Team Honda Racing 2013 World Superbike Campaign Complete! 25 February 2013 – A huge campaign for Team Honda Racing at the 2013 World Superbike event at Phillip Island is complete and the Australian Honda team performed extremely well on the world stage! With 2 riders entered as Wildcards in the event the preparation was intense. Team Honda Racing rose to the challenge. Jamie Stauffer competed under #21 for the event and through qualifying the NSW rider recorded strong lap times, his fastest a 1:31.874 sec in the 2nd Qualifying session which was the 11th fastest lap time and just .667 sec off the outright fastest lap time of the session. Stauffer’s lap times secured the Honda rider a position in Superpole 1 which included only the top 15 riders from Qualifying. Unfortunately, Stauffer crashed on his 2nd lap in Superpole session 1. He recorded a lap time of 1:32.353 sec on his first flying lap which placed him in P14 on the grid for Sunday’s races. Jamie Stauffer finished Race 1 of World Superbikes in 15th place and Race 2 in 13th place with his fastest lap time a 1:32.690 sec in Race 1. It was a big learning curve, even for the experienced rider and Stauffer can be proud of his efforts, placing 16th overall for the event and scoring points in the World Superbike Championship against the best Superbike riders in the world. Stauffer: “Overall we had a good weekend. At times we were quite fast in relation to the top World Superbike riders and we learned a lot about the bike over the weekend racing in this event. Crashing in Superpole was not ideal as I think we could have recorded a pretty good time and hurting my knee certainly didn’t help in the race. From the 1st race to the 2nd we made changes to the set-up to better accommodate the tyre and track surface and our overall race time was much better. All in all it was a fantastic experience and gives us valuable information going into the Australian Superbike Championship. I can’t wait to get on the CBR1000RR and start racing at the 1st Round of the ASBK in Tasmania. The team have worked so hard not just in the lead up to the World Superbikes, but also during the event. I want to thank everyone including all of our team sponsors for their support in what has been a huge effort.” The other Team Honda Racing Wildcard competing this weekend in the World Supersport race was Josh Hook sporting the #16 on his CBR600RR, the young Honda rider coped extremely well with the pressure of the World Championship category to finish his race in 17th place. Unfortunately, Hook suffered a crash in Free Practice on Friday and the team worked tirelessly to ensure he was race-ready on Sunday. In the Sunday morning warm-up, Hook felt comfortable on his CBR600RR and come race time he held his own very well in the international field, moving up to 13th place by mid-race. Hook: “This was my first World Supersport championship race and it was an amazing experience to be riding against such experienced riders. I learned so much from them and taking part in the event has definitely opened my eyes. On race day, we had the bike settings working well, I felt good in morning warm-up and obviously I would have liked to have placed better in the race, but to have raced against the best in the world and come 17th is really exciting. Huge thanks to Team Honda Racing who worked really hard over the last few months preparing a competitive motorcycle. I also must thank HRC for their invaluable support in building me an engine capable of competing in the World Supersport race. I am really looking forward to this year competing in the Australian Superbike Championship onboard a Honda CBR1000RR.” Team Honda Racing Team Principle, Paul Free is proud of his team. Free: “When I came up with the idea some time ago to compete in the World Superbike and Supersport event and enter our riders as Wildcards I had a couple of goals in mind; One was to give the riders an amazing experience and a challenge by competing against the best WSB and WSS riders in the world, and the other was to put our team / sponsors and our supporters in front of a global audience. We certainly achieved both. I know myself and my techs learned a massive amount about our motorcycles and have a much deeper understanding of our Honda’s. Additionally, Jamie and Josh have also learnt just how hard they need to push themselves to be competitive on an international level. Even as a multiple Australian Superbike champion, Jamie commented to me that riding with the world class riders has opened up his eyes and given him some new ideas on his race craft, particularly at Phillip Island which he put to good use over the weekend. Overall, huge thanks must go out to Honda and our sponsors for their support in assisting us to make this WSB experience happen.” Team Honda Racing would like to extend their thanks to the team sponsors for their attendance and support at the event including AWS Vantage, BOQ Honda Finance, Western Freight