Image: Keith Muir.

A new Pirelli rear tyre straight from World Superbike has rekindled the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli title bid of Crankt Protein Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss.

Herfoss was untouchable at Morgan Park’s penultimate round, soaring to the Pirelli Superpole with a new circuit best lap and then dominating the pair of 19-lap races on Sunday, smashing the existing lap record in the process.

Pirelli added a new V0377 SCX development rear tyre to its ASBK 2016 Tyre Homologation List in the lead-up to the Queensland weekend, which was only introduced to WorldSBK during the Donington Park round in late May. Increased edge grip has largely benefited the Herfoss/Honda combination.

“It’s a new tyre to Australia from WorldSBK,” Pirelli Moto national product manager Don Nicholas told CycleOnline.com.au. “It’s a development version of the SC0 compound and at Morgan Park basically everybody was using them, in combination with the SC0 and SC1. They’re available to everybody who races ASBK in Superbike and we made sure we had more than enough to go around.”

In terms of rear tyres, Pirelli currently has the standard SC0 in its allocation alongside the SC1, as well as the new V0377 SCX development option. It replaced a previous SCX – a development version of the SC1 – that was included on the homologation list. Its SCX and SC2 front tyres remain unchanged.

The latest Pirelli rear tyre has sparked a renewed shot at the championship for Herfoss, who scored a perfect 51 points at Morgan Park to close to within seven points of Dunlop-equipped Yamaha Racing Team’s Wayne Maxwell at the top of the standings.

At a time when the factory-supported Crankt Protein Honda Racing team has extracted everything and more from the ageing CBR1000RR in SP trim, additional performance from the Pirelli tyre package has proven crucial in these latter stages of the season.

“After our results back in Western Australia, we asked Pirelli for some additional support,” explained Crankt Protein Honda Racing team principal Paul Free. “What they have provided us with has completely transformed our motorcycle and has ultimately given us another shot at the Superbike championship.

“Now that our CBR1000RRSP is matched with this new Pirelli tyre, myself and the team are all very excited about what the future holds and we’re all looking forward to getting to Winton… we knew what we wanted to achieve at Morgan Park, but Troy’s sheer pace today even shocked me.”

Competing tyre manufacturers within the ASBK are permitted to put forward one substitute option in the Tyre Homologation List allocation – which includes three regular rears, a Phillip Island-only rear and two fronts – per season.