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Two race wins at Morgan Park Raceway has elevated Troy Herfoss to the points lead in the Mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul after five rounds.
The Penrite Honda Racing rider notched up his 30th win from 121 starts in Race 2. He battled intensely with reigning champion Mike Jones on the Yamaha Racing Team YZF-R1M throughout both races where the lead changed several times.
“The gap is very small, it doesn’t feel like I am a better rider, we are so close,” said Herfoss afterwards.
Jones went under the lap record to secure pole position for the first 16 lapper ahead of Herfoss, Broc Pearson (Ducati V4R), Josh Waters (Ducati), Cru Halliday (Yamaha) and Greg Allerton (BMW M RR).
From the start of Race 1 it was Herfoss in the lead from Jones. Pearson had a poor start and dropped to ninth. Waters jumped to third ahead of Allerton, Halliday, and Yamaha riders Arthur Sissis, Bryan Staring and Anthony West. Behind Pearson, it was Max Stauffer who dropped his Yamaha at Turn 4 on Lap 2 and was out.
Jones was on the back of Herfoss over the first five laps before he found a way past on the next. He led the next three before Herfoss regathered the lead on Lap 9. Their positions changed again on Lap 14 when Jones slipped past into the Chicane. However, Herfoss struck back on the final lap to snare the win by 0.09s.
Waters remained with them until he went off at Turn 1 on Lap 12. He stayed on the bike and resumed ninth for the duration. That gave Allerton third 1.3s ahead of Halliday. Pearson continued to recover positions and finished fifth ahead of Staring while West edged out Sissis for seventh.
At the start of the second race, Pearson had a far better start than earlier, and leapt to second ahead of Allerton and Jones. But by the end of Lap 1, the latter two had relegated Pearson to fourth. For several laps, Jones sized up Allerton and passed him on Lap 5.
From there Jones chased down Herfoss and took the lead on Lap 7 before Herfoss regathered it on Lap 12. Jones wasn’t done and overtook Herfoss only to lose out on the final lap.
“We were both on our limit. He made an error on the second last lap. Then I was too fast, too loose and lost the rear on the last lap,” Jones said as he remains winless in 2023 and holds third in the championship behind Waters.
Behind the leading duo, Allerton had taken off a lot of wheelie control and was able to hold off Pearson and Waters for third. Sixth was Halliday, just in front of Staring as West, Sissis and Stauffer ensued.
