Herfoss edges Bayliss in ASBK thriller

Troy Herfoss has passed Troy Bayliss on the final lap to win a thrilling Race 1 of the opening round of the Australia Superbike Championship at Phillip Island.

Bayliss (Ducati) had fought his way back through the field in a weather-affected race and finished second, with pole-sitter Josh Waters (Suzuki) third.

Waters led the field away while Bayliss dropped two positions from his front row starting berth to run fifth.

Yamaha riders Wayne Maxwell and Daniel Falzon, who like Herfoss (Honda) are on double duty in WorldSBK, diced early on with the former taking over second position on Gardner Straight.

Bayliss recovered the positions he had lost at the start by the time red flags were called on Lap 6 for rain, having overtaken Bryan Staring (Kawasaki) and Falzon.

The race was restarted with riders ordered as they finished Lap 4, including Herfoss in sixth, and Waters and Bayliss moved to the head of the field.

Waters was struggling and Bayliss took over top spot on the third lap after the restart before a huge stoush between he, Falzon, Herfoss, Staring, Waters, Aaron Morris (Yamaha), Alex Phillis (Suzuki), and Matt Walters (Kawasaki) took place.

Herfoss took the lead on the third-last lap, Bayliss took it back next time around, but on the final 4.445km circuit Herfoss got the lead for good.

“I’m really so happy to get a race under my belt,” said Bayliss.

“In dodgy conditions you have really got to use your head, but it was very stressful.

“It was a real dog fight in part two (after the restart).

“Waters and Herfoss are Australian champions, switched on and good to ride with, so even though it looked pretty wild, we were pretty good to each other.”

Maxwell was ultimately a non-finisher, having crashed before the red flag.

While he rejoined the race, he took wet tyres for the restart when slicks turned out to be the better option despite the encounter officially being declared wet.

There was a Bayliss victory earlier in the day when son Oli won Race 1 in Australian Supersport 300 before finishing runner-up to Tom Bramich in Race 2.

Round 1 of the Yamaha Motor Finance Australia Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli wraps up tomorrow with two more races.

Results: Race 1, Phillip Island (Top 10)

Pos	Num	Rider	Team	Bike	Laps	Time/Gap	Top speed
1	17	Troy HERFOSS	Penrite Honda	Honda CBR RR SP	6	09:36.968	290
2	21	Troy BAYLISS	Desmosport Ducati	Ducati Panigale FE	6	+0:00.201	287
3	1	Josh WATERS	Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia	Suzuki GSX-R	6	+0:00.428	293
4	67	Bryan STARING	Kawasaki / BC Performance	Kawasaki ZX10R	6	+0:00.499	300
5	25	Daniel FALZON	Yamaha Racing Team	Yamaha YZF-R1	6	+0:01.215	293
6	64	Aaron MORRIS	Maxima Yamaha	Yamaha YZF-R1	6	+0:03.039	293
7	20	Alex PHILLIS	Phillis Racing	Suzuki GSXR-R	6	+0:03.174	298
8	178	Michael BLAIR	Yamaha / Gosford Classic Car Museum	Yamaha YZF-R1	6	+0:08.088	292
9	12	Matt WALTERS	Swann Insurance Superbike	Kawasaki ZX10	6	+0:12.625	294
10	30	Mark CHIODO	Team Suzuki Ecstar Australia	Suzuki GSXR-R	6	+0:13.373	298

Note: Lap counts, race time refer to racing after restart only; 4 laps officially completed prior to red flag