The sky was darkening further as Superbike qualifying approached. A huge band of rain was sweeping across Melbourne and most of south-western Victoria but Winton was just outside the northern edge of the front and, so far, the Winton tarmac had remained dry, you could, however, feel the moisture content in the air increasing and even a sporadic drop of rain here and there, despite that, the air temperature was still around 32-degrees.  Was enough to make me nervous, let alone the Superbike riders along with their teams and supporters. 

With rain on the horizon time was of the essence and Q1 competitors wasted no time in getting down to business. Only the top three would score transfer spots through to Q2, where they would join the nine fastest riders in Timed Practice from this morning .

Despite a drop here and there, the rain did hold off for the entire 15-minutes of Q1. Oli Bayliss was the early pace-setter before being bested by Bryan Staring and then Mark Chiodo. 

Josh Waters then pushed Bayliss further back to fourth but the youngster then fired in a 1m21.647 to go to the top of the charts. 

That pushed Josh Waters out of the transfer spots so the BCperformance Kawasaki man left pit-lane for one last crack at it. He crossed the line to start that final lap with a single second left on the clock. A tenth behind at the first split, three-tenths at the second split, four-tenths at the third split, it was going to be close…. But no, another tenth lost across the final sector left him in fourth place and without a ride in Q2….  

Earning their places in Q2 were Oli Bayliss, Mark Chiodo and Bryan Staring. 

The opening bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup race split the two sessions which meant that was almost 30-minutes between Q1 and Q2.

Troy Herfoss had perhaps the most to lose in this session. The Penrite Honda man was down to only one bike after destroying his #1 bike during practice yesterday. This bike had not turned many kilometres and along with not feeling quite the same as the bike he set the fastest time on yesterday, the engine was perhaps still loosening up and not feeling quite as sharp as his #1 bike that was largely now destined for the skip bin… That set of scales I mentioned in the report from the test early last week were now perhaps tipping back over to Wayne’s pan…Fortunes can and do change in the blink of an eye in this sport.

Lap records have been getting broken throughout many classes already here this weekend and that is down to more than just rider, machine and tyre progress. The large kerbs of Winton are now long gone and have been replaced by more low profile FIM spec’ kerbing which allows riders to run lines that are much closer and even risk touching kerbs that once would have put them on their ear if even lightly brushed.

As Superbike competitors exited pit-lane for the final 15-minute qualifying session time was even more critical. The wide and expansive rain band drenching most of the south-western Victoria was getting very close to the circuit and it would be touch and go as to whether the entire session would remain dry.

Almost as soon as the session started though it was stopped after Glenn Allerton went down at turn five. Just before that flag was produced though Herfoss had posted a 1m20.122 to set the early benchmark in what could have turned out to be a master-stroke of tactical planning if that looming rain front swept in before proceedings got underway again.

The session recommenced with less than 12-minutes left on the shot clock. Herfoss was again straight down to business, under at the first and second splits, then third splits, but that man Maxwell was also under at the third split and by more than Herfoss….  Maxwell crossed the stripe to go P1 on 1m19.712 to Herf’s 1m19.907. Mike Jones was now up to P3 on 1m20.699. 

Herfoss then went P1 on his next lap with a 1m19.565, guess he must have that feeling on the spare bike now….  There was still seven-minutes to go…

Mike Jones improved to 1m20.094 to strengthen his claim on P3. Lachlan Epis was in P4 ahead of Cru Halliday and Arthur Sissis.  Four-minutes to go…

Wayne Maxwell exited pit-lane with two-minutes left on the clock while both Troy Herfoss and Mike Jones remained in the pits. However he abandond the opportunity to have one last crack at P1 and returned to the pits.

Thus Troy Herfoss takes the first championship point of the season with pole position ahead of Maxwell while Mike Jones rounds out the front row.

Lachlan Epis will head the second row alongside Cru Halliday and South Australian privateer Arthur Sissis.

Oli Bayliss heads row three ahead of Dunlop runners Bryan Staring and Aiden Wagner while Jed Metcher rounds out the top ten ahead of Mark Chiodo.

The rain started falling only minutes after the end of the session…

There is a full-second between third placed Jones and fourth placed Epis. Come the 16-lap races things are expect to be much tighter than the practice and qualifying times might suggest as the Dunlop runners are confident of having competitive race pace, and some might even elect to do the race distances on their softest option, particularly as conditions are expected to be much cooler on race day. Halliday was the leading Dunlop runner today in P5. Herfoss is on Michelin while both Maxwell and Jones are on Pirelli rubber.

Race one on Sunday is scheduled for 1100 and race two at 1410. 

Ty Lynch went down at turn two late in the second Supersport Qualifying session which caused a red flag due to the air-fence needing to be re-staked. The final seven-minutes of the session then got underway after a 15-minute delay but there no real changes at the top of the order. 

Tom Edwards didn’t lower his new lap record from this morning but Broc Pearson did move a little closer to the pole-man in the dying seconds of Q2. Max Stauffer rounds out the front row courtesy of his QP1 time, but is eight-tenths of a second behind the leading duo. 

The second row got shuffled in the final minutes of the re-started session. Tom Bramich was the big improver, jumping up from ninth place this morning to fourth place on combined times this afternoon.  That pushed Ty Lynch back to fifth while Scott Nicholson, another rider to improve his standing late in the session, rounds out that second row. 

Dallas Skeer on the only Suzuki in a field that is almost all-Yamaha, heads the third row ahead of Luke Power and John Lytras while Jack Hyde rounds out the top ten. 

Clouds had rolled in before Saturday’s afternoon’s qualifying sessions got underway but it was still hot and humid ahead of an expected cool change later this evening. The wind though had already increased due to a looming weather front moving in from the west. 

The fastest two competitors in Supersport 300 first qualifying, Carter Thompson and Ben Baker, didn’t take to the track in QP2, satisfied that their Q1 times would score them front row starts. That was indeed the case and Tom Drane remained third while Reece Oughtred moved up the charts to head the second row.

Tom Drane and Ben Baker were the leading two protagonists on the opening lap of the nine-lap Supersport 300 race after pole-sitter Carter Thompson failed to get off the line well and had to contend with some traffic.

By the end of lap two though Thompson had caught both of them and put a brave, but clean, around the outside move on Drane for second place at turn one that he made stick. 

Next target, Baker… Up the inside into the final double-right on the next lap Thompson made his move and went through to the lead, that lap by Thompson was a 1m31.500. Baker though came back at him up the inside at turn one in a good move but Thompson ultimately got the better of him a few turns later and put on an extra burst of speed to start inching away from Baker. That lap a 1m31.230 while his three closest pursuers, Baker, Drane and Oughtred recorded 1m31.7s. 

Just to show he was not out of the game Tom Drane then lowered the benchmark further, a 1m31.171 as he tried to close back on to second placed Baker. Meanwhile Brandon Demmery had got the better of Oughtred to move up into fourth place. 

With three laps to go less than a second covered the leading trio with Thompson in the lead from Baker who was now really starting to come under attack from Drane. On that third from last lap Thompson lowered the lap record to 1m30.884 and stretched another couple of bike lengths away from his pursuers. 

At the last lap board the gap was just under a second which Thompson then pushed out to 1.4-seconds by the chequered flag to take a convincing but still quite hard fought win. 

Baker held out Drane to take second place while Reece Oughtred managed to get back past Demmery to take fourth. 

Thompson’s new race lap record of 1m30.879 bettered the previous benchmark, set by Brandon Demmery in 2019, by half-a-second.

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