Yamaha Racing Team’s Jamie Stauffer and Joe Rocket Honda’s Adam ‘Krusty’ Fergusson have fought an intense battle for top of the table practice bragging rights at the third round of the YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship at South Australia’s Mallala Motorsport Park today.

The duel between Stauffer and Fergusson extended across dual classes, with both riders fielding entries in the headline Superbike and Supersport categories.

The factory riders from the blue and red corners respectively traded places in the hunt for provisional pole position, with Stauffer only edging out Fergusson late in both afternoon sessions.

Championship leader Stauffer said he was pleased with the performance of both machines but felt there was extra to be found during qualifying.

“It was a really quick turnaround after Western Australia so we were fortunate that setup wasn’t too different between the tracks,” explained Stauffer.

“At this stage everything is going to plan, we finished on top but there is still some more speed to find in both bikes before we get to racing,” he said.

“The team will make some changes overnight and we’ll try a few things in order to get an advantage in qualifying, Adam (Fergusson) has a great record here and he among the other top riders will be very hard to beat.”

Adam Fergusson suits up for the factory Joe Rocket Honda outfit boasting an ominous record at the physically-demanding Mallala circuit.

‘Krusty’ has taken four from four pole positions and three from four round wins across the headline classes in the last two years, and has begun his campaign for another dominant Mallala performance in the best possible style.

He made a surprise comeback to the series at last weekend’s Barbagallo Raceway round just over a month after breaking his C5 vertebrae, and while his championship points bank looks quite lean, there is no question about his intentions for this round and indeed the rest of the seven-round series.

“I have a pretty solid history of top results at Mallala so I’m expecting to be able to do the same again this weekend,” said Fergusson.

“I’m really happy that this neck injury has come good so quickly, it could have been a lot worse and I was almost expecting to be out for a round or two more, but I’m feeling great and know that we have the bikes set up as good as they can be.”

Fergusson’s teammate Glenn Allerton began the weekend on a high note but came crashing back down to earth, quite literally, as he was thrown from his bike in a nasty high-side incident.

The Superbike field had only left pitlane 30 seconds prior to the incident, which red-flagged the session as the Honda RaceSafe crew rushed to attend Allerton who lay unconscious beside the circuit.

Allerton gained consciousness soon after but has this evening been taken to hospital for precautionary observations, including x-rays and scans to ensure he has not sustained any serious injury.

Another high-profile rider affected by injury this weekend was Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Shawn Giles, who was making an amazing return to racing less than a week after breaking his foot at the previous round.

A sore and sorry Giles was determined to overcome the injury and suited up for the opening Superbike practice, only to complete around half the session before returning to the pit garage to rethink his plan of attack for the weekend.

The decision was made to give the multiple champion an extra day to recover and assess his strength and discomfort, and he will aim to take to the track for tomorrow’s qualifying session.