Australian Superbike 2008 – Round Four / Five – Queensland Raceway – Honda Report
Teknic Honda’s Glenn Allerton wrapped up Queensland’s double header weekend in scintillating style, securing his Australian Superbike Championship lead after a final lap performance that brought the crowd to their feet.
After a more difficult round four on Saturday, Allerton dug deep to better his results on his 2008 CBR1000RR at Sunday’s round five, and now leads Yamaha’s Jamie Stauffer by six points.
From the front row of the grid, the 27-year-old put in two sold rides on day one of racing stepping up to third place on the podium, but it was his nail-biting .195 second win from Stauffer and Suzuki’s Craig Coxhell on Sunday afternoon that allowed the Team to finish on a high note.
“I’m really happy with that last race result and it’s a great way to thank the Team for all their hard work this weekend,” Allerton said.
“I can’t wait for the next round at Tasmania as I won there last year and am planning to do the same again in six weeks time.”
Team Manager Paul Free said it was an exciting weekend for everyone.
“That last lap on turn 3 and 4 was a bit scary to watch, but Glenn rode like an absolute champion and made us all very proud.”
“He actually struggled to find an ideal set up on the bike this weekend, but was able to work through that and move forward to secure a solid leading position.”
“There isn’t a lot between the top two guys now in terms of points, but there is a big gap back to third which shows how strongly Glenn has been riding all year.”
The Team also had some joy with team mate Jason O’Halloran who catapulted himself up two places in the ladder to fifth overall.
He too struggled to find an ideal set-up on his Superbike, and also explained that an early proceedings problem with his primary race bike gave him the most grief.
After a technical glitch put the #1 machine out of action from day one, O’Halloran did well to ride the spare CBR1000RR to two strong fourth place round finishes.
“Things got better for me as the weekend progressed and we made the spare bike work well in the long run, but I didn’t get the results I had hoped for,” he commented.
“The weekend was a tough haul in some respects and we need to work out some kinks before the next round; I’m optimistic that I can get some better results on the board.”
Paul Free echoed his rider’s comments and noted that the 20 year old Supersport Champion is showing great speed and determination.
“Jason is still struggling to find 100% comfort on the Superbike, but he is certainly out there putting in super fast laps so I think we will see some great things from him before the end of the season.”
The Teknic Honda Team’s next appearance will be at the ASC’s penultimate round, Symmons Plains, Tasmania on 29-31 August 2008.
