The Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented Motul Pirelli gets back underway, the first weekend of June, for the fourth round over in the west at Barbagallo Raceway, situated 45km north east of Perth.

It’s WA’s action track!

In fact, it’s the only race track in Western Australia.

The circuit was originally known as Wanneroo Raceway, but now days it’s called Barbagallo Raceway, named after Alf Barbagallo, a long time car and motorsport identity in Perth who paid for the upgrades to the circuit to the short track in 1992.

This 2.411km seven corner circuit, which runs in a clockwise direction is another classic ‘old school’ track.

It dips, it falls, it climbs, it swoops and it’s covered in sand because the track is surrounded by it.

In the premier Superbike class, well, it’s still anyone’s championship, with a total of 150-championship points up for grabs until the season comes to a close on the first weekend of October at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria.

Realistically however, the championship looks as if it will be a three way fight to the very end, which sees Yamaha Racing Team’s Glenn Allerton leading the merry way on 133-points, two points clear from his teammate Wayne Maxwell, while former Goulburn resident Troy Herfoss sits in third place, six points behind Maxwell.

Round three, seven weekends ago, at Sydney Motorsport Park saw Maxwell standing tall after the 33-year-old Victorian took pole position and two emphatic victories ahead of Allerton, who re-took the championship away from Herfoss, who finished fifth overall with fifth in race one and seventh in a very wet race two.

The million dollar question leading into round four, is the Crankt Protein Team Honda Racing pilot confident of getting a better result than what he did last time out?

“I’m confident enough that we will be near the front,” Herfoss told the Goulburn Post.

“There are a few areas we need to improve on with the Honda CBR1000RR SP.

The bike handles really well, however we just have to get a few things sorted so I can get off the corners a bit better.”

“At Sydney Motorsport Park we really struggled to get off the corners, which just magnified the problem that we had with top speed.

If we can just get a bit more grip, we will be good from there.”

On top of getting a good bike setup, Herfoss will have to get up to speed with the track as he does not have a lot of experience there.

The last time the 29-year-old raced at Barbagallo was in 2011 when he was a part of Team Suzuki, which saw him finish seventh overall with a 5-8 result.

Herfoss explained that his goal for this weekend was to be able to get to the final few laps in the two twenty-lap-races and be within striking distance of the front guys.

As per normal, Herfoss will have to put up a fight with the two leading Yamaha riders, who admit they both really enjoy racing at Barbagallo.

Allerton, currently holds the lap record around Barbagallo, with a 55.533, set in race two in 2011, which is 0.411 seconds faster than Jason Bright’s V8 Supercar lap record from 2004.

“Barbagallo would be one of my favourite places to race at. I simply love the place,” Allerton said.

While, Maxwell, who last raced over in the west was in 2014 at the Kings of Wanneroo said, “I’m really looking forward racing Barbagallo, as it’s one of my favourite circuits and I believe it should suit the Yamaha R1M quite well.”

To keep up to date with how Herfoss fairs this weekend and the remaining ASBK season, make sure you head to his facebook page – Troy Herfoss Racing. 

Championship Standings after Round Three

1st Glenn Allerton 133

2nd Wayne Maxwell 131

3rd Troy Herfoss 125

4th Mike Jones 93

5th Ben Burke 85

6th Cru Halliday 77

7th Daniel Falzon 70

8th Brayden Elliott 67

9th Michael Blair 66

10th Matt Walters 61