Wayne Maxwell leads day one of ASBK Finale
YMI Superbike
While conditions had been dry this morning, some very light drizzle plagued the following FP2 session. Yet again this afternoon when Superbike competitors hit the circuit at 1545 misting precipitation was again hanging in the air.
That did not stop the men of Australian Superbike hitting the circuit though! Daniel Falzon was the first man into the 1m33s this afternoon, a 1m33.881 to the young South Australia, who totally dominated here at the season opener early in the year.
Josh Waters knocked Falzon out of top spot with his fifth lap of the session, lowering the Friday benchmark to 1m33.776 on the new GSX-R1000.
There was a lull in the middle stages of the session as riders adjusting their machines and assessed whether it was worth the risk to push in such conditions. The track was 99 per cent dry, and there was nothing that could be won today, but it would certainly be easy to lose a championship today through injury…
Three-minutes before session end Maxwell decided to have a dip, the result a 1m33.398.
Waters responded straight away with a 1m33.370 only for Maxwell to cross the stripe seconds later to drop in a 1m33.296 as the countdown timers went from minutes down to seconds… But that was it, game over, Maxwell tops the opening day here at Phillip Island by less than a tenth-of-a-second over Waters.
Bryan Staring was half-a-second off that duo but that was still good enough for third quickest ahead of Daniel Falzon.
Glenn Allerton was fifth quickest ahead of Troy Herfoss while Matt Walters was the quickest Kawasaki man in seventh.
Cru Halliday was eighth on the combined timesheets while Josh Hook and Jed Metcher rounded out the top ten.
Kyle Buckley had a fall in the opening session of the day and also fell in FP2. This time around though it was more of a blow to the BCperformance Kawasaki squad as Robbie Bugden went down at turn one, and Buckley fell while trying to avoid his tumbling teammate. Both bikes were heavily damaged, however they did manage to take to the circuit in the final session but failed to really make an impact. Bugden is still well in with a shot at the title and the team will re-group tonight and Robbie will be sure to come out all guns blazing tomorrow.
Ted Collins finished his first full day of ASBK Superbike in 15th place on the Next Gen BMW S 1000 RR.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is for warmer conditions than today but still with a risk of some rain, particularly in the afternoon… The chance of more significant rain on Sunday is higher again and winds are predicted to be very high… Just what you want when the culmination of your whole year’s training, preparation, racing, blood, sweat and tears is on the line for the grand prize…
Wayne Maxwell
“I haven’t really got a good package, as we haven’t done any long runs. The package is going to be, what the package is going to be. It’s so hard to bring the Yamaha R1M here to Phillip Island and roll it out perfectly. It’s obviously good out of the box, but you get to a point where you have to change stuff. The weather hasn’t been on our side today. It’s been gate way to hyperthermia here today, with four seasons in one day. However it’s been the same for everyone. The main thing is, I’m happy with the R1M. If we are going to have any chances of winning on Sunday, we are just going to have to have a crack at it. In terms of what we have been working on in regards to bike setup, it hasn’t been a lot as we have had no time. We have just been trying to get the bike to steer up, just the same stuff as usual. It’s so hard however, as I have done four or five fast laps and now we go into qualifying tomorrow. Hopefully we get a good run tomorrow and the weather is a bit nicer and put us in a good position for Sunday. We need every point we can get.”
Superbike Friday Practice Combined Times
- Wayne Maxwell – 1m33.296 – Yamaha
- Josh Waters – 1m33.370 – Suzuki
- Bryan Staring – 1m33.863 – Honda
- Daniel Falzon – 1m33.881 – Yamaha
- Glenn Allerton – 1m34.236 – Yamaha
- Troy Herfoss – 1m34.326 – Honda
- Matt Walters – 1m34.493 – Kawasaki
- Cru Halliday – 1m34.504 – Yamaha
- Josh Hook – 1m34.717 – Ducati
- Jed Metcher – 1m34.803 – Yamaha
- Alex Phillis – 1m35.070 – Yamaha
- Michael Blair – 1m35.128 – Yamaha
- Sloan Frost – 1m35.267 – Suzuki
- Robbie Bugden – 1m35.859 – Kawasaki
- Corey Turner – 1m36.063 – Ducati
- Beau Beaton – 1m36.081 – Ducati
- Ted Collins – 1m36.104 – BMW
- Aiden Coote – 1m36.198 – Kawasaki
- Mitch Levy – 1m37.148 – Yamaha
- Adam Senior – 1m38.297 – Yamaha
- David Barker – 1m38.418 – Kawasaki
- Kyle Buckley – 1m38.669 – Kawasaki
- Scott McGregor – 1m39.526 – Yamaha
- Ben Stronach – 1m40.078 – Yamaha
- Brendan McIntyre – 1m40.508 – Suzuki
- Trent Gibson – 1m40.760 – Suzuki
- Matt Barton – 1m41.973 – Honda
- Keith Harrison – 1m48.944 – Kawasaki
Motul Supersport
Tom Toparis’ record breaking 1m35.648 from FP2 was good enough to keep him atop the overall Supersport timesheets for the day.
