’s going to be strong at Eastern Creek, it’s a pretty central track, so a lot of guys have got a lot of experience around there. But yeah, the way the situation is I’d like to go out and get some wins, that’s what we go racing for so yeah, the record has been a bit rough for the last two rounds, I’ve finished four out of the six races, so I need to probably start finishing some races really. But yeah, on the other hand you want to win and that’s why you go racing and the feeling you get from winning it far outweighs the downer of that race one.”
RRR: Well, when you have a look at it, I think every race that you have finished out of the four out of the last six, you’ve actually won them anyway, so that’s a good way to go out on the penultimate round. Congratulations Troy on a fantastic ride, great to see you down there in front of your home crowd put on such an excellent effort. Congratulations on the lap records and we’ll see you at the Motorcycle Grand Prix in a couple of weeks’ time.
Troy: “Yeah, thanks Phil and thanks guys for having me and yeah, looking forward to getting out there at Phillip Island for the MotoGP and getting into it.”
