News 18 Aug 2018

New Morgan Park best lap seals Herfoss ASBK pole

Supersport points leader Halliday staring out of P1 in Queensland.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Penrite Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss has captured his second Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) pole position of the 2018 season with a record-breaking lap at Morgan Park, Queensland.

Herfoss’ flying 1m12.651s lap-time set this morning was enough to score first on the YMI Superbike starting grid, edging triple world champion Troy Bayliss (DesmoSport Ducati) by 0.133s. The pair were the only two in the 1m12s.

Completing the front row tomorrow will be rejuvenated defending champion Josh Waters (Team Suzuki Ecstar), as second session pace-setter Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team) and Bryan Staring (Kawasaki BCperformance) filled the top five.

Second of the factory Yamahas, Daniel Falzon, will start out of P6, joined in the top 10 by leading rookie Mark Chiodo (Team Suzuki Ecstar), top independent Matt Walters (Swann Insurance Kawasaki), Kyle Buckley (Kawasaki BCperformance) and another newcomer in Arthur Sissis (SA Demolition & Salvage Honda).

Image: Russell Colvin.

In the Kawasaki Supersport ranks there was no denying Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team) the pole position as he improved his own best lap to 1m14.609s, half a second ahead of Cube Racing’s Tom Toparis (Kawasaki) and Kiwi Damon Rees (Honda) was third.

Callum Spriggs (Yamaha) continues to shine on return as he lines up fourth ahead of Broc Pearson (Yamaha), making his first appearance since being injured at round three. Mladin Racing’s Max Croker (Suzuki) starts sixth, chased by Lachlan Epis (Kawasaki), Chris Quinn (Yamaha), Giuseppe Scarcella (Kawasaki) and Zac Johnson (Yamaha).

Winning the opening Supersport 300 race of the weekend was Hunter Ford (Yamaha), crossing the finish just 0.027s ahead of pole-setter Locky Taylor (Yamaha), while Zac Levy (Yamaha) claimed third. The first YMF R3 Cup encounter was also a thriller, Ford winning by 0.393s from Tom Bramich (Yamaha) and Taylor.

And the all-Yamaha GP Juniors Cup race was even tighter this afternoon, as no less than four of the six entrants finished within 0.075s. It was Max Stauffer who won by 0.044s ahead of Joel Kelso and Harrison Voight, with John Lytras fourth.

Detailed results

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