Fast times and (almost) fisticuffs round out day one at Winton

ASBK 2021 Winton

Pirelli Superbike

Things continued to heat up this afternoon here at Winton Raceway as the opening round of the 2021 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship got underway in warm conditions.  We reported on FP1 earlier but in this update we focus on the final two free practice sessions from this afternoon. 

FP2 – Handbags at 20 paces

Towards the end of FP2 there was also some riders and team members getting a bit hot under the collar.  Lachlan Epis returned to the NextGen BMW pits, jumped off his bike, threw his gloves and declared that he was going to punch Troy Herfoss.  

There was some sort of incident between the two, it seems Herfoss had taken umbrage at Epis closing his line at some point on the track, so had slotted his Penrite Honda up the inside of him, gave him a tap and what looked like the bird before continuing on, an alarmed Epis stood it up and ran off the circuit. 

Herfoss remained on circuit for another couple of laps thus Epis had cooled down a little by the time Herfoss returned to pit-lane, and settled for clapping him in instead of getting all punchy.  Herfoss looked to reply by playing an imaginary violin. 

NextGen BMW Team Manager Shane Kinderis was already down at the Penrite Honda garage expressing his displeasure, but alas, no fisticuffs there either…. #soft. Would have been good to run a book on it, not sure if I’d have put money down on Herf’ or Epis…

Away from the handbags at twenty paces shenanigans Herfoss had been swinging out on track. A  19.5 immediately followed by a 19.6 and 19.7 during the middle of the session the best string of laps, but to underline his pace there was another four 19s amongst the 18 laps he put in during the 30-minute FP2 session. 

Wayne was not far off Herf’s best, 19.849 played 19.593, but Wayne only managed two 19s out of his 15 laps, while Herf’ banged in seven of them.  

Mike Jones was third quickest in FP2 on 1m20.620. He had a big moment entering turn one during the session as the DesmoSport Ducati got untidy under brakes and returned to the pits for some tweaks to settle the machine. 

Privateer Arthur Sissis put in a very impressive 1m20.626 to end the session fourth quickest ahead of Glenn Allerton, Cru Halliday, Lachlan Epis, Jed Metcher and Josh Waters. 

Superbike FP2 Results

FP3

The track temperature was nudging 45-degrees when riders hit the track for FP3 at 1600 this afternoon here at Winton.  Some cloud had moved in but the ambient temperature was still around 30-degrees along with a hefty dose of humidity. 

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Herfoss obviously didn’t mind as he banged in a 19.9 on his first flying lap. Maxwell crossed the stripe seconds later to register 1m20.000 dead and immediately followed that up with a 19.873. Not to be out-done Herf’ then dropped in a 19.563.

Mike Jones had started to put in some quick sector times here and there but didn’t really put it all together in the one lap until around eight-minutes into the session when he threw his hat in the ring with a 20.006. Jones was repeatedly fast in the first two sectors but was losing time to the others in the latter half of the lap. If he finds that pace he should be able to take the battle up to Herfoss and Maxwell come Sunday. 

After that early flurry of fast times things then settled somewhat.  With ten-minutes remaining in the session Cru Halliday inched a little closer to that leading trio, a 1m20.799 followed by a 20.909. Lachlan Epis was in P5 on 1m21.050 ahead of Metcher, Allerton and Staring, maybe Herf’ should dust him up more often…

With less than eight-minutes remaining Maxwell and Herfoss headed back out on track.

Mike Jones continued to set stellar times through the first two splits but was still losing almost half-a-second to the leading duo in the second half of the lap.

Herfoss was under at the first split and setting up to lower the benchmark before going down at turn three. Day done for the Penrite Honda man but he was uninjured.

In the dying seconds of the session Jed Metcher then went down at turn two and with his bike in a precarious position officials chose to put the red flag out and declare the session.

Thus Herfoss tops Friday ahead of Maxwell and Jones.  Arthur Sissis is fourth on combined times, an amazing result for the privateer.

Glenn Allerton fifth on combined times ahead of Cru Halliday, Jed Metcher and Lachlan Epis. Bryan Staring P9 while Aiden Wagner rounded out the top ten ahead of Oli Bayliss and Josh Waters.

The final time practice session for Superbike to decide who scores the direct entry into QP2 takes place at 1045 Saturday morning. QP1 is slated for 1500 and QP2 for the top 12 at 1545.  Race one on Sunday is scheduled for 1100 and race two at 1410.

Superbike FP3 Results

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2021 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar

Round 2 | Winton Motor Raceway | 12th-14th March Schedule