Image: Keith Muir.

Caterpillar JD Racing Yamaha’s Daniel Falzon has qualified on pole for Hidden Valley’s fourth round of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli.

The championship leader topped Q1 earlier this morning and maintained his place at the top of the time-sheets following a late charge to a flying 1m06.055s lap-time.

It was a spectacular performance from the South Australian, edging Josh Waters (Team Suzuki Ecstar) by 0.084s and Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team) by 0.181s. All three put up a fight in the race for pole during the closing stages of the session.

Fourth and fifth were the Crankt Protein Honda Racing CBR1000RR SP2s of defending champion Troy Herfoss and Bryan Staring, steadily narrowing the gap to the front as they dial in the new Fireblade and both within half a second of the pole position.

Queenslander Robbie Bugden (BCperformance Kawasaki) wound up sixth despite a crash in Q2, with Cru Halliday (IPONE/YMF/YMI Yamaha), Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) upon return from injury, Corey Turner (Yamaha) and Beau Beaton (Racer’s Edge Performance/McMartin Racing/North Coast V-Twins Ducati) each within a second of Falzon to complete a tight top 10.

In Supersport earlier this afternoon Mark Chiodo (Triumph) posted a flying 1m08.715s for pole ahead of Cube Racing’s Tom Toparis (Kawasaki), with Ted Collins (Next Gen Motorsports Suzuki) completing the front row. Local Sam Lambert (Yamaha) will start out of position four, with Sam Muldoon (Kawasaki) in fifth.

The Supersport 300 pole position belonged to Oli Bayliss (Up To 300, Cube Racing) on his Ninja 300, with top of the Over 300s Jack Mahaffy (Over 300, Yamaha) in second and Tom Edwards (Over 300, Yamaha) third. In Moto3/125GP Joel Kelso (Honda) led the way over Dylan Whiteside (Honda) and Dallas Skeer (Honda).

Sunday’s action will see the premier Superbike and Supersport categories contest a pair of races each in the series’ return to the Top End, with the Supersport 300 and Moto3/125GP ranks due to take part in three races across today and tomorrow.