On Sunday morning, Winton Circuit was another glorious morning, because before the first round of the Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship in 2021, the track was full of expectations.
After the shortening of 2020 and the stunted Covid-19 season, this year we can have a more traditional calendar. Of course, this year has been affected by the closure, which resulted in the postponement of the first round of matches on Phillip Island in February. In a turning point that caused severe brain damage to me, ASBK referred to this season's opener at Winton Circuit as the "second round". I can't understand why this is the case, which will undoubtedly make me feel frustrated throughout the season when we enter the "second round" (presumably we call it the "third round"), and so on. But anyway, it is enough for my obsessive-compulsive disorder, let's go back to the game... in the "second round" is actually the "first round"...
The ten-minute warm-up class this morning was conducted in a sunny but cool environment. The ambient temperature exceeded 15 degrees while reaching the predicted maximum temperature of 22 degrees. But it feels warmer than this, because Winton's flat and open ground does bake in the sun. The orbital temperature during the warm-up this morning was fine-tuned by 20 degrees.
Superbike riders did not waste time on the track, and most people stayed on the track throughout the session. The cat-and-mouse game between Wayne Maxwell and Troy Heffers is also in earnest. Herfoss is attached to the back of Maxwell to study the appearance of Boost Mobile Ducati. Wayne didn't hang out either, 1 meter 19.893 in the morning when he warmed up.
When they returned to the pits, the pair communicated their findings from the warm-up to their team, as they always measured their performance against each other. As the main competitors, Wayne and Troy are very concerned about each other, but this weekend there is a thin man on DesmoSport Ducati is also very fast. The competition between this pair of partners may actually fall into Jones’s hands. At the speed shown this weekend, the battle for the podium position will only take place between these three because they are faster than the others on the field. One second.
In the 16 lap race, things are expected to be much tighter than the practice and qualifying time implies. Some Dunlop runners are confident of having a competitive speed, but the cool conditions here this morning may put them further behind by eight goals.
Cru Halliday is the fastest in Dunlop, but it seems that no tire can play a role in the same race as the previous trio.
When the drivers stood on the grid, the track temperature just exceeded 30 degrees.
Troy Herfoss leads Wayne Maxwell ahead of the traditional quick starter Arthur Sissis, who has sneaked past Mike Jones.
Maxwell was knocked down by Hefors in the first slow tight right at the back of the track. It was a touchable action, not rude, but just a bit risky, although he kept it together to steal The lead, but it paid off. This seemed to disrupt Herfoss' rhythm. Herfoss took his line away from him, and then the Penrite Honda made a small mistake late in the opening lap, which allowed Wayne to gain Greater advantage. For the first time, the gap at the stripes reached a huge one-eighth. Advantage Maxwell!
In the second lap, Herfoss surpassed Maxwell's 19.675 points with a new lap record of 1 point and 19.598 points and recovered one tenth. At the start of the third lap, Jones had passed Sissis and was 1.4 seconds behind leader Maxwell.
Troy Herfoss then dropped with a staggering 1m19.274, clinging to the exhaust pipe of the Boost Mobile Ducati. The game starts now!
Herfoss stayed on Maxwell's tail for the next few laps and looked stable, oh, very smooth. Although crossing Maxwell means taking risks, Hevers seems to have a significant advantage in cornering, and Maxwell seems to have an advantage in the accelerator. Despite the battle and a clear track, Mike Jones did not create any obstacles in front of them. His own game ranked third, already 7 seconds ahead of the fourth-placed Kruhalidi.
Herfoss passed! The Penrite Honda man sneaked into the lead in the same corner that destroyed the Fireblade on Friday. This mistake is apparently completely forgotten by him now. In order to escape Maxwell, how hard would he push that front? Just enough? Still too much? This is a very good route...
Maxwell gave back his help in the same position on the next lap, allowing Boost Mobile Ducati to return to the leading position of the game.
The lines of the leading duo are so different. Herfoss ran very tight and Wayne used a longer arc when turning.
Herfoss was inside, Maxwell tried to fight back from the outside, Herfoss persisted and took the lead into the back of the track. This is a clean but rather difficult move. There are four laps left. Herfoss is at greater risk on the track today because he does not have a spare bike. If he crashes this bike seriously, he will be out on the weekend... Maxwell has a spare bike... Neither of them wants to crash, but Herfoss crashes Will be the most expensive.
When they started the penultimate lap, Herfoss was two tenths ahead of Maxwell. Jones ranked third with a time of 2.7 seconds.
The last lap board and gap remain unchanged. Now Herfoss twisted the throttle significantly harder, and Michelin in the back row began to protest for the first time. Maxwell crossed the narrow section of the road and fixed it together on the inside of the last turn. Hevers refueled and tried to get back to him, but the rear tire broke sideways and he had to leave the throttle to recover before he entered. Lost the front at the last turn.
Mike Jones swept the fallen Herfoss and finished third. A bad start is indeed costly for Jones, but it must be said that even if he runs very well, he doesn't want the absolute speed to truly challenge the leading duo.
A crash during qualifying meant that Glenn Allerton started at 12th place on the grid, but he quickly moved up to fifth place, and then approached Halliday late in the race, but the YRT men insisted on overtaking Defeated the fallen Herfoss and finished third. Some people questioned whether Halliday had ever made a yellow pass. We believe that NextGen BMW has already lodged a protest, and the hearing will be held later tonight.
