Penrite Honda Racing press release:

Penrite Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss has secured the 2018 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) with a round to spare at Winton’s sixth stop of the series, clinching the overall round win in the process.

Herfoss demonstrated blistering speed during the initial sessions of the penultimate round, converting his pace into pole position during Saturday’s qualifying with a record-breaking 1m20.160s time, granting him a critical point in search of a second premier class crown.

Despite two race stoppages in the opening encounter, the number 17 was awarded the top spot when the race was declared on lap 12. Herfoss made multiple passes throughout the duration, trading the lead on a number of occasions before going on to clinch victory.

That enabled him to pilot his CBR1000RR SP Fireblade to a controlled fifth-place in the final affair later this afternoon following another two restarts, crediting him the title. Remarkably, the 31-year-old Gold Coast resident also picked up his fifth-straight round win.

“It’s an incredible result and I’m just so thankful for everyone who has helped out this year,” Herfoss beamed. “Deon [Coote] has taken over the team this season and has done a great job with the crew. It’s quite a small team and everyone has worked so hard – it feels good to really dominate it.

“There’s no questioning it, we’ve got the number one plate with a round to go and we really earned it. This tops all the championships I’ve won, just because we’ve won so many races – we’re at eight wins and I never dreamt that I would have that many in one year. This is the top of the pile for me and five overall victories is the icing on the cake.”

The championship marks an impressive result for the Penrite Honda Racing outfit, which in its first year in partnership with Honda Motorcycles Australia was able to earn the most prestigious Superbike championship in the country.

Evidently proud of the ER Motorsport-owned squad, Penrite Honda Racing team manager Shaun Clarke said finding a suitable set-up in the early stages of the weekend allowed Herfoss the greatest opportunity of victory and he once again capitalised on it this weekend.

“It was quite a good weekend obviously, for Troy to win another round and take the championship with a round to go,” Clarke commented. “We went through quite a lot of set-up scenarios on Friday to find a perfect solution for ourselves and we eventually came across something.

“I think on Saturday it all came together for Troy and today he hit the ground running. He got the job done and tried to apply as much pressure as he could on Wayne [Maxwell], hoped that things would fall our way and they did. We’re really happy.”

The Penrite Honda Racing team will now head to Phillip Island, Victoria, on 12-14 October for the final round of the Australian Superbike Championship, where Herfoss will target a sixth win in seven rounds for the 2018 season.

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