Maxwell wins as Stauffer flips out at Queensland Raceway Team Honda’s Wayne Maxwell rescued a poor qualifying performance yesterday to charge to a deserved win in an action-packed opening QBE Australian Superbike Championship race at Queensland Raceway today. From third on the grid, the CBR1000RR-mounted Maxwell got away to a good start and held his own with the frontrunners as a tense battle ensued. Aprilia’s Ben Attard led the race momentarily before a big braking manouevre from Jamie Stauffer saw the polesitter wrestle back the lead. It lasted just a few hundred metres as Stauffer’s Honda slid out from beneath him into turn four, the first left-hander on the 6-corner, 3.12km circuit. His Honda flipped spectacularly and his race was run, though he fortunately walked away from the incident unhurt. The race fell back in favour of Maxwell and Procon Maxima BMW rider Glenn Allerton, with Attard buying into their battle before running wide and off the circuit at turn 3 while attempting a pass under brakes. Disappointed, Attard pushed on in a determined fashion, reeling in riders lap after lap before coming up on the back of Team Mack Truck Suzuki’s Robbie Bugden, who was holding down a solid third. Attard made a pass stick one corner from the end of the race, and was clearly elated with third. Up front the battle to the cheuqered flag ended in Maxwell’s favour by 0.224s, a result the Victorian will be happy with considering his tough run of luck in 2011. As they did yesterday, four different manufacturers ended the day in the top four placings, with Demolition Plus GAS Honda’s Coxhell avoiding the drama in front of him to finish a solid fifth. BMW rider Linden Magee continued his battle with Brodie Waters on the factory Prostock Suzuki, getting the nod by a second as the 16-lap race came to a close. Riders will grid up in their qualifying positions for tomorrow’s second 16-lap race, with another important haul of championship points on offer. Wayne Maxwell, Team Honda: “To get my first win of 2011 with the Team Honda Racing guys I’m stoked, I didn’t think it would take 6 rounds to get there but we’ve worked through the problems and come out on top. We need to improve the bike a little bit for tomorrow, it’s lacking a bit of rear grip in the mid to rear exit of the turn so if we can get a bit more feeling on the entry we’ll be there with the front guys. We need to find about half a second a lap to run with guys like Jamie and Josh because they’re not going to make those sort of mistakes tomorrow. Jamie lost the front going into turn 4, we’ve been trying hard all year to get the best feeling we can and for him to fall off I was quite surprised because he’s such a calculated rider.” Glenn Allerton, Procon Maxima BMW: “It wasn’t a bad race, we battled hard there with Wayne for the win and he was just that bit stronger when it counted towards the end. I didn’t end up where I wanted to be in qualifying and we’ll be starting from the second row again so hopefully I can go one better tomorrow.”” Ben Attard, i-Style The Natural Aprilia: “It was a fun race, we got the holeshot and myself and Jamie spent a few laps banging bars. The wind was behind me and I just braked too deep into three and ran off the track. From seventh I just dropped the hammer and fought back, I got back to third on the last corner which is a pretty good result but I’m disappointed because I really feel that we could have won that race. There’s always tomorrow and we’ll give it a good go then.”” QBE Australian Superbikes Race 1, Queensland Raceway 1. Wayne MAXWELL (NSW) / Team Honda Racing / Motologic / Oleon Oils, Honda CBR RR 2. Glenn ALLERTON (NSW) / Procon Maxima BMW / Dynomotive / Zoom Recruitment, BMW S RR 3. Ben ATTARD (QLD) / The i-Style Natural Aprilia Team / Archers / MOTUL, Aprilia RSV4 4. Robert BUGDEN (QLD) / Team Mack Trucks Suzuki, Suzuki GSX-R 5. Craig COXHELL (VIC) / Demolition Plus GAS Honda Racing, Honda CBR RR 6. Joshua WATERS (VIC) / Team Suzuki, Suzuki GSX-R 7. Scott CHARLTON (VIC) / Racers Edge Performance / PTR / Vern Graham Suzuki, Suzuki GSX-R 8. Troy HERFOSS (NSW) / Team Suzuki, Suzuki GSX-R 9. Ben HENRY (QLD) / CUBE Racing Australian Outdoor Living / Weld West, Suzuki GSX-R 10. Nicholas COLE (NZ) / Motul / justfairings.co.nz / Dunlop / Auckland Steel Blasters, Kawasaki ZX10R More, from a press release issued by Team Honda Racing: Team Honda Racing takes Superpole and Race 1 at Qld Raceway 20 August 2011 It was an eventful day at Queensland Raceway for Team Honda Racing and the Honda CBR1000RR featured strongly once again. #47 Wayne Maxwell topped the timesheets in the 2nd Qualifying session for the Superbikes with a lap time of 1:09.325 sec and went on to win Race 1 of the 6th Round of the championship. Team mate #27 Jamie Stauffer finished the 2nd qualifying session in 3rdon the timesheets, his lap time a 1:09.553 seconds and in the subsequent top 8 Superpole shootout Stauffer’s flying lap placed him in P1 on the grid for both races with a lap time of 1:09.112 sec and Maxwell would start in P3 with a Superpole lap time of 1:09.638 seconds. With the Team Honda Racing riders alternating at the top of the timesheets, the team was optimistic of a good result in Race 1. On a dry track, Stauffer took the lead and looked strong, but his race was over when he lost control of the front of his CBR1000RR at turn 4. Stauffer: “I was feeling comfortable after taking the lead but I lost the front end going into turn 4 and that was that. Race 2 is another race and I am very determined to take that first place and finish the round on a high.” Maxwell took up the challenge and by lap 6 he led the race. The checkered flag brought Maxwell across the line in 1st place .224 sec in front of Allerton. The Victorian rider is understandably pleased to get his first race win of the season. Maxwell: “It is terrific to get the win after all the team’s hard work although a tough one for Jamie coming off at turn 4. There is another race to be run yet and this win gives me the confidence I need to try for 2 in a row.” Race 2 for the Superbikes will start at 2:05pm.