Privateer Arthur Sissis of South Australia fulfilled his promises in practice and qualifying, leading Aiden Wagner to fifth place.
The 17-year-old rookie Oli Bayliss (Oli Bayliss) maintained a clean nose throughout the weekend and has been steadily improving. His fastest lap in the race was 2 seconds slower than the new lap record set by Herfoss and 1.4 seconds slower than his experienced DesmoSport Ducati teammate Mike Jones. The important thing is that he learns every lap and stays calm. This means that what he is doing is exactly what people expect of him.
Despite several crashes over the weekend, Jed Metcher was on the right track and finished eighth ahead of Bryan Staring. Lachlan Epis entered the top ten.
Herfoss allowed Penrite Honda to start grabbing points in 11th place, which showed that his bike was slightly damaged, enough to make him recover equally strong in the second race. The 11th place also earned him 10 important championship points. Together with his pole position score, his points are 11 points higher than Wayne's 25 points.
The beginning of the season! The Maxwell v Herfoss scale I mentioned this weekend and in the pre-season test report is again beneficial to Maxwell... We only have a few hours to wait for the second game... Come on!
The pace of Supersport this weekend has been intense, Brock Pearson and Tom Edwards are far below the lap record, and are the two main combatants. Max Stauffer, Tom Bramich, Dallas Skeer, Luke Power and John Lytras are the best among others, but on paper, judging from the wins in the qualifying rounds, this will be a match between Pearson and Edwards.
Max Stauffer had other ideas when scoring, but unfortunately he ran too deep in the first corner, which opened the door for Tom Edwards to lead. He immediately lowered his head to stay away from the field. Pearson ranked fourth after Tom Bramitch early, but rose to third before the end of the first lap. Although Edwards is now 1.5 seconds ahead of Pearson at the end of the first lap, the Queenslander did the job for him.
Pearson chased Max Stauffer on the second lap and took action early on the third lap after entering the first group at 1:22. 22.939 helped him knock out Edwards' lead by half a second.
Pearson then supported this with a new lap record of 1 minute 22.776 seconds, pulling Edwards' lead by a few tenths. The race leader responded with a score of 22.773 on the next lap, but Pearson overtook him with a score of 22.600. Now the gap has narrowed to half a second. Then Pearson lowered the record to 1 point 22.364 points on the next lap, and the leading duo is now 3 seconds ahead of third place Max Stauffer.
Scott Nicholson had an excellent ride, surpassing Tom Bramich in the first few laps to finish fourth.
When the game entered the second half, Edwards was still ahead of Pearson, and the gap between them was between half a second and a second. Perhaps Pearson's tires started complaining after the record speed of consecutive laps he showed early in order to recover from that bad start. The track temperature is now just over 25 degrees, and the tire technicians here this morning will definitely be worried about the cold tear of the rubber.
After running for five laps, Pearson followed Edwards' tail closely. Regardless of whether the tires were worn or not, the two drivers continued to maintain the results of 1.222.3 and 1.22.4 seconds. These times are a full second faster than any other rider in the field.
Tom Edwards is clearly beginning to struggle with driving, and Pearson's machine still looks good. Although the Queenslander is very stable on the bike compared to Edwards, maybe this is the reason for the difference, or his rear suspension performs better than Edwards' impact.
With two laps left, the pair still leads by 1 minute and 22.5 seconds and is now 9 seconds ahead of the other players. In the next group, Scott Nicholson is now close and threatening Max Stover for third place. However, Stauffer made a mistake and ran off the track, which put Nicholson on the podium.
On the last lap, Pearson hadn’t acted on Edwards. Maybe he had a plan, but when Pearson entered a too hot turn and ran a bit wide, the plan failed a few laps from the end. His chance is gone.
Tom Edwards was a well-deserved victor. Broc Pearson ranked second, Scott Nicholson ranked third, and Max Stauffer recovered from the above mistake and finished fourth.
Luke Power surpassed Tom Bramich to finish fifth, while Dallas Skeer was seventh, ahead of John Lytras and Jack Passfield (Jack Passfield) and Aidan Hayes (Aidan Hayes) entered the top ten.
Carter Thompson was ahead of Ben Baker and Tom Drane in the second Supersport 300 game of the season, while Brandon Demmery took a strong fourth lead and then fell at the 7th corner of the second lap, which boosted Reece Oughtred. Arrived in fourth place.
Ben Baker defeated Thompson in the R3 Cup earlier today, but this time Thompson is demonstrating his authority and emphasized the statement with a new lap record of 1 point 30.899 points, and then 1 point 30.798 points. The results support it to expand the lead over Baker by two seconds. Not satisfied with this, Thompson then lowered his lap record to 1 point 30.673 points on the final lap to ensure a decisive victory. Given that Clear Thompson looks unbeatable, his opponent's strategy must boil down to ensuring that they get to the first round before the young genius, and then stop him.
Taking into account the speed of 1 minute 30.673 points, the experienced super bike riders Michael Edwards and Patrick Lee obtained the super bike qualification with 1 point 28.603 points and 1 point 28.511 points respectively. These kids are faster on these 45-horsepower, 145 kg, 321 cc parallel double YZF-R3 tiddlers than most "fast group" track day bettors, their $50,000 Ducati loaded with 20k bling... …. Oh, Carter Thompson just turned 13 years old.
Motojourno-Founder of MCNews.com.au-Australia's leading motorcycle news, commentary and event reporting resource for more than 20 years.
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