Darwin ASBK Race One

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After an exciting qualifying session at Hidden Valley this morning that saw three riders under the lap record, and Wayne Mawell smashing the qualifying lap record, it was shaping up as a serious rumble in the jungle up in the tropics on Saturday afternoon.  DesmoSport Ducati duo Oli Bayliss and Mike Jones went P2 and P3 to make it an all-Ducati front row for the first time ever in Australian Superbike. Jones fell in Q2 though and would not make the start for the race this afternoon as he was off in hospital getting some hand injuries attended to.

Had Troy Herfoss been foxing somewhat ahead of this opening bout? The Penrite Honda man only made one real attempt at a lap-time in Q2 and that was a 65.645s, so the pace is there. Do Michelin have an ace card up their sleeve in regards to tyre life in these sweltering conditions?

Glenn Allerton is enthused with the fresh out of the box M 1000 RR and they should be able to find more improvements in every session as they find their feet with the new bike. How it looks after its tyres over race distance though is a question nobody has an answer for yet.

South Australian privateer Daniel Falzon was the fastest qualifying Yamaha after a significant break away from the sport.

Bryan Staring showed more progress is being made with BC Performance Kawasaki to qualify seventh and fastest Dunlop runner. His team-mate Josh Waters, by far the most successful Superbike rider ever at Hidden Valley, is not quite there yet and starts from P11.

Anthony West made some significant steps forward today. Finally getting into the 66s in Q1 with a 66.995s before then dropping six-tenths off that to end Q2 in eighth place on 66.396s. Arthur Sissis also starts from that third row in P9, the ex-speedway rider is an absolute gun off the line, expect him to make up plenty of positions by turn one.

On the form guide though if one was trying to work out the odds, with Wayne Maxwell setting the pace in every session, and putting 5 x 65s in that final qualifying session, he looks very hard to beat. He already has a point for pole and with this weekend being a three-race format instead of the normal two, this round takes on even more significance in the championship chase.

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ASBK Superbike Race One

Wayne Maxwell absolutely smoked them off the line. Herfoss was away well too in second place and quickly closed that ground back up to Maxwell through the opening turns as Glenn Allerton slotted up to third.  Corey Turner and Daniel Falzon got tangled up at turn one and both ran off the circuit.

Down the straight for the first time and it was Maxwell, Herfoss, Allerton and Oli Bayliss. That quartet was already pulling a significant gap over the rest of the field.

Both Maxwell and Herfoss were down into the 65s by lap three and Oli Bayliss joined them in that bracket next time around before then slipping past Glenn Allerton to move up to third place.

Maxwell lowered the race lap record next time around, 65.827 the new marker, then followed by a 65.706 but Herfoss went one better, a 65.618 to stick right onto the tail-pipes of that Ducati V4 R.  That pair were starting to pull away a little from Bayliss now but Oli was trying to hang on and also under the previous lap record.

Bayliss tried a little too hard though and ran off the circuit. He was having a red hot go but that mistake lost him around nine-seconds and he had drifted back to sixth place.

Up front it was back to ops normal, Maxwell and Herfoss running on their own.  Allerton had started strongly but had lost touch by the halfway point, the BMW man now four-seconds behind the leading duo.

Nothing separated Maxwell and Herfoss up front with six laps to go. Herfoss had not made an attempt to make a pass, but it did look as though he had the speed to make such a move. The Penrite Honda looked on rails while the Boost Mobile Ducati was starting to look a little loose, the Italian bike on Italian rubber was definitely sliding around more than the French rubber shod Japanese machine.

Herfoss had a sniff up the inside at the end of the main straight with four laps to run but didn’t force the issue and Maxwell retained the lead. Maxwell had slowed the pace a little in the middle of the race but now as they looked towards the home stretch he wound the wick up once again and Herfoss came along for the ride.

At the last lap board Maxwell had two-tenths on Herfoss after dropping back down to a 66.1.  Herfoss closed back up on him in the mid-part of the lap and was right on his tail around the back of the circuit.

