Toparis saw rain drops on his visor and was passed by a couple of riders who went harder and didn't back off when light rain started to fall, but Toparis ended up back in front as a couple crashed.

He headed to the pits for his wet track bike and was heading out when they called a red flag. The remaining part of the race was shortened to six laps from the re-start.

“They said I had to start from the back of the grid, which was frustrating, because I didn’t feel I should have been,” Toparis said.

“I could have been able to battle for a win if I had been further up the grid. Anyway, I rode as hard as I could, dealt with what I had in sketchy conditions.”

From 19^th position he managed to work his way through the field in the 13.2 kilometres remaining to finish fourth, which gave him enough points to take the round victory.

“It was definitely a good weekend overall, and I felt like I did a good job,” he said.

“There were a lot of different conditions this weekend.

“I’m disappointed with some things, that’s for sure, [but] it’s really rewarding for myself and the Cube Racing team.

“I’m glad I could get this result so early in the season and I feel like we are in it for the championship now.” 

There were plenty of friends and family at Wakefield Park on Saturday and Sunday to see former Goulburn resident Troy Herfoss take pole position, a win and a second to finish with the round win in the ASBK YMI Superbikes for Crankt Protein Honda Racing.

Though Herfoss had pole position after completing the sighting lap on wet weather tyres, he changed to slicks as the track seemed to be relatively dry for race one.

Though he missed the start and had to start from behind, Herfoss was quickly through the field and leading. He opened up a huge gap on most of the field who were running wet weather tyres gambling on the rain holding off for the race.

That gamble paid off as he rounded up almost the entire field including Yamaha’s Wayne Maxwell, who was sitting in fourth spot for the championships after Phillip Island.

Herfoss won by four seconds in front of Robert Bugden (Kawasaki BCperformance, Kawasaki ZX-10R) and Josh Hook (Kawasaki ZX-10R).

The track was completely dry for the start of race two for the YMI Superbikes.

Herfoss got off to a bad start when his Honda was stuck on the line as his gearbox found a false neutral. He eventually left the start line in the middle of pack.

Herfoss cut through the field, taking advantage of his track knowledge to get to within a couple of places of Maxwell in the lead.

Herfoss soon caught and passed Maxwell, but Cru Halliday crashed hard on lap 16 and caused a red flag period.

As a result of the red flag, Maxwell was declared race winner, relegating Herfoss second place by default as results reverted to lap 15, with Caterpiller/JD Racing’s Daniel Falzon third.