IT has been a fairy tale year for former Goulburn resident Troy Herfoss, who snared another championship win last weekend at Victoria’s Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit at the Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
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The Crankt Protein Team Honda Racing rider won the Phillip Island Superbike Championship, which is a two round series.
The first round was held in February, alongside the opening round of World Superbike Championship and the second was run in conjunction with Australian round of the MotoGP.
It was a difficult start for Herfoss and his rivals on Friday, after having to put up with inclement weather conditions.
Herfoss managed to qualify his Honda CBR1000RR SP machine in third place in damp conditions with a time of 1min38.731, 1.439sec behind Brayden Elliott and 1.640sec behind the former two times Australian Superbike champion, Josh Waters.
The opening ten-lap-race on Friday afternoon was would have been more suited to jetski racing rather than motorcycle racing, as it simply poured down with rain making things quite tricky out on track.
Waters, riding the Custom Plates Yamaha R1 entered machine left Herfoss in wake, beating him by a whopping 7.215sec. Due to heavy rain, the scheduled second race didn’t run, making the round a three race format, instead of four.
Dry conditions were welcomed by riders in race two. Herfoss lead for the first three laps of the eight lap encounter, before his teammate, Jamie Stauffer took command of the race on lap four and was never headed. Herfoss and Waters engaged in a battle for second, which saw the 2016 Australian Superbike Champion missing out on the runner up position by a mere .021sec.
Waters claimed victory in the final race, .089sec ahead of Stauffer. This handed Waters the overall round win, beating Stauffer by seven points. Elliott crossed the line in third place ahead of Herfoss, but with Herfoss scoring 55-points for the round, thus third place for the weekend, it was good enough for the 29-year-old to lock up the 2016 Phillip Island Superbike Championship.
Herfoss, who described the weekend as “crazy” said; “as most race fans and riders know, you never know what you’re going to get weather wise at Phillip Island, and true to tradition we were certainly dealt with every element at the MotoGP this weekend.”
“The boys had a great pace this weekend, and both Josh [Waters] and Jamie were tough competition. We had some tight battles between us, and I hope the fans enjoyed the Australian Superbike races as much as we enjoyed being out there.
“To stand on the MotoGP podium this weekend, and to walk away with the 2016 Australian Phillip Island Superbike Championship was a nice way to cap off a great year with the team. I’m excited for 2017, and proud of everything we have achieved together throughout this season.”
Toparis steps up
Meanwhile up and coming young star Tom Toparis sure did open some eyes after his stellar performance in his debut outing in the Supersport class.
The 16-year-old showed he will be a threat in the future as he rode to a strong fifth-place result on Sunday in the dry, beating his Cube Racing teammate Robbie Menzies by .289sec. However, Toparis was unable contest the opening race as he didn't have a back-up ZX6R machine with wet settings available.
"Race two was really good for my first proper 600 race," Toparis commented. "The track was still very cold this morning (Sunday), but it turned out to be a good day. I had a great battle with Robbie and Mark [Chiodo], and ended up fifth, which I'm really happy with!”
“It's a shame I only got in one race, but it's all good. I have to say a huge thanks to Mum and Dad, also Ben Henry for making the weekend possible."
Stay tuned to the Goulburn Post as we will bring you a one-on-one with Herfoss and Toparis as they will explain their season from their point of view.
