Team Honda Racing press release:

The Phillip Island Championship decider was held this morning at the Pramac Australian Grand Prix event with #28 Troy Herfoss finishing 3rd and team mate #27 Jamie Stauffer 4th after some of the most exciting racing of the weekend.

All 3 Superbike races for Round 2 of the P.I. Championship were a spectator’s delight with numerous battles for the top 3 podium positions. There was certainly no way to predict the winner.

Both Honda riders had strong pace this weekend and recorded their fastest laps of the event in the Race 3. The fastest lap for Herfoss was a 1:32.822 sec on the penultimate lap of the race, Stauffer’s fastest a 1:33.003 sec on lap 6.

After some of the fiercest Superbike racing of the year, Stauffer finished 3rd overall for the Round and 6th in the Championship. Having crashed out of Round 1 at the World Superbike Event and therefore not earning points, Stauffer is fairly happy with the result, saying “Obviously I would like to have finished the Championship in the top 3, but that was a tough ask having missed the first Round’s points and also considering the field this weekend. The racing was fast paced and quite a few of us well matched so I am happy to come away with the Race 1 win and 3rd overall for the event.”

Herfoss came into the MotoGP event in the championship lead and it was down to the final race to declare a winner. Although Herfoss had the pace, after race-long battles at the front of the field, he crossed the finish line in a very close 3rd place, the top 3 separated by just 2 tenths of a second. Unfortunately, this meant that Herfoss finished the Round 5th overall and had to settle for 2nd in the Championship by just 3 points.

He is understandably disappointed, saying “We had a mixed weekend really. Taking pole position here at MotoGP was amazing in front of such a big crowd. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish off this weekend with the title. It is very frustrating to miss out on the Phillip Island Championship but Mike did a fantastic job this weekend and I tried my best. All the guys at Team Honda have given us our best possible chance at winning all year and we move onto Winton next weekend for Round 6 of the Australasian Superbike Championship confident we can be at the front.”