Management, Honda Motorcycle Insurances, Monza and NGK. Thanks also to Isle of Man winner, Cameron Donald for thrilling guests of Team Honda Racing onboard the team’s CBR1000RR 2-Seater at the event. Three very lucky guests from AWS and WFM were treated to the thrill of their lives on Sunday, completing a Hot Lap with Cameron. The next event for Team Honda Racing will be the first Round of the Australian Superbike Championship at Symmons Plains 5-7 April. More, from a press release issued by MV Agusta: POSITIVE DEBUT FOR THE MV AGUSTA F3 675 Varese, 25 February 2013 – The MV Agusta F3 675 was one of the protagonists in satisfying weekend full of emotions. At Phillip Island in Australia in the first race of the World Supersport Championship the F3 675 with rider Roberto Rolfo impressed with their extremely positive racing debut. The ParkinGO Team battled throughout the race for a top-five position but, with two laps to go, was forced to retire due to extreme blistering of the rear tire. Final result notwithstanding, it remains very satisfying to see how the F3 675 only in its first steps of evolution is already very competitive. The results of the Phillip Island race were further confirmed in the first round of the South African Supersport Championship where the F3 675 proceeded to dominate the two races with two first and third place finishes with the Team Liquid Moly riders Cam Peterson and Brent Harran. More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: MAXWELL AND SUZUKI WIN WSB SUPPORT RACES Team Suzuki’s Wayne Maxwell claimed his debut victory aboard the GSX-R1000 at Phillip Island’s ‘WSBK Cup’ at the weekend; a non-championship event on the 2013 Australian Superbike Championship calendar. Hosted alongside the opening round of the Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island, 30-year-old Cranbourne resident Maxwell mastered the 4.445-kilometre circuit in his maiden outing with Team Suzuki Australia. Maxwell topped Thursday’s opening practice session and continued that form into Friday by capturing the first pole position of the year in the single 30-minute qualifying session with a flying 1:33.695 lap time. Saturday saw Maxwell dominate the opening 12-lap race, leading from flag-to-flag with a comfortable 4.796-second victory. It was a confidence-inspiring performance, setting the quickest lap of the race at 1:33.535. Said Maxwell: “To start from pole position and win the opening race is an ideal situation for all of us at Team Suzuki and I’m really happy about that. This weekend was great to collect valuable data and my first race on the bike was important for that, which set us up nicely for race two on Sunday.” Maxwell again dominated Sunday’s proceedings in the delayed second race, leading all 12 laps and consistently lapping within the low 1:33 bracket. His best of the weekend came with a 1:33.073 on lap eight as he charged out front, eventually winning by 7.198 seconds. “Working with Team Manager Phil Tainton has been exceptional since I joined Suzuki; he’s great at making a connection with the riders, as is the whole team. It’s been fantastic in that sense, I can tell him what I am feeling on the bike and he understands me clearly to help us make real progress in these early stages of the year. “This weekend was a nice way to race the Suzuki GSX-R1000 for the first time without the pressure of championship points on the line, just starting off with another few days to get comfortable and work closely with the team in race conditions. We used two bikes in each practice session and two in the qualifying session, exploring the settings of the bikes throughout. To reach the best setting in the final race just shows the strength of the Team Suzuki crew as we work together, plus Dunlop was able to supply great tyres for a consistent effort in both races. I really have to thank everybody involved in this result.” Team Suzuki Manager Phil Tainton was pleased with Maxwell’s first official race aboard the GSX-R1000, using the weekend as a test bed as the team prepares to defend the national championship that they won with Josh Waters last year. Said Tainton: “It was a really good weekend for Wayne and the team. We’re certainly working around set-up to get him comfortable on the GSX-R and also to adapt to the new track surface at Phillip Island. In the last race we made some more changes and Wayne said we’re getting close to the money, so by the end of the weekend I believe we accomplished our goals. “It has been great working with Wayne; he’s quite strong-minded, knows what he wants and comes with a lot of experience. He’s very decisive and positive with his feedback and what he wants out of the bike, which I’m really happy with because it makes us all dig that much deeper as well. We’re all getting along extremely well and this result is a perfect beginning to 2013.” The Australian Superbike Championship will officially commence at Symmons Plains in Tasmania on April 5-7th.