Image: Keith Muir.

South Australian Daniel Falzon was quickest in Phillip Island practice this afternoon and has now converted it to capture the first Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) pole position of 2017.

The JD Racing Yamaha rider soared to a flying 1m32.742s on his second lap of the session, becoming the lone rider all weekend to dip beneath the 1m33s bracket.

Pirelli-equipped Falzon led a late charge by returning former champion Bryan Staring (Crankt Protein Honda Racing) and Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team), while number one plate-holder Tory Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing) will start fourth.

In fifth came Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) – over a second off the pace of Falzon – after he edged out two more returnees in Robbie Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance) and Josh Waters (Team Suzuki Ecstar), who is debuting the GSX-R1000R.

Eighth for Beau Beaton (Racer’s Edge Performance/McMartin Racing Ducati) was another impressive result, as was leading rookie Mitch Levy (Yamaha) in ninth and Matt Walters (Swann Insurance/Repsol/Kawasaki Connection) 10th.

As he has all weekend, Repsol GAS Racing Triumph rider Mark Chiodo topped the charts when he took out the Supersport pole position late this afternoon. Chiodo set a flying lap of 1m35.899s.

Behind him came Mason Coote (Yamaha) with a 1m37.556s lap-time, ahead of Ted Collins (Suzuki), Luke Mitchell (Yamaha) and Sam Condon (Yamaha) in his first 600cc appearance.

The Supersport class top 10 was rounded out by Nic Liminton (Yamaha), Ryan Taylor (Yamaha), Cambridge Olivier (Yamaha), Callum Alderson (Yamaha) and Ben Burke (Yamaha), who returns to the category following multiple seasons on a Superbike.

Reid Battye (Kawasaki) was best of the Supersport 300 field to secure pole position with a 1m51.525s lap-time to finish the day, ahead of previous pace-setter Tom Edwards (Kawasaki) just a couple of tenths back.

Behind them came reigning R3 Cup champion Zac Levy (Yamaha) as he transfers to Supersport 300, also ranking as top of the Over 300 division. Jack Passfield (Yamaha) and Laura Brown (Kawasaki) filled the top five. The leading 10 all lapped within 0.882s.