Inclement weather threatened to cut short the qualifying campaign of the nation’s premier Superbike riders at Mallala Motorsport Park this morning, but cleared in perfect timing for the opening session of the YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship headline class.

Teams and riders alike breathed a sigh of relief as the dense mist and light rain cleared away, once again presenting them with the opportunity to attack the tight 2.6km in search of the perfect setup.

Yamaha Racing Team frontrunner Jamie Stauffer set his flying lap early in the piece, finding extraordinary pace in the first session which no other rider could challenge over the course of the day.

Stauffer was the only rider to break into the 1 minute 6 second bracket, and was rewarded with another pole position for tomorrow’s twin Superbike races.

Not content to rest on his laurels, Stauffer put the YZF-R1 through its paces towards the end of the second session, searching to scrape further precious tenths from his fastest lap while experimenting with the Dunlop tyre package.

The quietly-spoken Kurri-Kurri rider has a clear lead in the YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship and he is aiming to further his advantage over second place this weekend.

“Once again Yamaha Motor, Dunlop and all the guys have provided me with a great racing package in the R1, I can’t really fault it at the moment,” said Stauffer.

“I set a quick lap this morning as the track had just dried out and was pretty happy with that, but it was disappointing not to be able to find some more speed in the second session,” he said.

“Towards the end we changed to a race tyre to simulate the conditions for tomorrow’s racing and it really helped me get a better feel for the bike.”

“I’m confident the bike can hold its own at the front, but 20 laps around here is much harder than it appears, there are some tough breaking areas and of course you run the risk of having to effectively do a stop-go penalty if you get unstuck near the pit lane entry.”

Stauffer knows the situation all too well, and was forced to peel into the speed-limited lane while in a frontrunning position last year.

The duel with Honda rider Adam Fergusson lost little intensity across the day’s qualifying sessions, with ‘Krusty’ grabbing a close second spot on the grid, his impressive run of pole positions at Mallala brought to an abrupt end.

A vast qualifying improvement by Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Robbie Bugden saw him elevated to the front row into third place under two minutes from the end of final qualifying.

Bugden had been enjoying a fast and consistent run throughout practice and put everything he had into recording a lap to challenge for pole.

“I’m really very happy with the front row start, the GSXR-1000 is working very well as are the Dunlop tyres and I really want to thank the team for a great effort,” said an elated Bugden.

“We’ve been working very well together all year, and I’m gradually getting faster and faster and starting to understand the bike a lot better.”

“I feel the bike is 95 percent there, we have a few final changes to make but I’m happy with the overall package – the front row is the best place to be!”

Bugden’s injured teammate Shawn Giles took to the track in the first session, only to retire after laying down just 6 laps – the physical discomfort and irregular weight shifting he was experiencing forced him to abandon his chase for pole.

Ironically, the time Giles set in just those few laps was good enough for a start on row three, though from all indications from Team Principal Phil Tainton that grid spot will remain empty in order to conserve the star for a return to racing at Ipswich in five weeks time.

Privateer Russell Holland continued his good run of form across the combined qualifying sessions, holding on to the final grid position on the front row.

Holland has maintained his amazing season start and has the factory teams searching for answers in order to halt the momentum of the Robern Racing rider, and his choice of Pirelli tyres may just be a factor.

He was another of a large group of riders that were unable to better their initial qualifying pace.

“The tyres we ended up using in the second session weren’t the tyres that gave us the best grip in the first session so we could have gone a little better,” said Holland.

“The setup of the bike is really good, we’re consistently doing low sevens so I’m fairly happy with that, it doesn’t seem as though race pace will be too much quicker.”

“Getting on the front row is a great start, it means that little bit less work at the beginning of the race, I am happy, first would have been good but Jamie (Stauffer) is running really well, I couldn’t quite get there in qualifying this weekend,” he ended.

Joe Rocket Honda’s Glenn Allerton was cleared to race this morning after crashing late yesterday afternoon in practice. While still feeling the effect of the incident in which he was knocked unconscious, a resilient Allerton powered on and recorded grid spots well within the top ten for both Superbike and Supersport races.

Jamie Stauffer took command of the Supersport qualifying session and was backed up with a strong performance from teammate Mark Aitchison who split Stauffer and Adam Fergusson late in the second session.

Support class racing begins tomorrow morning at 9am, with the first Supersport race soon after.