Image: Keith Muir.

Yamaha Racing Team’s Wayne Maxwell emerged fastest following the opening Yamaha Motor Finanance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli practice of the 2017 season at Phillip Island.

Maxwell set the early pace in the single 30-minute YMI Superbike session held on Thursday, eventually topping the 40-rider time-sheets with a 1m33.952s set on lap 15 of 15 this afternoon.

It was a YRT 1-2 at the top of the leaderboard today as Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) ended the session second, just 0.027s in arrears of Maxwell, while Daniel Falzon (JD Racing Yamaha) wound up third after being quickest in the late stages.

Team Suzuki Ecstar made its anticipated debut with Josh Waters on the GSX-R1000R, impressive with the fourth-fastest lap of the day and just half a second outside of Maxwell in first. He’s coming in with limited preparation after missing January’s official test.

Completing the top five was Australasian champion Robbie Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance) in his ASBK return, as defending champion Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing) was the last rider within a second of Maxwell in sixth. The top 10 was completed by Bryan Staring (Crankt Protein Honda Racing), Cru Halliday (IPONE/YMF/YMI/Yamaha), Matt Walters (Swann Insurance/Repsol/Kawasaki Connection) and Beau Beaton (Racer’s Edge Performance/McMartin Racing Ducati).

In Supersport there was no touching Mark Chiodo (Triumph), who set a 1m36.885s lap-time, 1.683s ahead of closest challenger Ryan Taylor (Yamaha) and another couple of tenths in front of Ted Collins (Suzuki). The top five was filled by Chris Quinn (Yamaha) and Mason Coote (Yamaha).

A revamped Supersport 300 category hit the track following that and it was Tom Edwards (Kawasaki) who starred, a full second quicker than top Over 300 entry Jack Passfield (Yamaha) and Reid Battye (Kawasaki). Laura Brown (Kawasaki) was impressive in fourth, as Oli Bayliss (Kawasaki) managed to stop the clocks in fifth.