Australian Superbike Championship 2010 - Round One

Australian Superbike Championship 2010 - Round One - Phillip Island

-- Superbike Race Two

SBK Race Two

Originally scheduled to run between the World Supersport race and the second World Superbike bout the second and final 12 lap Aussie Superbike race was shortened from 12 laps to 10 and postponed until after the completion of World Superbike proceedings. A lot of the crowd hung around to see the Australian Superbike racers strut their stuff on an overcast and windy Phillip Island Sunday afternoon.

Poleman and race one winner Wayne Maxwell was gazumped off the line by a charging Bryan Staring. The West Australian started badly in the first race before coming through to the leading pack in the latter half of the race for second place. Clearly the Fireblade rider was aiming to go one better in this second bout.

Staring held onto the lead throughout the whole of lap one before being swallowed up in turn two the second time around with Josh Waters going past on one side while Glenn Allerton took the opposite route. Eye widening stuff!

Waters led Allerton round for the rest of the second lap and the top trio were still maintaining station into lap three before Staring stuffed it under Allerton at turn four to steal second place. Suzuki mounted Waters was looking as though he might be capable of pulling a runner on the two Fireblade men and it was going to take a big effort from the Honda boys to get the better of the defending champion.

Josh Waters really picking the Suzuki up off the side of the tyre as soon as possible with huge body language while hanging right off to try and get the best out of the new control Dunlops.

Staring showed he had what it takes to trade blows with Waters by gazumping the Suzuki man around the back of the circuit for the lead before Jamie Stauffer seemingly came from nowhere to move into third place.

Waters though obviously had succumbed to some sort of mistake or a machinery problem as the #1 plate holder was quickly shuffled back from a healthy lead to a distant 10th place over the course of the next lap. A terrible blow to his title defence.

Benefitting from the misfortune of the Suzuki man was the Honda pairing of Maxwell and Staring with the two trading blows with Motologic Ducati’s Jamie Stauffer. Allerton also had his hat in the ring while Charlton and Johnson were also still within striking distance of a podium.

Stauffer was monstering Staring for second place with three laps to run while Maxwell was meting out some serious torture to the control Dunlops in order stay just ahead of his two closest pursuers. Allerton had lost touch with that leading trio and was in danger of being challenged by both Scott Charlton and Shannon Johnson over the closing stages of the ten lap bout. Waters had drifted back to 14th place and was in danger of taking home no points from the final encounter of the day.

As they started the last lap Shannon Johnson was making a determined attack on Allerton’s fourth place and slipped past the Fireblade rider into turn one. A brilliant display from the KTM on debut here this weekend in what will no doubt prove to be a huge shot in the arm for everyone involved in the KTM effort.

On the last lap Jamie Stauffer slipped past Staring for second place and hounded Maxwell all the way to the line but it was the Honda man that came out on top to make it two from two for the GAS Honda squad. What a way to start the season! Stauffer took second place ahead of Staring with Shannon Johnson a further five seconds behind that tightly packed trio. Allerton had to settle for fifth place ahead of Charlton, Giles and Burgess. Attard came home ninth overall and the first Superstock 1000 A/B man home while fellow Aprilia rider John Allen rounded out the top ten. Waters managed to hold on for 14th place to salvage a couple of points after leading early on and looking the firm favourite for the win.

Maxwell won the round with a perfect 51 point haul. Staring a creditable second place on the Honda with 38 points, one better than Jamie Stauffer. Shannon Johnson scored 33 points to finish round one in fourth place overall.

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