Image: Keith Muir.

Team Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss says it was a whirlwind experience in his comeback season following an 18-month layoff, racing to a solid third overall in the 2014 Australasian Superbike Championship.

After forming a relationship with Honda in the pre-season and setting up his own privateer outfit, Herfoss had a chance opportunity to fill in for Honda’s Josh Hook at Wakefield Park’s opening round in March and hasn’t looked back since.

Herfoss’ early season form prompted Team Honda Racing to expand to four riders once Hook returned from injury, providing Herfoss a first class factory environment which ultimately resulted in race wins and the final overall of the year in Sydney.

Although the individual results were above his personal expectations, Herfoss met his pre-season goal of finishing top three in the title race – matching his Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) best from his rookie year in 2011.

“It all happened that quick and at first I didn’t really have time to think about it all,” Herfoss told CycleOnline. “I just planned to get myself into a good position for 2015, but it was really quick the way it all came about.

“I said to Honda that I was buying a bike from them because I wanted to be part of the team for 2015, then they wanted to support me and said they’d give me one. When Hooky got injured, Paul [Free] rang me and said they’d put me on his bike for the first round – it came together at the last minute, the week before Wakefield. It made everything a lot easier, as you can imagine.

“I showed some promise at Wakefield in qualifying on pole position and setting a lap record, without much riding in the past 18 months. Paul was excited by that and I was really lucky, because after the race he rang and upped the support to them looking after my bike and I just had to cover my costs at the races.”

Although not yet announced, it’s anticipated Herfoss will return for a full season as a contracted factory Honda rider in 2015 – either within the ASC or ASBK depending on where the team settles – and already he’s eyeing a title second-year into his comeback.

“My goal was to be consistent this year, which I showed I could and still be at the front,” he added. “When we got to the mid-stages of the season, I was heavily in contention still and shifted my mentality to winning races. As soon as I decided I wanted to win I did, but it came at a cost because I had a few crashes, which in the end probably put me out of the championship.

“But I’m really happy with it all; I sort of had the most dominant last half of the year with four race wins in the last three rounds and to get the overall in Sydney was huge. I’m just happy to be competitive and to secure a spot for next year, hopefully. I really feel like I’m ready to have a good crack at the championship.”

Confirmation of Herfoss’ continued Honda agreement is expected to come prior to year’s end, as both Team Honda Racing and the Yamaha Racing Team move to finalise their 2015 line-ups.