Image: Foremost Media.

Penrite Honda Racing’s Troy Herfoss shot his Fireblade to the top of Friday practice at Queensland Raceway with a 1m07.705s as Tom Bramich topped Supersport on the opening day of 2023 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship round three.

Herfoss led both FP2 and FP3, with his best time of the day coming in the final session this afternoon to lead this morning’s pace-setter Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team) by two and a half tenths.

Reigning champion Mike Jones (Yamaha Racing Team) completed the day third with a 1m08.081s, set in the second session, as championship leader Josh Waters (McMartin Racing Gotzinger Ducati) was fourth, one and a half tenths back from Jones.

MotoGo Yamaha’s Bryan Staring featured inside the top five with a 1m08.598s, as Glenn Allerton (GT Racing BMW), Ted Collins (BMW Alliance Racing), Broc Pearson (DesmoSport Ducati), Max Stauffer (GTR Yamaha Motostars) and Anthony West (Addicted to Track Yamaha) completed the top 10. Pearson suffered a fall at turn four in the last session but the day was relatively incident-free in the premier class.

Image: Foremost Media.

Yamaha-mounted Bramich posted the fastest Supersport lap of the day with a 1m11.615s in the second session, concluding the day less than a tenth quicker than Olly Simpson (Yamaha) who topped the final session with a 1m11.694s.

Third quickest was championship leader Ty Lynch (Yamaha) courtesy of a 1m11.828s, ahead of Queensland race one winner last year Scott Nicholson in P4, the number 39 suffering a fall in FP2.

Reigning champion John Lytras completed the day with a 1m12.103s, as Simpson was notably the only rider inside the top five to set his best lap in the last session.

In P6 was Sean Condon (Yamaha), as Jack Passfield (Yamaha), Jake Farnsworth and Cameron Dunker (Yamaha) feature inside the top 10, with Aiden Wagner (Yamaha) P11 in his return.

Supersport FP3 was brought to a premature end when the session was red-flagged with seven minutes remaining when Markus Chiodo (Triumph) fell at turn six.

Cameron Swain (Yamaha) led the way in the Supersport 300 category as the only rider to drop into the 1m21s bracket, his best lap of a 1m21.997s coming in the second practice session. Trailing Swain was Marcus Hamod (Yamaha) in second and championship leader Brandon Demmery in third, just under eight-tenths from his title rival out front.

Swain went even quicker in the R3 Cup, notching a 1m21.611s to go under the qualifying record. He led Hamod and Brodie Gawith (Yamaha) who completed the top three.

In the Oceania Junior Cup (OJC), Queensland’s Hunter Corney set the pace with a 1m35.794s lap in FP2, leading South Australian Rikki Henry by just under two-tenths as Bodie Paige completed the top three.

Detailed results