[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,10,640,center]

Aiden Wagner and Troy Herfoss

Australasian SBK

Troy Herfoss (Team Honda Racing) has done it again! After taking out yesterday’s AFX Superbike Championship round on a count back with his substitute teammate, Aiden Wagner, it was again an all red battle at the front between the pair in the curtain raiser Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship.

Race one was a pure classic, as Wagner, Herfoss and YRT with YMI’s Cru Halliday all diced for the lead. However with three laps to run, Halliday fell out of contention as he suffered some tyre wear. “The tyre started to get a bit out of control and I wasn’t able to run the same pace as the front boys,” said Halliday after race one. “I rolled out of it and kept it safe to come home in third.

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,12,640,center]

Race start – Australasian SBK

This left the two Honda men to fight it out which saw an all-out drag race to the line with Wagner claiming the win by just .098sec. Halliday finished a further 3.478sec with his teammate, Wayne Maxwell 5.947sec behind.

Race two and yet again it was another beauty! While the men in red may have done a disappearing act and had their own little battle, it was still a cracker to watch. Wagner led all the way until the final lap when Herfoss got pass at turn two. The New South Welshman went onto win by .056sec

“I’m so happy for Team Honda Racing to get a result like this after how the pre-season has gone,” said Herfoss. “Our team were one-two and three last year in the championship and we were expected to struggle at the first round, but we have proved how good our bike is and we have gone one-two this weekend, and I’m leading both championships. This is the best ideal way to start a championship. I can’t thank the team enough for their efforts!”

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,11,640,center]

Wayne Maxwell

Wagner was just one point behind Herfoss who described as bloody tough work out there. “I feel the body starting to take a toll,” said Wagner after race two. In race two Wagner was trying to make a get away from Herfoss early in the race, but unfortunately his pit board was not changing much at all. “In the end Troy out smarted me by out breaking me into turn two. Well done to Troy, he rode a great race. It’s great to see a Honda one-two.”

Finishing third on a count back with Halliday was the reigning champion, Wayne Maxwell (YRT with YMI) with a 4-3 result.  Maxwell explained that a third place overall was great place to start with as it’s a start that can win you a championship. “We didn’t do anything stupid were we could lose a championship and that’s the most important thing,” said the Victorian rider. “The R1M stood up to the challenge today which is a full credit to the guys at Yamaha Racing Team. They prepared an awesome bike with the limited time parts they had.”

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,1,640,center]

Wagner was a late addition to the Honda squad for the injured Stauffer – and Wagner was still using Stauffer’s pit board

Halliday regarded the day went “pretty well,” however he definitely knows there is a lot of improving to do on the Yamaha R1M. “As I have said previously, we need a lot more testing time,” said Camden based rider. “There is no doubt in my mind that the bike will get better during the course of the 2015 season when we sort out these little teething problems. I have the best team in the paddock and they are all working ever so hard, so we will get this bike going the way I want it to very shortly.”

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,6,640,center]

Aiden Wagner

Of course Halliday would have liked to finish third, but he admitted that Maxwell rode a smarter in race two and got him in the end.

Making it a Yamaha three-four-five was Glenn Allerton. Allerton to wanted a better result but understands that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’

Mike Jones (Cube Racing Kawasaki/Australian Outdoor Living) finished one point behind Allerton in sixth place. Sean Condon (BikeBiz/Ipone/Swann Insurance Racing), Linden Magee, Matt Walters (Kawasaki Australia/KMF Finance) and Jones’s teammate, Ben Henry rounded out the top ten places.

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,3,640,center]

Brayden Elliot

Supersport

Up and coming young star Brayden Elliot guided his Hankook Tyres/Royan Truck Repairs Suzuki GSX-R 600 to a 2-3-3 result to take out his first ever Supersport championship round win.

Elliot’s goal for the weekend was to walk away with a top three finish and just stick with the front runners, so he was quite surprised to win the overall round. “This is amazing,” said Elliot. “The team and I have been working really hard for this, so I’m very happy too finally get the round win.”

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,4,640,center]

Callum Spriggs

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,2,640,center]

National 600

Four points behind Elliot was Troy Guenther (Fresh Chef/PI Technical/Wallace) who was racing in his first ever national 600 race this weekend. “We definitely have learnt a lot this weekend,’ said Guenther. “Hopefully we can build on this result for the rest of the year now.”

Another surprise visitor to the podium was Mitch Levy (Warm & Safe Australia). Levy was quite happy with the race results however he feels that he needs to do more work on the rear shock in the back of the Yamaha YZF-R6. “We are still running the standard rear spring and it just overheating and staring to bounce and not getting that much drive out of corners,” said quietly spoken man.

Championship favourite, Callum Spriggs (Yamaha YRD/Allsite Concrete Cutting /Hydro Construction/ YMI) round out his weekend with a fourth place overall. Spriggs looked like he was on target to win overall, but due to crashing out on the opening lap in race one, which meant zero points. Spriggs rebounded to win races two and three.

The Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship will head 1,370km to Mallala Motorsport Park for the round two, which will take place on May 15-17.

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,5,640,center]

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,7,640,center]

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,8,640,center]

[mudslide:picasa,0,racerviewsphotos,6132351485680229921,9,640,center]

Photos by Leonard Smith – Sportzcam Photography – March 2015

Words by A-FX PR

RacerViews was established in 2011 and with the aim of delivering a new web experience to motorsport fans. We bring exclusive interviews and photos from motorsports finest drivers of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Our team has over 30 years of experience in the motorsport field. With a heavy presence on Facebook,Twitter and iTunes where we have over 3000 followers, our mission to bring exclusive content is in safe hands. Additionally we have over 1 million views on our G+ page. We have partnered with motorsport teams like Stig Richards Motorsport, One of a Kind Motorsport, Dark Horse Racing and MRT Performance in order to give you the best exclusive motorsport coverage.

We are always looking for new people to join our team. If you are a motorsports photographer or journalist looking for additional exposure or a great place to learn your trade, contact us