Former resident Troy Herfoss and his Crankt Protein Team Honda Racing squad have walked away from the two day official Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli more than confident as they now head into the third round of the series, taking place at the end of this month.
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Herfoss and his Victorian based team were primarily putting a set of new front forks through their paces during the two days of testing. The first day of testing the reigning Australian Superbike champion openly admitted that he and his team lost their way a little, which did look a bit bad. However, in the end it did go in the right direction for them.
“We have a found a direction to go from for tomorrow and I'm confident we can be very competitive,” said Herfoss who posted the seventh fastest time in the overall combined times with a 1min22.874, just .302sec behind his teammate, Bryan Staring.
True to his words, on the second day of testing Herfoss was more than competitive which saw him posting the third overall fastest time of the day with a 1min21.018 that he set in the second session, which was the fastest time.
Herfoss’s time was .074sec shy of the current Superbike championship leader Daniel Falzon and a further .248sec slower of CHR Yamaha’s Cru Halliday, who both were the only two riders to lap in the 1min20’s around the 3.0km circuit.
While Herfoss did not set the world on fire with the overall lap times, he is not that worried, as he knows he has a good race package come race time.
“You see guys going really fast in testing for one or two laps, which is obviously good for qualifying. However after these two days of testing I know we have a really strong Honda CBR1000RR SP,” Herfoss told the Goulburn Post at the conclusion of testing.
“We realised this at Wakefield Park. Now we can take confidence to the actual round here at Winton in a few weeks’ time after what we have learnt from testing here over the course of the two days.”
The main thing is that Herfoss and his team have figured out the new fork and have got it 95% there. While it was a good day for Herfoss, he admitted it would have been nice to have got one or two more sessions in.
“I believe on the Friday at round three of the championship we will be able to have the forks dialled right in just the way we want it. We don’t have any major changes to do now. We just have some very small fine tuning. If we did have to race the bike as it is now, we would still be competitive. It’s all about fine tuning now.”
Herfoss explained that he just wants a bit more confidence off the brakes to run into the middle of the corner. However after getting in a decent set of laps in the final session the overall outcome saw Herfoss happy enough with posting times in the low 21’s.
Herfoss will definitely be strong come race time as his race pace should to be three or four tenths faster.
“We are really happy where we are at. The Crankt Protein Honda CBR1000RR SP machine is really easy to ride, so I’m going to be able to fight at the hard end of the race. So I’m really looking forward to the next round in a few weeks’ time,” declared Herfoss, who will go into round three sitting second in the championship order, thirteen points behind Falzon.
“I’m feeling so much better, as we had such a dominant weekend at Wakefield Park. It’s important for my confidence and also for the team as well. Just knowing when the red lights go out we have a really strong package for the race.”
On top of that Herfoss regards Winton as one of his favourite tracks on the ASBK tour. The Victorian circuit which was built in 1961 will always hold good memories for Herfoss, as it’s where he broke through to claim his first ever national Superbike race win and round win, while he was racing in the Australasian Superbike Championship in the 2014 season.
“It’s a fun track to race at. It’s physical with some fast and following turns as well as some tight and twisty stuff at the top end of the circuit. That’s why Winton creates some close racing which is always enjoyable.”
For a full run down on times, head to Computime. Round three of the Australian Superbike Championship will be held from 28-30 April.
SUPERBIKE Combined Practices
Day 1:
- 1st Cru Halliday Yamaha 1min21.132
- 2nd Daniel Falzon Yamaha 1min21.331
- 3rd Wayne Maxwell Yamaha 1min21.563
- 4th Josh Waters Suzuki 1min21.622
- 5th Robbie Bugden Kawasaki 1min22.343
- 7th Troy Herfoss Honda 1min22.874
Day 2:
- 1st Cru Halliday Yamaha 1min20.770
- 2nd Daniel Falzon Yamaha 1min20.944
- 3rd Troy Herfoss Honda 1min21.018
- 4th Wayne Maxwell Yamaha 1min21.046
- 5th Bryan Staring Honda 1min21.504