Image: Russell Colvin.

Reigning Australian Superbike champion Troy Herfoss endured clutch dramas in race one at The Bend this afternoon, limping his factory-backed Fireblade home to 12th position.

Herfoss was about exit the opening outing of the weekend in South Australia when a red-flag stoppage ultimately enabled him to go on and finish for points.

The restart was enough for Herfoss’ clutch to cool on his Penrite Honda Racing CBR1000RR SP and, despite constant troubles throughout the nine-lap duration, he brought it home with caution after running as high as fifth place.

“I hope the riders are okay, but for us the restart was a get out of jail free card,” Herfoss told CycleOnline.com.au. “My clutch was done and I was actually coming back to pit-lane on that lap. Then the red-flag came out, so I went back to the start-line.

“That allowed the clutch to cool down a bit, which is why I babied the bike off the start. The whole race, the clutch was slipping so I never got to get going. It didn’t really slip on the warm-up lap, but in the race, once I gave it full gas it was slipping. It just got worse and worse, but it was promising and my speed’s good.”

The nine points salvaged by Herfoss this afternoon resulted in him dropping from second to fourth in the point-standings, now 14 points in arrears of leader Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team), who was third in today’s first encounter.