Penrite Honda CBR RR rider Troy Herfoss has won both races of the third round of the Mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul.
Herfoss won both 16 lap races in which he had to fight his way past championship leader Mike Jones on his Yamaha Y2F-R1M, while Yamaha Racing teammate Cru Halliday was third in each.
It was the perfect weekend for Herfoss after he qualified fastest on Saturday. “I haven’t had many perfect weekends in my career,” he said. “It is a long way to win a championship and I don’t want to mess it up.”
The first race was a thriller where Jones executed the perfect start and led all but the last two laps. “I had good pace and was managing the tyre but with five or six laps to go I knew Herfoss would challenge,” Jones said.
On several occasions Herfoss was able to go under him at turn three, once at turn four, and once at turn six, but his wide exits would allow Jones to regain the front running. Then at turn three on lap 15, Herfoss made it stick.
Jones tried a similar move at the final corner on the last lap where Herfoss was able to nip up the inside to snare a 0.115 second victory. Halliday dropped to fourth off the start, and took half the race to get by Josh Waters on the Ducati V4R. With the two front runners dicing for the lead, Halliday was able to close to within two tenths at the finish.
Behind Waters Glenn Allerton (BMW M RR) was fifth in front of Max Stauffer (Yamaha), Ted Collins (BMW) and Broc Pearson (Ducati).
Jones led from the outset of race two and for the first four laps before Herfoss made the move for the lead at turn three. This time Jones threw out the challenge, had the job done at turn six on lap 13 before Herfoss rebounded out of turn three on the following circuit.
Jones tried again at the final corner, but Herfoss had better drive off the exit and snared victory by 0.056 seconds in his 100th ASBK start. Halliday was again third after he took 13 laps to get by Waters and then came off the bike after the finish.
Allerton was fifth ahead of Stauffer, Bryan Staring (Yamaha) and Ted Collins (BMW). Pearson was eighth until lap four when he dropped the Ducati.
There were three different winners in the very competitive Supersport 300 in Cameron Dunker, Brodie Garwith and Marcus Hamod. Sam Pezzetta and Cameron Swain each took a R3 Cup race, and Brodie Paige won both the Junior Cup outings.
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