Image: Keith Muir.

Crankt Protein Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss was fastest during Friday’s Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli practice at Winton.

The defending champion set a 1m20.531s lap-time during FP2 this afternoon, just 0.126s outside of his circuit best lap set in last year’s pre-race test, but quicker than last year’s pole time.

Second to Herfoss overall was points leader Daniel Falzon (Caterpillar JD Racing Yamaha), who was quickest in both the opening and final sessions, but three-tenths short of Herfoss overall.

It was a positive day for Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Josh Waters in an encouraging third, while Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team) was the final rider within the 1m20s bracket in P4. Cru Halliday (IPONE/YMF/YMI Yamaha) completed the top five.

Next best was Bryan Staring (Crankt Protein Honda Racing) in sixth, trailed by Robbie Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance), who was the last rider to lap within a second of Herfoss’s benchmark. Josh Hook (McMartin Racing Ducati), Alex Phillis (Arnold’s Fruit Market/Apex Civil/Helicraft Racing Yamaha) and Callum Spriggs (DesmoSport Ducati) completed the top 10.

Image: Keith Muir.

In Supersport it was Victorian Ted Collins (Suzuki) who was fastest with a 1m23.764s, almost eight-tenths clear of Chris Quinn (Yamaha) and Sam Lambert (Yamaha) in his return to the class, as Mark Chiodo (Triumph) and Sam Condon (Yamaha) completed the top five.

Leading the way in the Supersport 300 class was the impressive Oli Bayliss (Kawasaki, Up To 300), from Max Croker (KTM, Over 300), while in the R3 Cup Tommy Edwards (Yamaha) set the pace, as did Ben Baker (Yamaha) in the GP Juniors.

Bikes are back on track from 9:05am local time on Saturday morning, with the first of two Superbike qualifying sessions due to begin from 11:15am.