Herfoss Seizes Championship Lead With Decisive Victories at Morgan Park
The fifth round of the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul was absolutely breathtaking with exceptional racing across all the classes and has wet the appetite for a monumental last two rounds. Every race featured at least four riders duking it out for the win with some races decided by tens of thousandths of a second.
As for the premier category, the Alpinestars Superbike class, the championship has been turned on its head.
Race One
The first 16-lap race exploded into action with Herfoss grabbing the holeshot from Jones, Waters, Allerton, Halliday, and Arthur Sissis who had a blinding start while Broc Pearson went backward from the first row to be back in eighth position after the first lap with the top five separated by just 0.766 seconds.
Halliday was the first to be dropped off the extremely fast pace with Allerton valiantly hanging on to the leading trio of Herfoss, Jones and Waters. The leading pair were locked together as Waters was on the rear wheel of Jones as Herfoss tried to break away. Herfoss led for the opening five laps from Jones and Waters as Jones tried everything in the book but on the sixth lap, he found the page with the move to take the lead in a great braking move, but Herfoss was back in front two laps later.
The pace started to tell on Waters as he was noticeably dropping off the pair to be over a second off the lead after 10-laps as millimetres separated the two riders who have dominated the previous two rounds. On the start of the twelfth lap as Waters tried valiantly to keep in touch, in a déjà vu moment from Darwin ran off the track at Turn Two but managed to re-join way back in eleventh place nearly 20 seconds adrift while Allerton inherited third place. The mistake ensured that Herfoss would take the lead in the championship. It all is depending on how many places Waters could make up to salvage as many points as possible.
Josh Waters surrenders his championship lead after a race one mistake
The dynamic duo was all over each other with no rider able to make a break as Jones retook the lead on the fourteenth lap setting the scene for a lightning bolt finish. For nine of the sixteen laps the pair were separated by less than a tenth of a second bringing back memories of the golden years of Australian road racing with the legendary battles of Robbie Phillis and Mal Campbell. The engrossed spectators all knew that there was one shot left for Herfoss in the closing two laps and it happened at the sixth corner on the last lap as Herfoss jammed his Honda on the inside of Jones and in a perfect brake check forced Jones wide with the pair side by side on the exit, but Herfoss had the slight advantage to get on the gas that millisecond earlier.
Jones tried a way through in the final few corners, but Herfoss was not to be denied and took the win by 0.097 of a second from Jones to move into the championship lead. Allerton was third a little over a second in front of Halliday with Pearson recovering from his bad start to claim another sixth place from Bryan Staring, Anthony West, and Arthur Sissis. The end results saw Waters eight-point lead turn around to be a five-point deficient. As Jones continued to clamber up the points table in his sterling efforts to retain his Number One plate.
Troy Herfoss and Mike Jones were inseparable for the third round in a row
Race Two
By the time the Alpinestars Superbike field lined up for race two, the track temp was over 38 degrees and the wind had dropped to ensure the race would be run at a red-hot pace.
Lights out and it was Herfoss again who stormed into the lead with Allerton in hot pursuit with Pearson third from Jones, but Jones was into third by the end of the opening lap while Waters had a shocker of a start in his view to end lap one in sixth place.
Jones muscled his way into second place on the fifth lap with a gap of about eight bike lengths to make up as Herfoss set the pace at the front although Jones bettered Herfoss’ 2018 lap record on the second lap and on the fifth lowered it again to take almost half a second off the old record. An amazing feat considering the tight nature of Morgan Park where it is so very difficult to make up time.
Allerton held third for the entire race while Pearson managed to maintain fourth spot for the entire race as some battles raged behind with Halliday, Waters, Staring, West and Sissis having some great battles just out of the top four spots.
Broc Pearson recovered from a difficult race one to be right in the mix in race two
Back at the front, the Jones and Herfoss street fight continued unabated as Herfoss attempted to keep the ever-closing Jones at bay. Jones had his wish answered at the halfway point to take the lead and held it for five laps before Herfoss found a way through, but it was far from over. With just over a lap remaining Jones hit the front again and it appeared that he had enough of a gap to finally grab his first victory since the final round at The Bend Motorsport Park last year.
But with just three corners remaining Jones tried to cover his line but entered turn ten a little too hot and a little too tight as he attempted to prevent Herfoss from a final attack but the rear tyre of his bike slid out which was enough for Herfoss to slip underneath the Yamaha and take the lead with enough momentum to hang onto take the win by nearly eight-tenths of a second, the biggest gap between the pair the entire weekend.
Herfoss and Jones are joined on the round podium by Glenn Allerton
Herfoss’ victory has seen his lead over Waters increase to fourteen points with Jones in third just six points ahead of Allerton.
With four races left and 102 points up for grabs the 2023 season is shaping up as another to provide another exciting climax to an enthralling season.
Sunday report by Mark Bracks, imagery by Endorphin Media and Russell Colvin.
For more information on the 2023 mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship Presented by Motul season, stay tuned to the ASBK website and social pages:
Official Calendar for the 2023 mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul (ASBK)
