Troy Herfoss wins shortened ASBK Race Three as Bayliss crash causes red flag

2018 ASBK – Round Three – The Bend

ASBK Superbike Race Three

Wayne Maxwell had taken the opening ASBK Superbike victory at South Australia’s The Bend Motorsport Complex on Saturday but Troy Herfoss had stole his thunder this morning with victory in the second ten-lap bout of the weekend. Thanks to his pole position Maxwell had earned 44-points this weekend to Herfoss’ 43 ahead of the final race on Sunday afternoon.

Troy Bayliss had been starting strongly but fading with tyre wear while the surprise package this morning, not only to us but also to himself, was Bryan Staring on the BCperformance Kawasaki.

Staring, the only Dunlop shod front runner, had really been struggling with tyre longevity but they had made some sort of breakthrough this morning that helped him stay the distance and almost steal the win from Herfoss. The Western Australian would be reinvigorated on the back of that result and determined to go one better in this final stanza of The Bend weekend.

Glenn Allerton seemed to have also made some steps forward this morning, getting the better of Troy Bayliss late in the race, as had Daniel Falzon.

Josh Waters had suffered technical problems with the GSX-R1000R in this morning’s bout and the fault had been hard for the team to chase down.

The lights went out at 1255 and again it was ex-speedway star Arthur Sissis that made the rest of the Superbike field look like slugs off the line as he shot through to the lead as they headed to turn one but Herfoss and Bayliss made light work of the South Australian. Maxwell was behind Sissis with Daniel Falzon, Josh Waters, Bryan Staring, Glenn Allerton and Alex Phillis rounding out the early top ten.

Arthur Sissis proved a forced to be reckoned with off the Race 3 start before moving back through the field

Troy Bayliss took the lead at the beginning of lap two and was looking determined to make up for that rather average, for him, result in race two.

It took Maxwell until late on the second lap to get the better of Sissis and by that time Bayliss and Herfoss had almost a full-second on him.

Daniel Falzon then got Sissis early on lap three as Josh Waters also started to look for a way past. It took the reigning champion another two laps to make that move up to fifth.

Troy Herfoss then took the lead with seven laps to run, pushing Bayliss back to second place while Daniel Falzon had arrived to join the party and was now all over the back of YRT teammate Maxwell.

A lap later Maxwell also dispensed with Bayliss as the Ducati legends lap times started to falter. TB had a major moment at turn 16 which made him get out of the throttle and kick up some grass, allowing Falzon to push him back to fourth place.

Herfoss leading Falzon and Maxwell from Bayliss, who later crashed with the race red flagged as a result

Daniel Falzon then stepped his efforts up another gear to slip past Maxwell and almost managed to steal the lead from Herfoss at turn one as the race broached the halfway point. Falzon did get Herfoss at that point the next lap around but the Honda man quickly reasserted his authority up front.

Bayliss Down

Then Troy Bayliss went down, causing officials to put a red flag out. TB was moving but the Ducati had landed on his leg causing him some pain, but he was hidden from the cameras by his bike which led officials to stop the race.

As the race was passed half-distance that also caused the officials to declare the race, with the results taken back a lap, and full points awarded.

Troy Herfoss

“It is such a good feeling to get the win here as it was such a difficult race out there, I was trying to control the race as well as I could and then I looked back and saw Daniel and knew he would be hungry for a win so I put my head down and continued to push. The Penrite Honda team and the Pirelli tyres are all going well so now we look forward to Darwin,”