Josh Waters Wins Thrilling Opening Superbike at PI

MotoGP 2022 – Round 18 – Phillip Island
Friday Support Race Results/Reports

Four riders failed to qualify this morning was allowed to start the race by the Secretary of course.

Troy Herfoss had some electronics issues this morning with the automatic not working on his Penrite Honda. Something the crew managed to fix before this opening ten-round matchup by altering a few ingredients.

The weather was pleasant this afternoon at Phillip Island, but a shower of rain occurred for ten minutes before the Superbikes formed on the grid. Good for nerves, I’m sure…

Cru Halliday lined up in the turret ahead of Josh Waters and Mike Jones, while Bryan Staring was second in line ahead of Troy Herfoss and Broc Pearson after Jed Metcher was demoted to the back of the net.

The lights went off on schedule at 16:40 and Cru Halliday himself had a great jump but leading the field through the first round was Bryan Staring of DesmoSport Ducati. Josh Waters quickly moved up to third, Herfoss fourth and Metcher to fifth ahead of ASBK Championship leader Mike Jones.

The first time Staring overtook both Halliday and Waters by a long distance, but Waters then slipped Boost Mobile Ducati under Staring to lead the race on turn four in the second lap of this ten lap race. Chasing them hard are Cru Halliday and Troy Herfoss.

Waters then placed 1m33,111 to reach far away from Staring in the second half of that round. Taking a step back Mike Jones has started to improve, edging past Herfoss and Metcher to move up to fourth place.

With seven laps still to run, Staring has kept Waters honest and doesn’t allow drivers standing in Boost Mobile Ducati to run away. Halliday also tries to stay in touch while Jones gets faster and faster as the race progresses, fastest lap 1m32,930 claims his speed…

Cru Halliday and Mike Jones then both beat Bryan Staring when the race was halfway through. That little mess gave Waters a lot of ventilation, and he used it to stretch his distance by almost a second.

Broc Pearson then went down to Lukey Heights in seventh, which was okay.

Cru Halliday began pulling Waters over the next few rounds. With three laps, the distance was reduced to just a few tenths. Mike Jones came to him…

Halliday started butting into the exhaust of the Waters’ Boost Mobile Ducati as the pair negotiated over traffic. Surf with advantage through the last turns and down the slide but Halliday closed around turns, especially through turns one and two where the Yamaha man swiped all the ground up.

Halliday then circled outside of Waters from turns 4 to 5 to lead the race. The YRT man managed to get around Hayshed, past Lukey, past MG, and lead Waters straight into the main road and then managed to keep the Ducati down the chute as they started the final lap of the race.

Waters just behind Halliday through the Southern Loop, the two almost clash on turn four after Halliday makes a sweeping sweep from the outside, still Halliday through Siberia and Hayshed… Still Halliday over Lukey Heights, still ahead through MG, they entered 11 and they made it through the final bend… Waters right on his tail went straight into the main line for an almost photogenic finish… Waters gave the winner a nose!

A great debut for Waters on Boost Mobile Ducati after just a day on the bike before this meeting. It was an excellent race by Halliday, however, and Jones showed good pace but failed to recover from a bad start to make his mark on the inner ring.

Initial race leader Bryan Staring finished fourth, but with an eight-second gap ahead of Herfoss.

A Superbike race result

OJC Cup Race One Results

OJC Cup qualifying results

Phillip Island MotoGP Fixtures