Image: Russell Colvin.

Yamaha Racing Team’s Wayne Maxwell has hit back at hometown hero Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing) this morning in the opening YMF Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli qualifying session at Wakefield Park.

Maxwell bettered Herfoss’ new circuit best lap from Friday with a 57.513s, edging out Herfoss at 57.567s and Glenn Allerton’s (Yamaha Racing Team) 57.594s.

With the leading trio covered within a tenth of a second, fourth on the timesheets at 58.082s was Anthony West, the Crankt Protein Honda Racing rider making progress on the factory CBR1000RR SP.

Completing the top five this morning was Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team), ahead of defending champion Mike Jones (DesmoSport Ducati) – the final rider within a second of the provisional pole time.

Top privateer was Suzuki-mounted rookie Brayden Elliott in seventh as both he and Ben Burke (SA Kawasaki BCperformance) worked their way into the 58s. Kiwis Sloan Frost and Ryan Hampton on their Suzukis rounded out the top 10.

A crash in the session stalled JD Racing Yamaha rider Daniel Falzon’s progress, eventually credited 11th in the first qualifier despite completing just two laps.

The opening Supersport qualifying session was led by the in-form Sam Clarke (Kawasaki) at 1m00.479s, ahead of Luke Mitchell (Yamaha), title leader Troy Guenther (Yamaha), Callum Spriggs (Kawasaki) and Chris Quinn (Yamaha) all within a second.

The provisional Production pole position went to Brandon Demmery (Yamaha) via a 1m09.605s, half a second ahead of Sam Condon (Kawasaki) and Drew Sells (Kawasaki).

In the newly-formed R3 Cup it was Hunter Ford who rode his Yamaha YZF-R3 who set the pace with a 1m09.509s, leading Zac Levy and Callum Anderson – the trio separated by just 0.360s.

Moto3/125GP was tightly contested in qualifying one, as Tayla Relph (Honda) went fastest with a 1m06.030s, over Brian Houghton (Honda), Locky Taylor (Honda) and Ben Leondard (Honda) all within 0.830s.