WATERS AND HERFOSS DOMINATE AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKES Team Suzuki rider Josh Waters mastered heat, humidity and a tropical downpour to dominate the second round of the Australian Superbike Championship at the Northern Territory’s Hidden Valley Race Circuit at the weekend. The reigning Australian Superbike Champion won both Superbike races after starting from Pole Position and claiming a new lap record for the 2.9km Darwin circuit in the second of Sunday’s two races. Waters’ clean sweep and maximum points haul has rocketed the 23-year-old from eighth in the points’ standings to third place overall and just nine points behind series leader Wayne Maxwell. There was further good news for Team Suzuki with Troy Herfoss taking overall honours in the Australian Supersport Championship on his Suzuki GSX-R600 and extending his lead at the head of the points table after two rounds of the six-round series. Waters was in dominating form on his Team Suzuki GSX-R1000 at Hidden Valley, winning both races after topping every practice and qualifying session and emerging on top in Saturday’s Superpole Shootout. Waters claimed victory in the opening wet race by 10.010sec from 2008 champion Glenn Allerton with Team Suzuki’s Robbie Bugden third. The defending Champion then backed it up in a dry race two with a 3.324sec win over Bryan Staring with Allerton third. Waters, who entered the round 24 points adrift of round one winner Maxwell, has now closed to within nine points of the championship lead. The points-gap would have been closer still if not for race one being red-flagged on lap eight after a spectacular crash involving local rider Tim Cowie, which left oil spread across the circuit. With less than the required number of laps being completed in what was scheduled as a 17-lap race, officials had no option but to declare the race finished and award half points. “I feel a little bit robbed, but that’s the way it is,” said Waters. “The full 25 points would have been nice.” Waters’ Suzuki GSX-R1000 was the fastest bike down Hidden Valley’s one-kilometre-long front straight, recording a top speed of 291km/h in Friday’s opening practice session. Underlining his dominance, he claimed a new Superbike lap record for the 2.9km Hidden Valley circuit with a 1:07.994 on lap two in race two; the Team Suzuki rider’s new benchmark an impressive 1.1109sec below Jason Bright’s V8 Supercar lap record. Three-time New Zealand Superbike Champion Bugden finished fourth overall for the round after third and fifth placings in Sunday’s two races, with three-time Australian Superbike Champion Shawn Giles making it three Team Suzuki riders in the top seven placings. Maxwell leads the six-round series on 73.5 points from Staring on 65 with Waters now just nine points adrift on 64.5. Jamie Stauffer lies fourth on 60 points with Allerton fifth on 56. Herfoss had a near-perfect meeting on his Team Suzuki GSX-R600. The Supermotard-star-turned road racer started from Pole Position to take victory in the opening 17-lap Supersport race by 1.286sec over Christan Casella with the Suzuki GSX-R600 of Brodie Waters – younger brother of Josh – third. In a thrilling race two, Brodie Waters got the better of Herfoss by 0.373sec, but 23-year-old Herfoss emerged with the overall round win courtesy of his first and second placings – 46 points to Waters’ 43 points. The next round of the championship is at Queensland Raceway on June 4-6. 2010 AUSTRALIAN SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP – ROUND TWO: Superbike Overall Results: 1 Josh Waters (Suzuki GSX-R1000); 2 Glenn Allerton; 3 Bryan Staring; 4 Robbie Bugden (Suzuki GSX-R1000); 5 Jamie Stauffer; 6 Wayne Maxwell; 7 Shawn Giles (Suzuki GSX-R1000); 8 Scott Charlton (Suzuki GSX-R1000); 9 Craig Coxhell; 10 John Allen. Superbike Championship Points (after 2 of 6 rounds): 1 Wayne Maxwell 73.5pts; 2 Bryan Staring 65; 3 Josh Waters (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 64.5; 4 Jamie Stauffer 60; 5 Glenn Allerton 56; 6 Shawn Giles (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 49.5; 7 Scott Charlton (Suzuki GSX-R1000) 49; 8 Shannon Johnson 43; 9 John Allen 34.5; 10 Craig McMartin 33. Supersport Overall Results: 1 Troy Herfoss (Suzuki GSX-R600); 2 Brodie Waters (Suzuki GSX-R600); 3 Christan Casella; 4 Ben Burke; 5 Mitchell Carr (Suzuki GSX-R600); 6 Aaron Gobert; 7 Blake Leigh-Smith (Suzuki GSX-R600); 8 Chris Quinn; 9 Des Darby; 10 Dylan Mavin. Supersport Championship Points (after 2 of 6 rounds): 1 Troy Herfoss (Suzuki GSX-R600) 89pts; 2 Brodie Waters (Suzuki GSX-R600) 81; 3 Christan Casella 80; 4 Ben Burke 61; 5 Mitchell Carr (Suzuki