Penrite Honda Racing press release:

Penrite Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss has captured his third-consecutive overall victory in the 2018 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), standing atop the podium at Hidden Valley in the Northern Territory on Sunday.

Herfoss was flawless aboard the factory-supported CBR1000RR Fireblade, qualifying second and then going on to record 2-1 finishes in the entertaining pair of 17-lap races in the humid heat of Darwin.

Race one saw Herfoss make his run at eventual winner Troy Bayliss on the closing lap of the race, only to come up 0.204s short across the line, but he rebounded in the afternoon to win by a commanding 1.147s with a new lap record of 1m05.904s.

“Both races were really exciting and in the end it was a really good result,” Herfoss reflected. “That’s three round wins on the trot now and the most important thing is that we’re winning races and competing for victory in each race now, which wasn’t so easy last year.

“We’re going to Morgan Park and Winton next, two strong tracks for me, and we’re just looking to keep pushing for race wins. Today I just wanted to hit the lap-time, my target race-pace, and I knew if I could do that we would be strong. A big thanks to Penrite Honda Racing and all of our supporters!”

Penrite Honda Racing team manager Shaun Clarke was proud of Herfoss’ efforts on Sunday, certain that the mid-season break has been of great value to the ER Motorsport-operated team.

With three round wins in succession, the team and Herfoss have cemented themselves as the squad to beat following four of seven rounds. Refinements with the K-Tech Suspension and Woolich Racing ECU developments have been instrumental in recent months.

“It’s quite clear that we had very good pace this weekend, even though it wasn’t completely a clean weekend for us,” Clarke explained. “We pulled it all together today, Troy had the pace to win and in the second race it appeared our bike was the best bike out there. Everybody is working well together once again and the winter break was really beneficial for us – it’s all looking good. These results are a reflection of the effort going in.”

The results this weekend now see Herfoss stretch his championship lead to 29.5 points, looking to claim his first ASBK crown since winning with Honda in 2016.

The next round of the 2018 ASBK championship will take place at Morgan Park Raceway in Queensland between 17-19 August. Follow Team Honda Racing on Facebook, as well as @teamhondaracing on Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates.