Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/612546
IN THE WIND P30 HERFOSS WINS AUSTRALASIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP F ormer AMA Supermoto Champion Troy Herfoss claimed his first big-bike road racing title in the 2016 Austral- asian Superbike Championship by a single point over defend- ing champion, Yamaha Racing Team's Wayne Maxwell at the season finale at Sydney Motors- port Park, December 5-6. Riding for Team Honda Rac- ing, the former Australian Super- sport Champion, Herfoss, took conservative 3-2-5 results, trail- ing home third-placed Maxwell in the third and final encounter to steal the title. Cube Racing Kawasaki's Mike Jones took the round win with 2-1-1 results. "That last race was the most stressful 12 laps I have had on a motorbike!" said Herfoss. "It's a great feeling to win this cham- pionship and something I have worked hard for; what an unreal feeling." It was a bitter pill for Maxwell to swallow as he missed out on being the first rider in Australian history to win three straight Superbike titles on three dif- ferent makes of machinery (Suzuki 2013, Honda 2014 and Yamaha 2015). Crucially, he crashed out of Friday's opening race and lost valuable points to Herfoss. "I only have myself to blame crashing on Friday and it was too much of an obstacle to over- come," said the 2014 champion. "I can't make a mistake like that and expect that a rider as good as Troy isn't going to take advantage of it. Congratulations to him." Rounding out the top five in the 2015 Australasian Supers- port Championship were Glenn Allerton (Yamaha), Mike Jones and Jamie Stauffer (Honda). In the support classes, Cal- lum Spriggs (Yamaha) took victory in the Australasian Super- sport title, Paul Young took the Kawasaki Ninja 300 Cup win and Paul Byrne (Honda) took the Formula Oz title. CN SUTER PULLS OUT OF MOTO2 E skil Suter has taken his bat and ball and gone home, with news he has pulled out of contest- ing the 2016 Moto2 Championship. Suter Racing was set to supply chassis for two teams in the Moto2 Championship—all with Moto2 class rookies (Remy Gardner, Efren Vazquez and Federico Fuligni in the Ioda and AGP outfits, respectively), and this lack of competitive riders forced Suter's hand in the withdrawal. Suter's Moto2 history is a storied one, with the Swiss company taking three manufacturer victories between 2010 and 2012, the final year being that of Marc Marquez, who utterly domi- nated the championship. The loss of Suter sees the Moto2 class becoming almost entirely a spec class—when the series first replaced the 250cc two-stroke machines in 2010, there were 14 differ- ent chassis on the grid. By 2011 that number was reduced to seven, five by 2013 and four this year. Next year, there will be just three different chassis on the grid: Kalex, favored by the majority of the grid, Speed Up and Tech3. There has been no word yet on what chassis the 2016 Suter teams will instead be using. CN Former AMA gun Herfoss has finally taken a big bike title in Australia.