The recent winning form of the McMartin Racing Ducati and Josh Waters could be under threat this weekend at Round 3 of the Mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship Presented by Motul at Queensland Raceway this weekend.

In practice at ‘The Paperclip’ it was Troy Herfoss on his Penrite Honda CBR who topped the times with a third session one minute 7.705 second effort, just 0.03s off the qualifying record. He was confident he and his bike had made progress. He was positive about a return to Queensland Raceway and a different style of circuit to implement setup tweaks.

Cru Halliday who pole position at the last round (at Sydney Motorsport Park where they raced under lights) was the pacesetter in the first of three sessions, ahead of Herfoss and Waters. Glenn Allerton on the BMW M was fourth ahead of fellow Yamaha riders Mike Jones who dominated at QR last year, and Bryan Staring. In seventh was Broc Pearson (Ducati) from Ted Collins (Ducati V4R), Max Stauffer and Anthony West on Yamahas.

Times were ever so slightly quicker in the next outing where Herfoss showed the way ahead of Jones, Waters, Halliday, Allerton, Pearson, Staring, Collins, Stauffer and West.

They were again quicker in the third and final session where Herfoss had almost half a second on Halliday with Jones another 0.17s away. Waters was fourth from Staring who was a big improver from round one at Phillip Island to SMP, Collins, Allerton, Pearson, Stauffer and West.

In Michelin Supersports, there were three didn’t session toppers with Jack Passfield, Tom Bramich and Olly Simpson with Bramich the fastest of the day while championship leader Ty Lynch was fourth overall.

Cameron Swain, along with Brandon Demmery were the stars of Supersports 300 at the previous round, and Swain continued his form with the best times in each outing. Marcus Hamod was second overall with Demmery third.