Wayne Maxwell on provisional pole at The Bend

Wayne Maxwell tops QP1 at The Bend

As ASBK Superbike competitors exited pitlane at 1550 this afternoon there was a band of rain approaching from the west. It still looked at least 20-minutes away from Tailem Bend on the radar, but it was coming…

There is also the slight chance of an early shower tomorrow, and with Q2 scheduled for 0940 Saturday morning, there would be numerous scenarios playing on the minds of the teams as they planned for this Q1 session.

Would it be best to come out of the blocks hard? Ensuring they could get a good time down ahead of any possible rain this afternoon, and just in case it was damp tomorrow morning..? That hypothesis surely had to be considered…

Troy Herfoss had topped practice, a 1m53.203 to the Penrite Honda man making him the fastest ever man around The Bend on a motorcycle. Would that time be beaten in Q1? Would we see our first 1m52sec lap..? We would seen get our answers…

Jamie Stauffer was the first man out on the circuit when pit-lane opened and his first flying lap was a 1m56.439. Five minutes later still none of the top eight competitors in practice had joined the circuit.

Mark Chiodo was the first rider to make a huge leap forward from his practice times, a 1m55.059 on the Team Suzuki rookie’s first flying lap, a full-second quicker than he had managed before around The Bend. He immediately backed it up with a 1m55.073 on his next lap.

Arthur Sissis then relegated Chiodo to second place after putting in a 1m54.939, that time 1.4-seconds quicker than the local rider managed this morning.

Bryan Staring then hit the circuit and immediately dropped in a 1m54.390, while Alex Phillis clocked a 1m54.419 for second place. A modest improvement on Staring’s practice time but a huge leap forward for Phillis.

The session was approaching the halfway mark and still the likes of Herfoss, Bayliss, Maxwell, Waters, Falzon and Allerton had yet to turn a wheel.. With nine tyres to use from and riders struggling with not only rear tyre wear, but also front tyre wear, when they did hit the track the aim would be to do a scorcher in the mimimum possible amount of laps.

Troy Bayliss then made his move. TB was marginally under at the first split but had to abort his first flying lap after running a little deep. He then bided his time and started looking for enough clear track to make a new one-lap attack. The Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition thundered across the stripe with 14-minutes remaining in the session to start a flyer. Bayliss was 0.347s under at the first split…  0.519s under at the second split… Then 1.139s under at the third split…At the line the end result was the first ever 1m52s lap of The Bend! A 1m52.686 had Troy Bayliss on provisional pole.

Now there was a flurry of action in pit-lane.  Troy Herfoss was putting his gloves on as the Penrite Honda squad checked tyre pressues one last time before removing the tyre warmers.. There was 10 minutes to go…

Daniel Falzon and Wayne Maxwell were out first though. Falzon’s first flyer a 1m53.376, three-tenths better than he managed this morning but a far cry from TB.

Wayne Maxwell was two-tenths off Bayliss at the first split but made up a huge amount of time in the next sector be two-tenths quicker than Bayliss! At the third marker he was still under by 0.149s.. The suspense… There it is, a 1m52.620 from Maxwell to steal provisional pole from Bayliss.

But Maxwell was not done! At the first split the next time around he was four-tenths quicker! He maintained almost that buffer at the second split…  The new benchmark a 1m52.374! Take that says #47!

Troy Herfoss was now out on track and put in a 1m53.008 on his first flying lap. He was on course to go quicker but the second half of the lap cost him some time.  Next time around he was a tenth slower than Maxwell at the first two splits, two-tenths behind at the third split but at the line it was still good enough to bump Bayliss back to third.  A 1m52.629 to Herfoss.

Josh Waters was now circulating. There was five minutes remaining. He put in a 1m53.226, good enough for fourth, then returned to the pits.

Daniel Falzon was in the pits gloves off. The top riders obviously deciding that was as much wear on their tyres as they wanted and not keen to turn any more laps than the minimum required to achieve a decent spot on the provisional grid.

Thus Wayne Maxwell is the new fastest man of The Bend and our provisional pole sitter.

ASBK Superbike QP1

1. Wayne Maxwell – Yamaha 1m52.374
2. Troy Herfoss – Honda 1m52.629
3. Troy Bayliss – Ducati 1m52.686
4. Josh Waters – Suzuki 1m53.226
5. Daniel Falzon – Yamaha 1m53.376
6. Bryan Staring – Kawasaki 1m54.390
7. Alex Phillis – Suzuki 1m54.419
8. Glenn Allerton – BMW 1m54.421
9. Arthur Sissis – Suzuki 1m54.538
10. Mitch Rees – Honda 1m54.807
11. Mark Chiodo – Suzuki 1m55.059
12. Kyle Buckley – Kawasaki 1m55.223
13. Matt Walters – Kawasaki 1m55.341
14. Jamie Stauffer – Ducati 1m55.616
15. Ted Collins – BMW 1m55.846
16. Mitch Levy – Yamaha 1m56.001
17. Brad Swallow – Kawasaki 1m56.189
18. Sam Lambert – Kawasaki 1m56.704
19. Mason Coote – Kawasaki 1m56.906
20. Willy Strugnell – Kawasaki 1m57.642
21. Aaiden Coote – Kawasaki 1m57.670
22. Lucas Vitale – Kawasaki 1m57.787
23. Adam Christie – Suzuki 1m58.162
24. Trent Gibson – Suzuki 1m58.185
25. Ben Stronach – Yamaha 1m58.866

Tom Bramich tops 300 Supersport

The first of the qualifying sessions today was for the 300 Supersport class and it was Tom Bramich that headed a brace of Yamaha YZF-R3 machines at the head of the field.