Herfross backed it in up the inside a couple of corners before the end and forces Wayne wide and gave Herfoss the line for the next corner, they both pick the bikes up and get back on line but Herfoss had the advantage, led onto the main straight and took a brilliant victory.

Glenn Allerton puts the M 1000 RR on the podium in its first outing, albeit 9.5-seconds behind the leading pair.

Oli Bayliss staged a brilliant recovery after a poor start followed by a mistake that saw him run off the circuit, he then got it together and worked his way back past a number of riders to claim fourth position and came close to running down Allerton to get back into the podium positions. It was revealed after the race that Allerton had been struggling with a slipping clutch.

Bryan Staring and BC Performance will be encouraged by their fifth place finish while South Aussie privateer Arthur Sissis was the highest finishing Yamaha in sixth place ahead of Anthony West.

We have two further races tomorrow, the first at 1050 and the second at 1405. That is in Darwin time which translates to 1120 and 1435 for the eastern seaboard.

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ASBK Superbike Race One Results

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ASBK Championship

With that victory Herfoss claws back five-points on Maxwell and the gap now shrinks to six-points, 112 plays 106.

Troy Herfoss

“It was such a fun race. In qualifying, Wayne was so fast and with Mike (Jones) and Oli (Bayliss) also doing good times, we narrowly missed out on a front-row start, which was a little disappointing. There were stages during the race where I started to doubt myself, but I knew I had to play the patience game. Riding 16 laps in the heat is physically demanding, but I felt quite comfortable. I like going to races where fitness is one of the main factors, because I think it plays to my strengths.”

Wayne Maxwell

“I covered Troy at turns five and six, and I tried to block the line into turn 11 – I went in there reasonably deep and tried to hang on the outside, but he was too good. I was in a rhythm for most of the race, just trying to hit a lap time; the grip went away towards the end. I love it – I’m really happy, there are so many positives for us to take out of the race and we’ll try to improve a tiny bit for tomorrow morning.”

That podium finish promoted Glenn Allerton up to third place in the championship on 82-points. Both he and the NextGen Team will have even more motivation fuelled from the potential to come from that M 1000 RR that they only took delivery of a couple of days ago.

Glenn Allerton

“It’s been a massive effort by the team to build a brand-new bike, strip it down, install all the suspension and electronics. If this is our first race on it and we’re on the podium, it shows the potential is really high. The clutch was slipping really badly out of the last corner for a lot of the race and costing me a lot of time; I’m confident if we fix that issue for tomorrow, we’ll be right there with the top two.”

It is clearly obvious that the Yamaha Racing Team and Dunlop combination is not competitive enough this year for Cru Halliday and Aiden Wagner to show their speed. Still, Halliday has been making sure he stays on the bike clocking up points and holds down fourth place in the championship, which is impressive in itself.

It has taken BC Performance some time to get on top of the new ZX-10RR but Bryan Staring has been collecting points where he can and to his credit is sixth in the championship chase.

That mistake in qualifying that left Mike Jones with some hand and foot injuries that prevented him from starting the race is a hefty blow for the Queenslander, but he still ranks fifth on the points table and is certainly not out of the main game yet.

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ASBK Championship Points

  Manufacturers Points

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ASBK Hidden Valley Schedule

Sunday, 20 June
10:50am – Race 2 (16 laps) FOX Sports
2:05pm – Race 3 (16 laps) FOX Sports/Channel 7

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2021 ASBK Championship Calendar (Updated)

• Round 1 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC February 18-21 Cancelled
• Round 2 Winton Motor Raceway, Benalla, VIC March 12-14
• Round 3 Wakefield Park Raceway, Goulburn, NSW April 16-18
• Round 4 Hidden Valley Raceway, NT – Supercars 2+4 (Superbikes only) June 18-20
• Round 5 Morgan Park Raceway, QLD August 20-22
• Round 6 The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend, SA September 23-26
• Round 7 Wakefield Park Raceway, Goulburn, NSW October 15 – 17 *
• Round 8 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC November 5-7 *

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Source: MCNews.com.au