The gap back to second placed Mark Chiodo a massive 1.6-seconds! Mason Coote was third quickest ahead of Ryan Taylor.
Supersport Friday Practice Combined Times
- Toparis – 1m35.648 – Kawasaki
- Chiodo – 1m37.313 – Triumph
- Coote – 1m38.149 – Yamaha
- Taylor – 1m38.354 – Yamaha
- Condon – 1m38.494 – Yamaha
- Quinn – 1m38.581 – Yamaha
- Belling – 1m38.795 – Yamaha
- Hayes – 1m38.906 – Kawasaki
- Carlsson – 1m39.544 – Yamaha
- Rees – 1m39.565 – Honda
- Muldoon – 1m39.773 – Kawasaki
- Cambridge Olivier – 1m40.800 – Yamaha
- Jake Pruiti – 1m40.873 – Kawasaki
- Brian Houghton – 1m41.215 – Honda
- Lincoln Gilding – 1m41.435 – Yamaha
Supersport 300 Friday Practice Combined Times
- Max Croker – 1m50.560 – KTM
- Tommy Edwards – 1m50.681 – Yamaha
- Reid Battye – 1m50.716 – Kawasaki
- Jack Mahaffy – 1m50.824 – Yamaha
- Yanni Shaw – 1m50.834 – Kawasaki
- Billy Van Eerde – 1m51.111 – KTM
- Zac Levy – 1m51.367 – Yamaha
- Locky Taylor – 1m51.373 – Yamaha
- Hunter Ford – 1m51.444 – Yamaha
- Drew Sells – 1m51.589 – Kawasaki
- Tom Bramich – 1m51.644 – Yamaha
- Broc Pearson – 1m51.965 – Yamaha
- Ben Bramich – 1m52.038 – Yamaha
- Scott Nicholson – 1m52.492 – Kawasaki
- Oli Bayliss – 1m52.847 – Kawasaki
- Seth Crump – 1m52.934 – KTM
- Jarred Brook – 1m53.055 – KTM
- Brandon Demmery – 1m53.096 – Yamaha
- Laura Brown – 1m54.388 – Kawasaki
- Troy Ryan – 1m54.477 – Yamaha
Yamaha Motor Finance R3 Cup
Friday Combined Practice Times
- Tom Edwards – 1m50.208
- Hunter Ford – 1m52.966
- Broc Pearson – 1m53.070
- Jack Mahaffy – 1m53.274
- Locky Taylor – 1m54.546
- Ben Bramich – 1m54.942
- Dan Thomas – 1m55.004
- Tayla Relph – 1m55.729
- Troy Ryan – 1m55.799
- Jack Passfield – 1m56.345
Moto3 / 125GP Friday Combined Practice Times
You might notice an unusual name in the times listed below… Tom Toparis put in four laps on a Moto3 bike ahead of his upcoming Motegi Moto3 wildcard later this month, which he will back up the following week at the Australian MotoGP.
- Dylan Whiteside – 1m45.995 – Honda
- Joel Kelso – 1m46.439 – Honda
- Tom Toparis – 1m48.578 – Honda
- Dallas Skeer – 1m50.343 – Honda
- Taran Ocean – 1m52.430 – Honda 125
- Dave Manson – 1m52.982 – Honda 125
- Mark Laing-Hughes – 1m54.129 – Yamaha 125
- David Doughty – 1m54.346 – Honda 125
- Jeremy Huddlestone – 1m54.929 – Honda 125
- Peter McFarlane – 1m55.977 – Honda 125
