Image: Russell Colvin.

Yamaha Racing Team with Yamaha Motorcycle Insurance has taken a solid one-two result in qualifying one ahead of this afternoon’s 12-lap race, which will award double points for the Australian FX-Superbike Championship finals.

Claiming his third pole position for the year was 27-year-old Cru Halliday when he stormed to a 1m30.449s on his first flying lap.

Halliday’s time was a new best lap in the IPONE Superbike class, lowering the benchmark time by 0.14s with 6m25s to go in the 16-minute session.

“That was unreal,” Halliday beamed. “I was struggling a little bit in free practice two as I tried a setup which result in the rear tyre not really working that well. However I knew Kev [Marshall] and all the boys knew how to fix and they did. They managed to get the Yamaha R1M working really well, so massive thanks to them.

“I just hope we can maintain good form for the whole race distance. Sydney Motorsport Park is quite hard on the tyres. I was confident that I could do the time. The pace that Wayne and Troy were running early in the day, I wasn’t even sure that I could hit the 30s as I was struggling that bad. I managed to do it and it has boosted my confidence back up, that’s for sure!”

Image: Russell Colvin.

Halliday was 0.306s faster than teammate Wayne Maxwell, who posted a 1m30.755s with 7m15s to run in the session. Troy Herfoss (Team Honda Racing) was third, 0.363s off the pole time.

Completing the front row was Herfoss’ teammate Jamie Stauffer, the last rider in the 1m30s bracket, while heading the second row of the grid is third of the Yamahas Glenn Allerton, who stopped the clock with a 1m31.171s.

Other pole-setters this afternoon included Aaron Morris (Supersport), Paul Byrne (Formula Oz), Craig McMartin (Pro-Twins/Nakedbike), Lucas Vitale (Formula Xtreme), Hunter Ford (FX300 Ninja Cup) and Danny Pottage (eFXC).

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