Waters fastest on Friday in Phillip Island ASBK practice

News 12 Oct 2018

Waters fastest on Friday in Phillip Island ASBK practice

Section: Competition Post: Alex Gobert

Newly-crowned champion Halliday sets early Supersport benchmark.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Last year’s champion Josh Waters topped the YMI Superbike time-sheets for Team Suzuki Ecstar on day one of the 2018 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) finals at Phillip Island.

This morning’s opening session was led by Wayne Maxwell (Yamaha Racing Team) at 1m32.901s, before Waters took charge with a 1m32.762s in FP2. That time stood after three red flags interrupted the final session of today.

Waters ended up 0.139s faster than Maxwell overall, while opening round winner Bryan Staring’s (Kawasaki BCperformance) 1m33.005s in the third session boosted him into third on combined times. DesmoSport Ducati’s Troy Bayliss was fourth, new champion Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) in position five.

Sixth was an encouraging return to racing for three-time title-winner Glenn Allerton (Next Gen Motorsports BMW), as top privateer Matt Walters (Swann Insurance Kawasaki), Daniel Falzon (Yamaha Racing Team), Ted Collins (Next Gen Motorsports BMW) and Mark Chiodo (Team Suzuki Ecstar) completed the top 10.

Image: Russell Colvin.

Wearing the number one plate after clinching the championship at the penultimate round, Yamaha Racing Team’s Cru Halliday was fastest on Friday in Kawasaki Supersport with a 1m35.594s benchmark.

Halliday was atop the time-sheets by 0.726s from Cube Racing’s round one victor Tom Toparis (Kawasaki), with Callum Spriggs (Yamaha) in action again this weekend to take third. Fourth was rookie Max Croker (Mladin Racing Suzuki), with Damon Rees (Honda) filling the top five.

In the Supersport 300 category it was Oli Bayliss (Kawasaki) who set the pace for Cube Racing with a 1m49.558s lap-time, leading Locky Taylor (Yamaha) and Callum O’Brien (Yamaha) on day one.

The Superbike Masters saw the return of Aaron Morris (Yamaha) to racing and he set the pace with a 1m38.084s, a second and a half clear of Beau Beaton (Irving Vincent) and Jason Cullen (Yamaha).

Day one of the all-Yamaha YMF R3 Cup class saw Taylor set the pace at 1m49.512s during session two, from current points leader Hunter Ford – the lone pair beneath the 1m50s bracket – and Callum O’Brien.