Team Honda’s Jamie Stauffer has scored pole position with a scintillating lap record breaking time at Queensland Raceway today.
Clear conditions prevailed for the opening 25-minute qualifying session, which saw Stauffer head the field with a 1:09.073s lap in the closing stages.
It took 14 laps for Stauffer to better the standing record of Shawn Giles, making his recent dominance at the circuit official with a 1:08.577s effort.
He eclipsed the performance in the QBE Superpole session by blasting out a flying 1:08.382 lap, 0.582s clear of points leader Josh Waters.
Stauffer was pleased to add his name to another lap record but remained focused on the maximum points-paying positions in tomorrow’s races.
“The Superpole ended up being a really good lap, I thought I’d stuffed it up in a few spots so I was pushing pretty hard to try and make up some time,” said Stauffer.
“The bike was getting consistently faster this morning and the conditions towards the end of the second qualifying session were right to get in some good laps.
Championship leader Waters gained a slight edge over Wayne Maxwell, who qualified third fastest.
Maxwell comes to Queensland on the back of a clean sweep at Phillip Island and acknowledges that getting to grips with the 3.12km circuit hasn’t been as easy.
“We’ve been slowly progressing all weekend and just trying to bridge that gap to Jamie (Stauffer),” said Maxwell.
“It’s been good having him to bounce ideas back and forth with, obviously he’s the pacesetter and it looks likely that he’ll be the one to beat.
“We went from half a second gap and we’ve cut that down again but race pace will be the real test.
“I have only one option and that’s to win both races, everything beyond that is out of my hands.”
The Team Honda rider needs to make up 19.5 points on Waters to claim a maiden Australian Superbike Championship title.
Defending Champion, Procon Maxima BMW’s Glenn Allerton held off a fast-finishing Ben Attard to secure a spot in the QBE Superpole, and held his fourth position for tomorrow’s pair of 17-lap races.
Allerton’s team-mate Linden Magee continues to demonstrate the potential of the BMW in Prostock-spec, slotting his bike into 7th outright on the grid as the first in his class.
Team Suzuki’s Brodie Waters edged a point closer to his goal of becoming Motul Australian Supersport Champion today, taking pole position ahead of Triumph’s Mitchell Carr.
The Superbike and Supersport classes will contest a pair of 17-lap races each tomorrow to determine the overall Champions.
