Mike Jones tops the top 5 in Darwin on Friday

ASBK 2023

Round Four – Hidden Valley, Darwin

Mike Jones continued to run faster for the day, topping the FP3 session and the day with a 1m05.324 second late on the Yamaha Team machine to confirm his potential in Darwin. That was just short of Wayne Maxwell’s 65,407-second lap record, but still well short of Maxwell’s 64,962-second qualifying record, set on last year’s McMartin Racing Ducati in a 14-turn 2,870-meter race.

Josh Waters also holds the FP1 cooler lap record. Today, Team McMartin debuted a new 2023 version of the Panigale V4 R for the first time, and early signs suggest the new bike has even more potential, but they haven’t made much progress. any more in FP3.

Troy Herfoss had a painful header in FP2 but that didn’t stop the Penrite Honda man from completing 17 laps this afternoon. Like Allerton, Herfoss has also been in the middle of the 5s multiple times today and picked up the pace from the start. Troy’s best time of 1m05.386 seconds in FP2 looks clearly tough work though Penrite Honda comes in all shapes when Herf is at his best.

Glenn Allerton and GT Racing are running Ohlins suspension at Hidden Valley today after spending recent time on Bitubo. Early signs of tire life, a frustrating issue for Allerton in recent times, have improved and the three-time champion made multiple laps in between 5 seconds today , his best was 1m05,515 seconds in FP3, good enough to end the first day in fourth place.

The Yamaha team checked the data on Cru Halliday’s YZF-R1M and suggested that he use a different number at certain points of the lap and those changes clearly paid off. Halliday makes good progress in FP2 and despite warmer conditions he is almost as fast in FP3. A large slide through the rear has caused the Yamaha’s rear end to shift outward and if the Cru and the traction control system fail to catch it, it will indeed be a pretty big slip. A round later even though Halliday lost first in the final round, this robs him of any chance to advance further.

Only two-tenths include those top five but things start to spread a little further down the field.

Arthur Sissis came off the block fairly quickly in cooler conditions this morning but was slower in both the FP2 and FP3 sessions, ending Friday the fastest.

Two riders who really needed serious progress this afternoon did just that, though not as much as they expected.

Bryan Staring didn’t make it past 65 all day but found what he needed to do it in the final session, 1m05,839s for the Western Australian on MotoGO Yamaha. However, he needs to look more if he wants to challenge the podium tomorrow.

Broc Pearson added but only missed a chance to get past 5 seconds, his best being in the final session with 1m06.023 seconds.

Anthony West also needed to find plenty of time and the veteran achieved a best of 1m06.137 seconds in his 17th round of the session after sticking to the back of defending champion Mike Jones. Move smart, especially around the mid area where Jones is very strong.

Max Stauffer made the top 10 while Ted Collins overcame the big crash in FP2 to improve dramatically in the final session and finish 11th day fastest.

Paris Hardwick had a tumble on the BCperformance Kawasaki after running wide on the fifth turn and walking on the dirt line but was uninjured with the ZX-10RR with minimal damage.

Qualifiers will take place first on Saturday morning before the opening 16-round competition gets underway at 12:40pm (13:10 AEST). It starts again early on Sunday for the second race, 0830 (0900 AEST) before the final 16 lap match at 1310 (1340 AEST).

Hidden Valley ASBK Friday Practice Time Combination

1. Mike Jones – Yamaha 1m05,324s
2. Josh Waters – Ducati 1m05,368s
3. Troy Herfoss – Honda 1m05,386s
4. Glenn Allerton – BMW 1m05,515s
5. Cru Halliday – Yamaha 1m05.525s
6. Arthur Sissis – Yamaha 1m05,803s
7. Bryan Staring – Yamaha 1m05,839s
8. Broc Pearson – Ducati 1m06.023s
9. Anthony West – Yamaha 1m06.137s
10. Maximum Stauffer – Yamaha 1m06.417s
11. Ted Collins – BMW 1m06.810s
12. Matt Walters – Aprilia 1m07.501s
13. Jack Davis – Suzuki 1m08,312s
14. Paris Hardwick – Kawasaki 1m09,778s
15. Scott Allars – Yamaha 1m09,872s
16. Eddie Leeson – Yamaha 1m09,916s
17. Michael Kemp – Yamaha 1m10.251s
18. Albert Baker – Yamaha 1m10,362s

Superbike Championship Score

ASBK Calendar 2023