Image: Keith Muir.

Yamaha Racing Team’s Wayne Maxwell has topped the times in the opening practice sessions at Darwin’s fourth round of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli.

Maxwell recorded a quick-time of 1m06.040s in the final session, beating home champion leader Daniel Falzon’s (JD Racing) time of 1m06.275s for the number one spot.

The time of Maxwell was well quicker than his own previous circuit best lap set in 2013 at 1m06.997s, with the layout resrufaced since the last time the ASBK visited the Top End.

After setting the FP1 pace, Josh Waters (Team Suzuki ECSTAR) rounded out the top three with a time of 1m06.389s on the GSX-R1000R, while Cru Halliday (IPONE/YMF/YMI Yamaha) and Bryan Staring (Crankt Protein Honda Racing) were fourth and fifth respectively – the latter the first of the new CBR1000RR SP2s.

Sixth through to 10th consisted of Robert Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance), reigning champion Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing), Corey Turner (Yamaha), Beau Beaton (Yamaha) and Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) upon return from injury.

In the Supersport category, Cube Racing’s Tom Toparis soared to the top of the leaderboard with a time of 1m09.055, leading Repsol GAS Racing’s Mark Chiodo and NextGen Motorsports’ Ted Collins. Damon Rees (Honda) and Chris Quinn (Yamaha) completed the top five.

Youthful talent Oliver Bayliss (Kawasaki/Up To 300) lodged a fastest of 1m18.955s in the Supersport 300 class ahead of Tom Edwards (Yamaha/Over 300) and Billy Van Eerde (KTM/Over 300), as Darwin local Joel Kelso set the pace in the Moto 3/125GP division.