Current Australian Superbike Championship leader Troy Herfoss and his Victorian based team completed a two day test at Queensland’s Morgan Park Raceway on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The testing ahead of next week’s round five of the ASBK Championships saw the 31-year-old walking away more than happy with how things panned out.
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It’s fair to say that the former Goulburn resident has been doing a lot of riding in the past few weeks, being at the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan, where he and the Honda Asia Dream Racing team finished in seventh place. This resulted in Herfoss feeling very good on the bike over the last two days at the unofficial test, ahead of next weekend’s fifth round of the Australian Superbike Championship.
“It was very foreign for me to come to a rough track, such as Morgan Park,” Herfoss told the Goulburn Post.
“On top of that, the Penrite Team Honda Racing CBR 1000RR SP1 is very different to the bike I rode at the Suzuka 8 Hours, so I had to basically try and reset the mind to our spec of machine which took a day to do so,” admitted Herfoss, who will start his 60th Australian Superbike race in race two next weekend at the 2.967km circuit which is located near Warwick.
On Tuesday, a lot of the issues where coming from Herfoss’ end. However, the 2010 Australian Supersport, 2015 Australasian Superbike and 2016 Australian Superbike champion woke up on the right side of the bed on Wednesday and was straight on the pace in all sessions.
Herfoss completed a lot of long runs on both the Pirelli SCX and SC0, and are now sort of in a hard position, as both tyres were working quite well for him.
“We don’t know what tyres to run for next weekend just yet,” explained Herfoss.
“We will have to make up a decision and I guess that will come down to next weekend at the round itself on what the circumstances are like.”
The last two days have seen Herfoss and his team trying different setup changes to the front and rear of the bike. On top of that, Herfoss’ motorcycle has an up dated ECU.
“With the new ECU on the bike, it gives my team manager, Shaun Clarke a few more toys to play with. It’s been a busy few days, but we have got through most of it so far,” expressed Herfoss.
In terms of what lap times Herfoss produced. Well, Herfoss was not giving anything away, but declared that he was fast enough, judging off last year’s pace.
With Herfoss leading Yamaha Racing Team’s Wayne Maxwell by 29.5 points in the championship fight, just what is Herfoss’ mindset heading into the third last round of the season next week?
“My mentally is attack, attack and attack and keep ourselves on the front foot and try and lead from the front. There’s three rounds to go, which means there are six races left, so we have to keep attacking,” declared Herfoss, who has eight round victories to his name in the ASBK Superbike category.
Round five of the Australian Superbike Championship takes place from 17-19 August. For more information, head to www.asbk.com.au.
Australian Superbike Championship – after 4 rounds (Top 10):
- 1st Troy Herfoss Honda 205.5
- 2nd Wayne Maxwell Yamaha 176
- 3rd Troy Bayliss Ducati 157
- 4th Daniel Falzon Yamaha 154
- 5th Josh Waters Suzuki 148.5
- 6th Bryan Staring Kawasaki 142.5
- 7th Glenn Allerton BMW 124
- 8th Alex Phillis Suzuki 106
- 9th Matt Walters Kawasaki 83
- 10th Arthur Sissis Honda 79.5