GOULBURN’S very own Troy Herfoss scored an emphatic round victory at rain soaked Wakefield Park on Saturday at the fifth round of the Australian FX-Superbike Championship (AFX-SBK).
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The win will see the Team Honda Racing star increase his lead in the title fight from 11 to 16 points over Yamaha’s Wayne Maxwell, with just two rounds remaining.
After qualifying in third, just .058sec behind Maxwell’s teammate, Cru Halliday, and .121sec behind Maxwell, Herfoss led the opening Superbike race on track following a late manoeuvre on Maxwell.
While Herfoss may have crossed the line in first position, he was later penalised one position for passing under a yellow flag which was out due to the stricken bike of Halliday’s who came off on the opening lap.
A dry track greeted the riders for race two, which saw the local hero storm to a 1.910sec victory over the third of the Yamaha riders, Glenn Allerton.
Herfoss took the spoils again in the final race of the day, which was the worst conditions of all, starting out dry before a red flag, and then rain caused an even longer stoppage.
The restart of race three was an all-in six lap dash to the line with Herfoss again taking the line honours, snaring the win from Maxwell by .359sec, with Allerton finishing in third place.
Not only did Herfoss taking the overall round win, but he also scored pole position for Sunday’s Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship and one championship point towards his championship.
“The weather sure has made it quite exciting that’s for sure,” Herfoss told the Goulburn Post.
“This round win is really good for the championship as I now extend my lead in the title fight and to get the pole position is so important at the moment as it’s so tight.
As there is only three points between us, I now open it to four points, so every one counts from here on.”
Herfoss did declare that he felt strong in the wet and the dry.
“Hopefully I have something up my sleeve for tomorrow (Sunday), especially on the older tyres.”
Maxwell scored a 1-3-2 result, which saw him finish second overall.
The 32-year-old Victorian openly admitted that he still is not getting it right on track when it counts.
“We’re not winning races when we should be. I just have to work harder and try and figure out why I’m not winning races,” said Maxwell.
Completing the top three was Allerton, who scored a 3-2-3 result.
The first of the Kawasaki mounted riders was Cessnock’s Matt Walters on the KMF Finance Kawasaki ZX10R machine.
Walters, the 2013 Australian Superbike Champion finished four points ahead of Cube Racing Team’s Mike Jones.
Rounding out the top ten was Linden Magee (LMR Honda), Will Davidson, Herfoss’s teammate, Jamie Stauffer, and the two SA Kawasaki Bcperformance riders, Evan Byles and Ben Burke.
Halliday had a somewhat disastrous day. The 27-year-old Camden rider crashed out of race one on the opening lap and then also out of the third race after clashing with Burke’s bike.
Other class winners included Queenslanders Kyle Buckley in the YRD Supersport class, which was his first ever round win in the Supersport category.
Buckley’s SA Kawasaki Bcperformance stable mate Jimmy Broadbent took out the Kawasaki Insurances FX 300 Ninja Cup with a 5-5-1 result.
Simon Galloway tasted victory in the Race Tech Formula Oz class; Jason Martin took the spoils in the Formula Xtreme C & D, while Kris Keen took gold in the AMCN Pro- Twins and Ian Goodwin in the Nakedbike.
A wrap up of how Herfoss went in Sunday’s Swann Superbike Series to come.
