Troy Herfoss took out Race 2 and Race 3 of the fourth round of the Australian Superbike Championship at Hidden Valley to close the points gap to leader Troy Waters.

“That was up there as a highlight of my career, racing against these guys,” he said after Race 3 and after he admitted he didn’t have the pace to win Race 1. “We didn’t have it yesterday but today was a big confidence boost.”

On the Penrite Honda Racing Honda CRB RR, Herfoss had a willing battle with reigning champion Mike Jones (Yamaha Racing Team Yamaha YZF-R1) in the morning race. They were split by 0.17s at the finish after the lead changed between them several times.

It looked like Jones would prevail until he slipped slightly wide at Turn 6 with three laps to go, and Herfoss went through.

Third place went to Glenn Allerton (GT Racing BMW M RR) who trailed the leading duo by 5.0s and he finished ahead of Cru Halliday (Yamaha Racing Team). Race 1 winner Waters was the early leader until he had an uncharacteristic moment at Turn 1 on Lap 3 that dropped him to 13th. He was able to fight his back to fifth aboard the McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati V4R.

In the later outing, Herfoss beat Jones by 0.123s. Third went to Waters who was another 1.0s behind. Herfoss grabbed the lead from the start with Arther Sissis (Yamaha) briefly into second before he was passed by Allerton who then dropped the bike at Turn 5. By the end of the lap Waters was third, having also passed Sissis.

From there the three front runners cleared out from the opposition with Jones able to briefly get by Herfoss at Turn 5 on Lap 9 only to have his rival retake the lead at the next corner.

“It was a mental game, trying to find an advantage where you are stronger than the opposition,” Jones said. “I was able to get the lead but then made a slight mistake and Troy got past.”

Bryan Staring (Yamaha) finished the last race fourth and followed by Broc Pearson (Ducati) and Anthon West (Yamaha). Each had managed to slip past Sissis who survived a rub with Halliday where the latter crashed out and Sissis continued to seventh.