While declaring he makes no excuses for winding up an uncharacteristic sixth overall, reigning champion Troy Herfoss admits his WorldSBK wildcard appearance at Phillip Island clouded his thoughts on set-up with the Honda CBR1000RR SP in the Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).

Piloting a vastly different CBR1000RR SP in WorldSBK trim that was prepared at the last minute, Herfoss experienced difficulties adapting to the upgraded package, ultimately forced to retire from races one and two, while finishing the all-new Superpole race on Sunday morning in 16th position.

In the ASBK, the number one plated Penrite Honda Racing rider lodged a 9-6-7 scorecard for sixth overall, expressing relief to exit the weekend still in the hunt after challenging six races across the two championships.

“I just want make sure everything is clear – I don’t make any excuses for how my Australian Superbike weekend went,” Herfoss told CycleOnline.com.au. “I was definitely leaving the track each day thinking about the ASBK bike and my thoughts were a little bit clouded because the other bike was so different.

“We definitely didn’t get as much production out of this weekend as we would’ve hoped with bike set-up. But hey, I just want to make it clear that everyone in ASBK was riding super strong and the pace was high – maybe on my best day, I may still not have been able to win today.

“I’m definitely not making any excuses, I’m just thankful I came away with three solid races and three races where I improved each time. As far as I’m concerned, I’m in the hunt as always.”

Despite the result not satisfying his expectations, the Gold Coast-based rider is optimistic in the feeling he was able to achieve, particularly after experiencing initial difficulties in set-up at the Island.

“It was a very trying weekend, but I feel really good about how it ended,” he added. “In race three, Wayne [Maxwell] and I were able to close the gap to the leaders. My body felt good, I didn’t have the outright pace, but I was able to repeat my best lap-time almost every lap to hang onto the back of that bunch.

“It’s a long championship with seven rounds and I feel really good on the bike. There were some things happening there in the last race that make me feel good heading onto the next round, so we will take confidence from that and move onto Wakefield Park – I’ve had a lot of good results there in the past!”

The ASBK will now head to Wakefield Park in New South Wales on 22-24 March, a venue where Herfoss has been triumphant for the past three seasons.

News 26 Feb 2019

Vinales completes Qatar MotoGP test fastest

Image: Supplied.

Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) leaves Losail International Circuit after the Qatar MotoGP test having topped two of the three days, the first and final, and on Monday it was with a 1m54.208s to end the test 0.233s clear.

The top spot was again under threat from an incredible performance from rookie Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) in second, however, with reigning champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) completing the top three.

And, after a tougher day two for Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), the ‘Doctor’ was back inside the top four just behind Marquez, with Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) another resurgent runner as he completed the top five.

So it’s Yamaha who leave Qatar on top despite a windier day three, with Vinales putting in 50 laps on Monday and Rossi 38. The Italian was pretty positive and said it came from putting everything together, but the Spaniard did still insist they need to improve and one of the big things he pointed out was edge grip, where he said the Yamaha is lacking a little compared to other manufacturers.

Quartararo, meanwhile, did 48 laps and showed his day two showing was far from a fluke, with teammate Franco Morbidelli shooting up the timesheets to sixth on Monday too. That makes good reading for both the Iwata marque and the new Petronas Yamaha SRT team, with all Yamahas in the top six.

Repsol Honda were the only other team and manufacturer to mix it with them on Monday, although both machines took tumbles. Marc Marquez was third with a 1m54.613s and did 53 laps, again showing the capacity to put more mileage on his shoulder, and teammate Jorge Lorenzo took P5 just 0.040s off Marquez and 0.002s off Rossi.

After two much tougher days on the timesheets hovering outside the top 15 as he both changes bike and comes back from a scaphoid broken only a month ago, the five-time World Champion catapulted himself up to a 1m54.653s on day three.

Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu), meanwhile, also had a solid final day as he finished the Qatar Test in eighth despite a crash, and the Japanese rider concludes testing with a sheet of consistent top 10s. He did 50 laps with a best of 1m54.789s, with teammate Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) down in P17 after 39 laps.

Another big headline on the last day of preseason came from the consistently impressive Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who was a stunning seventh on a best effort of 1m54.770s.

The Spaniard put in 37 laps as the Austrian factory continue working on the details, and the second quickest KTM was actually Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech3) on Monday as the Portuguese rookie was within around a second of Espargaro. Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) was a little further down the timesheets on Monday in P22.

Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati Team), meanwhile, retained his stronghold on the timesheets amongst the Borgo Panigale machines. The Italian was ninth on day three after another 43 laps, with teammate Andrea Dovizioso down in P15 after 50 but they focused on long runs and race setup.

The engine and fairing and bigger decisions were already made before the end of action. Australian Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) improved to tenth on his final of 57 laps, and his teammate, rookie Francesco Bagnaia, wasn’t far off in P13 – just two tenths in arrears. He was closely followed by Reale Avintia Racing’s Tito Rabat.

Between that Ducati invasion were nestled both of the Team Suzuki Ecstar machines. Although third overall from his day two laptime, Alex Rins ended Monday in P11 on a 1m54.852s after 41 laps and rookie teammate Joan Mir was the second quickest rookie in P12. The gap between the two Hamamatsu factory machines was only a tenth and a half.

Aprilia, meanwhile, were happy with their improvements and although Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) was P16 and Aleix Espargaro P19, they were focusing more on longer runs, for Espargaro especially – and overall across the test Espargaro was P14.

The Noale factory were also happy with the adaptation shown by Iannone after the Italian had to sit out much of Sepang with illness, which is a big positive after a difficult recent run. That’s it from Qatar and the pre-season is officially over, with the season opener scheduled for 10 March at the Losail circuit.

Detailed results