Superpole & Race1 Win for Team Honda Racing at Round 4!
19th May 2012 – A terrific day on track for Team Honda Racing today at Phillip Island for Round 4 of the Australian Superbike Championship taking the Superpole point and also 1st and 3rd in Race 1 for the Superbikes.
#47 Wayne Maxwell was fastest in both the qualifying practice sessions, one dry and today’s one wet and his flying lap onboard his CBR1000RR was a 1:34.905 sec to take the Superpole point and place him in P1 for both races. #27 Jamie Stauffer is in P3 after recording a lap time of 1:35.678 sec in Superpole.
The Team Honda Racing riders were out-dragged to the first corner, however both were able to recover well and Maxwell took the lead on lap 8 of the 12 lap race and remained in control until the chequered flag to take the race win with the fastest lap of the race, a 1:33.986 sec. Stauffer moved into 3rd place on lap 5 and although he did not catch Waters for 2nd place he rounded off the podium and finished the race well on the pace in 3rd.
Stauffer: “It wasn’t a bad race; I didn’t get a great start, but was able to get through to finish on the podium. I lost a bit of time on Wayne and Josh whilst I battled with Bugden, but I got the upper hand and was able to take 3rd place. I did try to catch Wayne and Josh and I was able to match their times, but couldn’t catch them with the laps remaining. Hopefully tomorrow we can get a better start and be up the front from the start challenging for the win.”
Maxwell is evidently pleased with his Superpole and race win today and is clearly determined to get even more from his CBR1000RR tomorrow for race 2.
Maxwell: “To get our 1st Superpole of the year is awesome! Then to be able to convert it with our 3rd race win of the year and claw some more points back in the championship is fantastic. Winning races is really what we need to do in order to have a chance at the championship from here on in and the guys at Team Honda Racing is doing a great job of setting me up to do just that so I am looking forward to tomorrow’s race for sure.”
Team Principle Paul Free is pleased with the weekend so far and is really looking forward to the 2nd race of the event tomorrow.
Free: “Overall it was a really good day for our Honda team. Wayne has been in a bit of a class of his own this weekend, on wet or dry track. It was great to see Wayne take the Superpole point and for Jamie to move up a position on the grid. The race today showed the Honda’s strengths as both Wayne and Jamie had good pace throughout. I’m looking forward to the warm-up tomorrow as we are still trying to find that couple of tenths. The race should be another terrific battle, and I am sure Jamie will be right up there with Wayne and Josh, challenging for the win.”
With such exciting racing already this weekend as the Superbikes take to the track in conjunction with the V8 Supercars for the Phillip Island 300, don’t forget to tune into the Channel 7 coverage of the 2nd Superbike race tomorrow afternoon to see the Honda CBR1000RR’s of Team Honda Racing in action. Please check your local guides for details.
Photos: Keith Muir
