Image: Russell Colvin.

Yamaha Racing Team’s Glenn Allerton will lead into the Pirelli Superpole at Barbagallo Raceway this afternoon after setting a new circuit best lap in the second qualifying session.

Allerton dipped beneath the circuit best on lap 10 with a stunning 55.341s laptime, beating Shannon Johnson’s 55.354s from over a decade ago in 2005.

That time was almost half a second faster than teammate Wayne Maxwell’s best that placed him second, from this morning’s session. Third fastest overall was Mike Jones (DesmoSport Ducati).

With the top six heading to the Pirelli Superpole session this afternoon, Allerton, Maxwell and Jones will be joined by Daniel Falzon (JD Racing Yamaha), Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team) and Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing).

Just outside of Superpole was Ben Burke (SA Kawasaki BCperformance), who crashed at turn six during the session, while Brayden Elliott (Suzuki), Matt Walters (Kawasaki Connection) and Ben Stronach (Kawasaki) completed the top 10.

All the way down in 11th position, Jamie Stauffer (Crankt Protein Honda Racing) is having one of his most difficult weekends in memory, qualifying 11th with a 56.853s from this morning.

In Supersport it is Sam Clarke (Kawasaki) who will start out of pole position on Sunday, claiming the spot after posting a 57.422s laptime in session two.

Clarke will lead Luke Mitchell (Yamaha) off the line, who was half a second shy of the Western Australian, with Troy Guenther (Yamaha) and Nic Liminton (Yamaha) third and fourth following session two.

Title challenger Callum Spriggs (Kawasaki) will start from position five, but a full second off the pace of Clarke’s pole-setting time this afternoon.

The opening races of the weekend took place this afternoon, Brandon Demmery (Yamaha) winning the Production class by just 0.001s from Drew Sells (Kawasaki) and Tom Toparis (Kawasaki). Callum Alderson crashed out at the midway point.

In the Moto3/125GP ranks it was Ben Leonard (Honda) who claimed victory, 1.850s ahead of Tayla Relph (Honda), as Locky Taylor (Honda) completed the podium.