Exciting tussle for victory in ASBK Superbike opener at Morgan Park

ASBK 2022 – Round Five
Morgan Park – Superbike Race One

It was a very chilly morning here at Warwick.  Ice was thick on the screen of vehicles, not just a little layer easily wiped off, but a decent thickness and stuck pretty fast. 

For us that had just enjoyed a warm bed that was not so bad, but for those hardy souls camping out at Morgan Park Raceway things were a bit more uncomfortable. 

The forecast is it for to be even colder tonight, but during race day today we are expecting conditions here to be just about spot on.  Temperatures in the high teens are forecast for this afternoon and there is nary a cloud in the sky. Still, be nice if those temperatures arrived a little sooner rather than later! 

Of course a cold track leads to cold tearing of tyres. And the teams here this weekend already have enough to think about in regards to tyre preservation for the 16 lap races, no matter what the temperature, this will just complicate things further.

Tyre life will be critical here this weekend, and likely decide the victor. It is not a particularly fast circuit but it is busy, and the surface is a bit second rate with plenty of bumps and lumps, thus it can tear up tyres pretty rapidly. 

Morgan Park boasts 12 turns across its 2.967km layout with high frequency ripples across a rough surface, in some places even through turns outside of braking areas.

Rider fitness and how comfortable they are on their motorcycle will also be a telling factor, it’s hard work around here on a Superbike, really hard work.

A few of the Superbike team managers, that were more than handy Superbike pilots themselves in their day, were keen to tell me that they were real glad they were on this side of the pit wall with me, rather than out there banging bars over the opening laps.  

A hint of what might be to come was on show yesterday with Herfoss and Halliday at it with handbags at twenty paces… Both received official warnings for ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’.  I would say it is very sportsman like to want to give your opponent a battering, this ain’t tiddlywinks… 

We can expect some serious elbows-out aggression being displayed here today, particularly amongst those with major ground to try and claw back on series leader Mike Jones and climb up the championship points table.  Mike is not as highly strung as some of his competitors, and might just be happy to stay safe and play the long game, or will he take no prisoners on the opening laps either?

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One of the most memorable races here happened a few years ago when Troy Herfoss came from way back to hunt down the leaders over the final laps to take what was a brilliant victory.  Herfoss hunted down Josh Waters and Wayne Maxwell in the second half of the race here four years ago, then took Troy Bayliss after setting a new lap record, a 1m12.645 that still stands as the race lap benchmark today.  It was a tactical race with Bayliss trying to slow the race down but it was one of the most memorable victories for Herfoss and Honda that day, they had started the weekend a little off the pace and behind the eight-ball, but come race day they were on their A game.  Herfoss will start from fifth on the grid today, could this be another surprise turnaround? 

Wayne Maxwell also has some great memories here on the Suzuki and is on pole here this weekend on the McMartin Racing Ducati. Maxwell would be right with Jones in this championship if not for the incorrectly fitted tyre valve that caused his crash at Phillip Island, and some other technical hiccups that have stunted his championship defence.  

Championship leader Mike Jones has sprayed the champagne here before and mentioned that his 1m12.976 for P2 on the grid came on a used tyre. He is the favourite here this weekend, and that is an almost universal opinion.   Jones starts race one with a 39-point buffer over Maxwell. 

His YRT team-mate Cru Halliday will be ever so eager to impress, was only a fraction behind Jones in qualifying, and lines up alongside him on the front row of the grid.

Halliday is one of three riders that start this round with 136 points on their tally, the others being Troy Herfoss and Josh Waters. The latter of that trio though parted ways with the Maxima BMW squad earlier this week and is not here this weekend. 

There are also a few other fast boys on the grid out to make their mark on the Morgan Park circuit, and claw their way back into the championship hunt or get their first decent results of the season.

During qualifying Lachlan Epis went a massive 1.2-seconds quicker than he ever has here before to put the BMW Alliance M 1000 RR into fourth place on the grid.  Epis had been penalised for mistakenly using unmarked/stickered tyres during Timed Practice. Confusion stemmed from the session being declared wet and what that meant for tyre markings. Epis was not the only one caught out, Walters also penalised as was Pearson. Epis and Walters had two tyre stickers removed from their allocation of seven for the weekend, while Pearson only lost one as only his rear was unmarked. 

Bryan Staring probably expected a little more pace from himself and the DesmoSport Ducati yesterday, while his young team-mate drafted in for this weekend has opened a few eyeballs.

Broc Pearson was right up the front in qualifying for most of the session but slipped to seventh in the dying minutes. He might have been on course for a front row start if his shifter had not come adrift when the team sent him out on a fresh rear tyre, meaning that his 1m13.456 was set on well used rubber.  That might actually stand him in good stead as the rookie has little experience in managing a tyre over the course of a Superbike race when in the thick of the action. 

Arthur Sissis has been consistently quick in every session, despite less track time here than most. The South Australian is eighth on the grid but is always out of the hole like a shot and will be amongst the front runners by turn one I have no doubt.  His fellow croweater Daniel Falzon is not here this weekend after choosing to sit this meeting out. Mark Chiodo another regular missing from the grid.

