Yamaha rider Daniel Falzon (Caterpillar/Mainline Dyno) has created the first surprise of the 2017 Australian Superbike Championship season by posting the fastest qualifying time for the opening round of the ASBK series at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. 

Competing against a capacity field of 39 Superbikes which has entered for the support class to this weekend’s Australian WSBK round, Falzon posted a 1m32.742s lap to top the leaderboard as the only rider to dip into the 1m32 bracket. Bryan Staring, riding the Crankt Protein Honda entry, was second fastest with a 1m33.134s time. He was followed by Yamaha rider Wayne Maxwell 1m33.187s, Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda) 1m33.220s and Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) 1m33.848s.

Falzon appeared to have his Yamaha R1 dialled into the Phillip Island circuit early, gapping the competition despite conceding outright top speed to all of the front runners. Falzon’s top speed of 281 km/h was bettered by all of the top 18 competitors.

The opening race of the 2017 Australian Superbike Series roars into action at 9:15 am Saturday morning with the first 12-lap race of the season. Races 2 & 3 will be contested on Sunday.