2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan)

Yamaha Racing Team’s Jamie Stauffer has fired the first shots in his quest for a second successive round sweep, taking command of a tense duel for pole position at round two of the YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway today.

The 27-year-old’s weapon of choice, the Yamaha YZF-R1, proved superior to his rivals across the combined qualifying sessions, keeping his aim for a western whitewash well on track.

Stauffer stepped up his game as the huge field of 1000cc machines took to the track, but did not have it all his own way. Joe Rocket Honda’s Adam Fergusson and privateer Honda rider Russell Holland extracted the extra thousandths necessary to shuffle him back to third place after the end of the morning’s 30 minute session.

The current championship leader bounced back in the final afternoon qualifying session, making some slight adjustments to the bike to lay down a 55.398 second lap, which slashed four-tenths of a second off his previous effort.

Stauffer acknowledged that while the time was good, it would still take a lot of work to win starting alongside riders the likes of Shawn Giles, yesterday’s fast man, and Adam Fergusson.

“The team made a lot of progress with the Superbike today. Yesterday I was definitely struggling a bit, the times were there but the consistency wasn’t, we tried a few things in the morning session and it improved out of sight,” said Stauffer.

“We used the spare bike for the second session which was also quick, I came in about half way through and put a race tyre on it and did around a 55.7,” he said.

“It’s a pretty physical track, probably one of the most demanding on the body so it takes a lot of preparation to keep focused for the 20 laps.”

Stauffer is quickly on his way to rewriting record books in the sport, after recording another pole position, this time in the competitive Supersport class. His impeccable 2006 scorecard continues to grow, with a 100% success record in starting from grid position one this year.

“With the 600 (YZF-R6) it all went to plan, I went out in first qualifying and probably did more laps than I had planned, all up around 18, and did my fastest time right at the end,” explained Stauffer.

“It was a good enough time to wait in pit lane for anyone to come close, we were pretty confident no one would go faster.”

Joe Rocket Honda’s Adam Fergusson was unlucky not to snare a pole position across the Superbike and Supersport classes, after having the measure of Stauffer for much of the day.

‘Krusty’ ran consistently within the top two spots throughout the course of the day, and will no doubt be a contender for race wins tomorrow.

He was frustrated in not being able to take one back from Stauffer, but optimistic at his chances for victory at the sandy circuit.

“I’m a little bit disappointed that I missed out on a pole position, but I have every confidence in the bike in race trim,” said Fergusson.

“The setup across both Honda machines is close to perfect, we’ll make a couple of changes before gridding up but it’s looking very positive.”

“I really enjoy racing over here, it’s a great track, a little sandy but of course it’s a level playing field for everyone else – other than that the track is in a really good condition for racing,” Fergusson concluded.

The front row of the Superbike grid is completed by a formidable pairing, Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Shawn Giles and Kawasaki Racing Team’s Shannon Johnson, setting the scene of an intense battle for supremacy.

The four major manufacturers are all represented at the head of the field, a healthy sign of the competitiveness that the series generates; Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki – it’s ‘Attack Mode’ in the YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship and anyone’s game.

The strong West Australian crowd enjoyed an exciting afternoon of racing as a host of support classes took to the track, and any rider who strayed mere inches from the ideal racing line soon found themselves using all their strength to stay upright and on two wheels.

The battle has been intense thus far, but will pale in comparison to tomorrow’s massive day of action kicking off at 9am, with 16 races scheduled including the headline Superbike showdown.