GSX-R600) 56; 6 Aaron Gobert 51; 7 Blake Leigh-Smith (Suzuki GSX-R600) 43; 8 Chris Quinn 42; 9 Dylan Mavin 36; 10 Ryan Taylor 32. More, from a press release issued by Ducati Motologic Race Team: THE FACTORY DUCATI TEAM CONTINUES TO IMPROVE Under a temperamental sky this weekend in Darwin the yet young factory Ducati team continued its racing campaign in the Australian Superbike Series with a strong overall result. With the track temperatures reaching 46.8 Degrees C for Race 2 and the high humidity never really abating it was hard going for everyone in the field. The Ducati Motologic riders and indeed the entire team were singing the praises of their new Fujitsu split system air conditioner fitted into the race team transporter courtesy of new sponsor Fujitsu General. Ducati Motologic Racing has maintained its 4th position in the series after Round 2 despite not having the advantage of pre-event testing at the Hidden Valley circuit. Arriving in Darwin only days before the event with the knowledge that the Ducati team’s main competition had procured the circuit for private testing on the control tyre 2 weeks prior to the event, the determined Ducati Motologic Racing Team were not deterred and immediately set about their task. The two practice days on Thursday and Friday in lead up to the event should have given two-time Australian Superbike Champion Jamie Stauffer and team mate Jordan Burgess ample opportunity to acquaint themselves with both the Hidden Valley circuit and also the extreme heat of the Top End and gain valuable set-up information for the 1198R going into the weekend. However, much time was lost due to the torrential downpour on Thursday and the testing advantage of the other teams began to rear its head. Team Owner and Manager, Paul Free was pleased with the progress made by the team all things considered. Free: “I’m happy with Jamie and Jordan’s performance with the little practice and setup time they had. Going into the weekend knowing that our main competition had already had 3 days testing at the circuit to setup their machines and gather information about the new Dunlop control tyre I wasn’t too concerned as we had Thursday as an additional practice day to our normal race event, but when we were washed out on Thursday with a huge downpour and lost basically the whole day’s practice I knew we were going to be up against it to bridge the gap to the other competitors. I am pleased with the development of the 1198R made this weekend and will look forward to the next event.” Race one, declared a wet race, proved to be a disaster for #33 Jordan Burgess when in extremely poor conditions he was taken down by another rider and spent the duration of the race with the medical team with a suspected torn ligament in his left knee. The horrendous weather conditions claimed one rider after another with 4 riders in total falling prey to the conditions before the red flag came out for a second time and the race was declared. After a less than ideal race start and a subsequent mechanical problem Jamie Stauffer finished Race 1 in 10th place. The second race of the day was much less dramatic and much more positive for the Ducati Motologic Team as the clouds parted, the sun once again beat down and the race was run, Stauffer this time finishing in a much more respectable 4th place. Although not getting off the start line well on his Ducati 1198R Stauffer finished strongly and will retain 4th place overall in the Championship. Stauffer: “I am happy to remain in 4th position although I would have liked to have moved up further in the rankings at this round of course. The weather played a big part in everyone’s weekend and we have located some issues to work on before Round 3 in Qld, but overall we are moving forward.” It was a very sore and uncertain Jordan Burgess who awaited clearance from the Racesafe crew as to whether or not he would actually be able to race in the second race of the day. The verdict was positive for Burgess and he was eager to get the 1198R back on the track. Race 2 saw an injured Burgess finish a solid 18th. Burgess: “This weekend has been a little frustrating of course with a DNF for race 1 and an injury going into race 2, but on a positive note we take away from the weekend a lot more information about the 1198R. Hopefully the weather will be a lot more accommodating in Qld for Round 3 and we will be looking for strong results.” The Ducati Motologic Race Team will be racing next at Queensland Raceway on June 4-6 and with all the major teams going into the event on an equal footing with testing it looks set to be a successful round for the new factory Superbike team.