Debuting the all new Crankt Protein Team Honda Racing CBR1000RR SP2 machine, Herfoss could not have asked for a better result at the Top End.

The reigning Australian Superbike champion qualified the all new Honda machine in fourth place with a time of 1min06.398, which was .162 seconds shy off Yamaha Racing Team’s Wayne Maxwell.

The 30-year-old was more than happy with qualifying fourth on the grid as he didn't get the best run in qualifying two and he definitely had more pace than he showed.

Herfoss, who could only mainly manage to produce a 1min06.999 in Friday’s third practice session, said after qualifying; “we have closed the gap to the leaders. I said yesterday, we are going to be late for the party and we were late, but now we have arrived!”

Herfoss managed to convert his fourth place qualifying into two second place finishes, scoring a total of forty points for the round.

Race one saw Herfoss finishing .453 seconds behind Team Suzuki ECSTAR’s Josh Waters, with Maxwell joining them on the podium, who was .297 seconds behind Herfoss.

Race two however was where the championship swung around a little bit. Waters may have taken another win, this time 2.868 seconds ahead of Herfoss with his teammate Bryan Staring also on the podium. 

Although, it was on lap eight which saw one of Herfoss’s main title rivals, Maxwell, crashing out on lap five after losing the front end at turn five, which might just have been a big moment for the Victorian rider in terms of his championship challenge for the 2017 season, as he now sits in fourth place in the championship, 22-points behind Herfoss and JD Racing’s Daniel Falzon.

At the conclusion of round four, Falzon, who lead the championship by nine points over Herfoss and Maxwell going into round four, was excluded from race one due causing a red flag after the Clerk of Course disqualified the young South Australian after it was deemed that he was the cause of the red flag.

However, an official press release yesterday by Motorcycling Australia (MA) said that Falzon managed to win his appeal against his disqualification, which means his sixth place in race one was handed back to him.

With Falzon scoring a two sixth places for round four, it gave him a total of 31-points for the round. This now means both Herfoss and Falzon will head into round five of the championship locked on 170-points apiece, with Kawasaki BCperformance’s Robbie Bugden in third place, thirteen points behind the duo.   

The ASBK series now heads to Queensland’s Morgan Park Raceway, which will take place on the last weekend of August.