Image: Keith Muir.

Reverting to a privateer operation has done little to slow longtime Yamaha charger Cru Halliday as he put his YZF-R1M on the front row in Goulburn this afternoon.

Halliday, 28, was dropped from Yamaha Racing Team (YRT) ahead of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli, putting his own program together instead.

Fourth at Phillip Island was a positive way to begin the season for the IPONE/YMF/YMI/Yamaha racer and he has been quick all weekend at Wakefield Park so far. He will start out of third in Sunday’s pair of 20-lap races, 0.141s outside of defending champion Troy Herfoss’ pole time.

“I know tomorrow that the guys will be going out hard and fast,” national number four Halliday told CycleOnline.com.au. “I don’t want to chase super-hard and burn up the tyre, but I can’t let them get away either. I’ve got to be smart about the races and I don’t see why I can’t run with them.

“Third position at Wakefield is almost as good as pole, being on the inside front row there, so I’m definitely not going to complain. I said coming into this round that qualifying is a major key and we did what we set out to do, so I’m happy for the team and for myself.”

Significantly, Halliday has become one of Dunlop’s primary riders in the championship after YRT defected to Pirelli prior to round two and Daniel Falzon’s JD Racing team made the decision to keep their options open this year. So far, he’s used Pirelli all season.

“It’s working out good,” Halliday continued. “I’ve been on Dunlops my whole career and Sebastian [Mincone] has been a great help for us this weekend. He’s giving us pressures, telling us what tyres to run and pointing us in the right way. The bike’s set-up for these tyres and if it’s a dry race it will be good for us, because the durability’s there and I have a lot of confidence in them.”

Halliday was forced out of a factory ride at YRT for this season when the team down-sized from three to two riders, retaining the injured Glenn Allerton and Wayne Maxwell after the pair went 2-3 in last year’s standings.