Maxwell applies maximum pressure in race for ASBK title Polesitter Wayne Maxwell clean swept today’s QBE Australian Superbike Championship races at Phillip Island, taking valuable points from title rival Josh Waters who was forced to settle for a pair of second places. The Team Honda rider made up 11 points on Waters, collecting the maximum haul available from round 6 and increasing the intensity in his race for a maiden ASBK championship. Despite starting from pole Maxwell didn’t have it all his own way, and it was Team Suzuki’s Ben Attard who blasted off the line to lead both of today’s races. Attard relinquished the lead to teammate Waters on both occasions, and faced further setback as he was penalised for a jump start in race 2. Behind them, Maxwell was chipping away at the riders in front and proved too quick and consistent for their defence in the latter stages. He made his move on race 1 leader Josh Waters in the closing laps, taking the win by 1.7 seconds. He crossed the line with a similar advantage in the second race which had previously been reduced by 2 laps due to a red flag incident. Maxwell has notched up 6 wins to date in 2012, with 5 of them coming at Phillip Island, including two clean sweeps. “The weekend couldn’t have gone any better, not only to get the clean sweep and 51 points, but to be able to set the fastest lap on the last lap of race 1 is a credit to the team and the way they have setup the Honda to use its tyres,” said Maxwell. “The team have been putting in so much work to pull back these points and now we’ll head to the final round to make one last push for the title. “It’s going to be a very tough ask but we’ll give it our best shot.” Waters was strong today but decided discretion was the better part of valour as Maxwell applied the blowtorch. “Once I got a gap over third I just did what I needed to do, Wayne was too strong in those last few laps and to come away with two second places isn’t too bad,” said Waters. “I knew I’d have to be riding at 110% to beat him and now I have to go back to Queensland Raceway and just try to bring it home. “It’s been wet there in races and we’ve had two rained out tests so who knows what we’ll be up against hopefully it’s a dry weekend and we can get a lot of fans out there to watch the title get decided.” He will head to the final round needing to protect an advantage of 19.5 points to secure his second Australian Superbike Championship title. Team Honda’s Jamie Stauffer completed a carbon copy of race 1 and 2 podium results with a pair of third places. The two-time Champion admitted he didn’t have the pace displayed by the leaders today and was content to come away with two consistent finishes. “Wayne and Josh always do well here and they pretty much broke away in the last few laps to leave me with two third places,” said Stauffer. “I had a good battle with Glenn this afternoon and managed to get back by him which was important for our points. “Queensland Raceway seems to be the track I do the best at so hopefully we can go there and get back on the top step of the podium.” While he remains a theoretical title chance, Stauffer’s focus will be on holding off Procon Maxima BMW’s Glenn Allerton who he heads by just 2.5 points. Allerton finished fourth in both of today’s races to record fourth overall for the round. He also holds down fourth on the standings and will be looking to finish a challenging season on a high next month. Nicholas Waters and Linden Magee shared today’s Prostock wins, with both riders again factoring in the top 10 of the combined Superbike/Prostock field. Chas Hern delivered two podium finishes to maintain his lead of the class and will settle a season-long battle with Magee at Queensland Raceway. Team Suzuki’s Brodie Waters won both of today’s Motul Australian Supersport Championship races to close within half-a-point of Triumph’s Mitchell Carr on the leaderboard. Three riders waged war in a close battle for the win in both races. 0.131s was the greatest margin separating the top 3 riders at race end, with Team Honda’s Josh Hook taking third and second and Carr second and third. Hook took second overall for the round by virtue of a higher place in the second race, and is only 4.5 points shy of the lead with a round still to run. Visit www.computime.com.au for detailed results and points. AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE C’SHIP at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. Rd 6: Races/Round/Championship Points Race 1 Superbike: W Maxwell (Honda) 19m02.049s 1, J Waters (Suzuki) 19m03.759s 2, J Stauffer (Honda) 19m10.326s 3, G Allerton (BMW) 19m13.323s 4, S Charlton (Suzuki) 19m13.457s 5, B Attard (Suzuki) 19m13.629s 6, R Bugden (Suzuki) 19m13.912s 7, B Henry (Suzuki) 19m34.776s 8, N Waters (Honda) 19m35.723s 9, L Magee (BMW) 19m37.234s 10. Race 2 Superbike: W Maxwell (Honda) 15m48.556s 1, J Waters (Suzuki) 15m50.721s 2, J Stauffer (Honda) 15m52.898s 3, G Allerton (BMW) 15m52.954s 4, R Bugden (Suzuki) 15m53.238s 5, B Attard (Suzuki) 16m04.209s 6, S Charlton (Suzuki) 16m04.926s 7, L Magee (BMW) 16m16.996s 8, C Hern (Suzuki) 16m17.335s 9, B Beaton (Suzuki) 16m26.020s 10. Round Points: W Maxwell (Honda) 51pts 1, J Waters (Suzuki) 40pts 2, J Stauffer (Honda) 36pts 3, G Allerton (BMW) 34pts 4, R Bugden (Suzuki) 30pts 5, B Attard (Suzuki) 30pts 6, S Charlton (Suzuki) 30 pts 7, J Phelan (Kawasaki) 24pts 8, B Hooke (Honda) 21pts 9, B Beaton (Suzuki) 13pts 10. Championship Points: J Waters (Suzuki) 247.5pts 1, W Maxwell (Honda) 228pts 2, J Stauffer (Honda) 200.5pts 3, G Allerton (BMW) 198pts 4, R Bugden (Suzuki) 180pts 5, B Attard (Suzuki) 178.5pts 6, S Charlton (Suzuki) 159pts 7, B Henry (Suzuki) 147.5pts 8, B Waters (Suzuki) 45pts 9, C Trounson (BMW) 26pts 10.