The young Victorian beat Zac Levy and Hunter Ford out provisional pole but there is less than half-a-second separating the top seven. Seth Crump was the leading KTM in sixth and Oli Bayliss the first Kawasaki in seventh.

300 Supersport QP1

1. Tom Bramich – Yamaha 2m11.445
2. Zac Levy – Yamaha 2m11.471
3. Hunter Ford – Yamaha 2m11.585
4. Locky Taylor – Yamaha 2m11.625
5. Olly Simpson – Yamaha 2m11.685
6. Seth Crump – KTM 2m11.767
7. Oli Bayliss – Kawasaki 2m11.807
8. Tayla Relph – Yamaha 2m12.118
9. Ben Bramich – KTM 2m12.570
10. Ben Baker – Kawasaki 2m13.110
11. Harry Khouri – Yamaha 2m13.613
12. Bronson Pickett – Yamaha 2m13.796
13. Mitch Kuhne – Yamaha 2m13.879
14. Travis Hall – Yamaha 2m14.367
15. Brandon Demmery – Yamaha 2m14.458
16. Jarred Brook – KTM 2m14.639
17. Mitchell Simpson – Yamaha 2m14.891
18. Zane Ford – Yamaha 2m15.548
19. Max Stauffer – Yamaha 2m15.606
20. Dan Thomas – Yamaha 2m15.860
21. Troy Ryan – Yamaha 2m15.918
22. John Lytras – Yamaha 2m16.147
23. Peter Nerlich – Kawasaki 2m18.094
24. Jake Brett – Yamaha 2m18.639
25. James Wensemius – Yamaha 2m19.386
26. Keegan Pickering – Yamaha 2m19.557
27. Ned Faulkhead – Kawasaki 2m19.592
28. Stephany Kapilwai-James – Kawasaki 2m19.836
29. Hunter Penhallurick – KTM 2m21.342
30. Jack Cousens – Yamaha 2m24.495
31. Austin Barnes – Kawasaki 2m26.512

600 Supersport

Cru Halliday has been untouchable in 600cc Supersport during free practice and that trend looks likely to continue this afternoon in Q1. The YRT rider had 2.4-seconds over his closest competitor this morning and was quicker than all but the top nine Superbikes!

There it is! Cru clocked a 1m56.693 on his first flying lap followed by a 1m56.157 on his next.

His pursuers though had made progress towards him. Toparis had dropped almost a full-second off his previous best and Broc Pearson was half-a-second up on his morning pace. The gap from Toparis to Halliday still significant at 1.4-seconds, but a second closer than it had been this morning.

After putting in that 56.1 Halliday was happy enough to call it quits and save his tyres. Tom Toparis went out again later in the session though and so did Broc Pearson.

It was Pearson that was the big improver, a 1m57.385 to the young Queenslander, a huge step forward.

Local rider John Hunt was not done either. He was fourth for most of the session on 1m58.416 but in the dying minutes improved again to 1m58.142, not enough to move him past Toparis but very impressive for a non championship regular. Actually that’s probably somewhat of an understatement.

Toparis then went back out with a few minutes remaining in the session. The Goulburn youngster was on a mission! Only just behind Halliday’s best at the first and second splits! He lost a bit more ground in the third sector but still crossed the stripe much faster than he had managed before, his first 1m56s lap will be a huge boost to his confidence heading towards tomorrow. This weekend had not been smooth sailing for Toparis with a few stumbles but he will sleep much better tonight after that ripper 1m56.810s lap.

600 Supersport QP1

1. Cru Halliday – Yamaha 1m56.157
2. Tom Toparis – Kawasaki 1m56.810
3. Broc Pearson – Yamaha 1m57.385
4. John Hunt – Suzuki 1m58.142
5. Damon Rees – Honda 1m58.514
6. Giuseppe Scarcella – Kawasaki 1m58.691
7. Max Croker – Suzuki 1m58.880
8. Zac Johnson – Yamaha 1m59.018
9. Luke Mitchell – Yamaha 1m59.174
10. Rhys Belling – Yamaha 1m59.274
11. Scott Nicholson – Suzuki 1m59.920
12. Dallas Skeer – Suzuki 2m00.533
13. Jack Passfield – Yamaha 2m01.367
14. Ty Lynch – Yamaha 2m01.635
15. Ryan Taylor – Yamaha 2m02.135
16. Thomas Bryden – Yamaha 2m03.191
17. Lachlan Hill – Kawasaki 2m03.559
18. Matt Barton – Yamaha 2m03.720