Image: Russell Colvin.

Crankt Protein Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss set an impeccable pace during day two of Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli testing at Winton.

Ahead of next weekend’s title-deciding round, Herfoss made the most of dry conditions on Thursday to set a flying 1m20.405s laptime aboard his CBR1000RR SP.

It was an official new best lap of the recently-resurfaced circuit for the premier Superbike class and over a full second ahead of closest rival Josh Waters’ 1m21.437s.

While the factory Yamaha Racing Team opted out of the official test after completing their own last month, it’s understood Herfoss’ pace was significantly faster today.

Current points leader Wayne Maxwell, who has a seven-point advantage over Herfoss entering the finale, turned up today aboard an older model YZF-R1 in order to circulate further on the updated surface, logging the seventh fastest time.

That will mean little come race time however, as both Maxwell and YRT teammate Allerton – 11 points outside of the lead – will be determined to rise to the occasion in a bid to halt Herfoss’ impressive late-season momentum.

To signify the outright lap speed of Herfoss, in the final session of four held today, he completed no less than seven consecutive laps within the record-breaking 1m20s bracket.

Taking up the fight to Herfoss today as second fastest then was returning two-time champion Waters, who was once again listed as Michael Jordan on the timesheets – the Yamaha-mounted team still to be officially announced next Wednesday.

Herfoss’ teammate Jamie Stauffer was third, but 1.3s from his teammate’s fastest lap, with the top five completed by current champion Mike Jones (DesmoSport Ducati) and Brayden Elliott (Knobby Underwear Suzuki). All five are Pirelli-equipped.

Current Australasian Superbike Championship (ASC) points leader Robbie Bugden (SA Kawasaki BCperformance) made a guest showing on lower standard ASC-spec Dunlops, sixth overall and around 2.5 seconds from Herfoss.

Fastest Supersport today was points leader Sam Clarke (Kawasaki), marginally ahead of Mark Chiodo (Triumph), with Callum Spriggs (Cube Racing), Ted Collins (Next Gen Suzuki) and Robbie Menzies (Cube Racing) all circulating within a second.

Dylan Whiteside (Honda) set the Moto3 pace, while Tom Toparis (Cube Racing) was quickest of the Productions and Jack Mahaffy (Yamaha) fastest in R3 Cup.

The test saw the ASBK debut of Oli Bayliss (Cube Racing) in the Production ranks aboard a Ninja 300, the son of triple world champion Troy Bayliss posting a time 2.7s outside of Toparis’ benchmark.