Jed Metcher starts from ninth and is closer to the front row than he has been all season. There has been lots of changes to the bikes since 727Moto last raced ASBK and it will be interesting to see how much progress has been made. 

Heading the fourth row is Glenn Allerton ahead of Anthony West and Max Stauffer.  I am sure that qualifying position is not representative of the race pace potential Allerton will show here today when the lights go out. Westy has swapped back to YEC electronics for this round as the team has been unable to get their heads around the MoTeC set-up, while Stauffer is gaining more experience with every lap and has next to no experience at this track with a Superbike. 

Matt Walters will also have more race pace than his P13 on the grid might suggest. The Cessnock Kawasaki rider lines up alongside Benjamin Lowe on a Ducati V4 R and last-minute ring-in for Maxima BMW Sloan Frost.  Rounding out the grid is Michael Edwards and Nathan Spiteri.

Wayne Maxwell topped morning warm-up with a 1m13.000 ahead of Pearson on 1m13.174 and Bryan Staring on 1m13.227, both DesmoSport Ducati riders faster than they managed in qualifying.  Mike Jones was next quickest ahead of Troy Herfoss, Arthur Sissis and Lachlan Epis. Most riders put in seven or eight laps during the 10-minute warm-up session. 

It was two hours later and almost ten-degrees warmer when the riders headed out of pit-lane to form up on the grid for the opening 16-lap encounter. The crowd had swelled and there was some decent atmosphere building at Morgan Park Raceway ahead of the blue riband event on the schedule.

Lachlan Epis looked to have jumped before the lights went out and shot to the lead ahead of Wayne Maxwell, Cru Halliday, Mike Jones and Troy Herfoss. The start was under investigation but ultimately his start was ruled valid. I don’t know what vision the officials had, but Epis dodged a bullet there…

Wayne Maxwell slotted up the inside of Epis late on the opening lap, which forced the BMW Alliance rider to stand the bike up and he ran off the circuit. Across the stripe for the first time Maxwell had half-a-second over Halliday and Jones. Staring was fourth, Herfoss fifth, Allerton up to sixth and Pearson seventh ahead of Arthur Sissis.

Maxwell had the hammer down. He was pulling more time on the field through every split. Halliday was second and looked to be perhaps holding up his YRT team-mate Mike Jones, along with Staring and Herfoss. 

With 12 laps to run Maxwell had 2.4-seconds on the rest of the field. Jones then passed Halliday for second place.

A lap later Halliday had a moment while putting the power down which gave Herfoss the sniff he needed to shoot through and move up to third place. 

Jones started to inch closer to Maxwell over the next couple of laps. With nine laps to run he had pulled a few-tenths back on Maxwell, the gap down to 1.9-seconds.  Herfoss was a further 1.5-seconds behind in third place.  Halliday was half-a-second behind Herfoss but then dropped it and lost more than 30-seconds as he got up and going again. 

Jones continued to reel Maxwell in but was not making huge inroads. 

A little further back Broc Pearson was progressing through the field. The Supersport champ got the better of his DesmoSport Ducati team-mate at half race distance and started to pull away from him. With six laps to run Pearson was 1.5-seconds behind third placed Herfoss and running similar lap-times.  Herfoss looked to be riding a little tight, appearing to use more upper body than I would expect, perhaps still making up for that lack of flexibility and strength in his hip, where it was really affecting him through right-handers. He looked completely shattered after the race.

With four laps to go Jones had the gap to Maxwell down to less than seven-tenths. They were also starting to approach back-markers. They both picked off Spiteri, then Edwards, then Lowe, then Frost.

Two laps to run, Jones was only a couple of bike lengths behind Maxwell. The gap three-tenths at the last lap board… Jones closes to within a tenth at the first split, he could almost touch the back of the Boost Mobile Ducati…. Through the back of the circuit, the next split the difference back out to three-tenths, but then runs a little wide….

Maxwell leads Jones through the chicane and takes the victory to pull another five-points back on Jones, the gap now down to 34.

Troy Herfoss rounded out the podium, eight-seconds behind the top duo. 

Broc Pearson a very encouraging fourth place, only 2.3-seconds behind Herfoss, and 2.5-seconds in front of team-mate Staring. That’s a fair old statement by the 21-year-old. 

Glenn Allerton had to come from a long way back on the grid to bag decent points for sixth ahead of fast-starter Lachlan Epis.

Arthur Sissis eighth ahead of Jed Metcher while Max Stauffer rounded out the top ten, albeit 30-seconds behind Metcher.  Stauffer was the last rider on the same lap as the leaders. 

Early faller Halliday salvaged a decent 10-points after finishing a lap down in 11th place ahead of Sloan Frost. 

Morgan Park ASBK Superbike Race One Results

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Alpinestars Superbike Championship Points Standings

ASBK Morgan Park Schedule

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2022 ASBK Calendar