Stauffer proves himself again Reigning Australian Superbike Champion Jamie Stauffer proved why he is so highly regarded on his Yamaha, qualifying fastest overall in the Superbike support class at Phillip Island. After a morning qualifying session in which he could only manage the third fastest time, Stauffer rode well in the afternoon to better his morning time by over a full second. That result was enough to give him the merged fastest lap, ahead of Suzuki rider Shawn Giles and Honda rider Adam Ferguson. Speaking immediately after the second qualifying session, Stauffer said that things just started working well for the team towards the end of the second session. “The second qualifying was pretty good we just tried a couple of different things with the bike and we started to get it sorted out towards the end there, and set the fastest time,” he said. “So we’ve still got a bit of work to do before the race tomorrow, but I am pretty sure we are heading in the right direction, and we should go alright.” Stauffer also played down the fact that he is being somewhat ‘hunted’ down by his rivals, having dominated the Australian Superbike scene particularly, over the past 12 months. “I didn’t go fast at all compared to what we have done around here, but everyone always gets beaten and my time will be coming soon I am sure. “I will try my best to make sure that it doesn’t happen this weekend, but I am sure that all the other guys are going to try to beat me and work as hard as they can just to beat me, so it should make for interesting racing.” In the Australian Supersport class, Bryan Staring topped the times in the second qualifying session, and as a result will start from first on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Behind Staring on the grid will be Yamaha riders Jason O’Halloran and Jeremy Crowe, with Stauffer qualifying in fifth place. In the Australian Superstock class, Victorian Ryan Taylor took line honours ahead of Tim Cowie and Dean Bonthorne.