Wayne Maxwell has converted his pole position into a clean sweep of wins in Round 6 of the QBE Australian Superbike Championship races at Phillip Island today.
The Team Honda rider’s unbeaten run saw him make up 11 points on title rival Josh Waters, collecting the maximum haul available.
Despite starting from pole, Maxwell didn’t have it all his own way, and it was Team Suzuki’s Ben Attard who blasted off the line to lead both of today’s races.
Attard relinquished the lead to team-mate Waters on both occasions, and faced further setback as he was penalised for a jump start in Race 2.
Behind them, Maxwell was chipping away at the riders in front and proved too quick and consistent for their defence in the latter stages.
He made his move on Race 1 leader Josh Waters in the closing laps, taking the win by 1.7 seconds.
He crossed the line with a similar advantage in the second race which had previously been reduced by two laps due to a red flag incident.
Maxwell has notched up 6 wins to date in 2012, with 5 of them coming at Phillip Island, including two clean sweeps.
“The weekend couldn’t have gone any better, not only to get the clean sweep and 51 points, but to be able to set the fastest lap on the last lap of race 1 is a credit to the team and the way they have setup the Honda to use its tyres,” said Maxwell.
“The team have been putting in so much work to pull back these points and now we’ll head to the final round to make one last push for the title.
“It’s going to be a very tough ask but we’ll give it our best shot.”
Waters took two second place finishes and will head to the final round needing to protect an advantage of 19.5 points to secure his second Australian Superbike Championship title.
Team Honda’s Jamie Stauffer completed a carbon copy of Race 1 and 2 podium results with a pair of third places.
While he remains a theoretical title chance, Stauffer’s focus will be on holding off Procon Maxima BMW’s Glenn Allerton who he heads by just 2.5 points. Allerton finished fourth in both of today’s races.
Nicholas Waters and Linden Magee shared today’s Prostock wins, with both riders again factoring in the top 10 of the combined Superbike/Prostock field.
Team Suzuki’s Brodie Waters won both of today’s Motul Australian Supersport Championship races to close within half-a-point of Triumph’s Mitchell Carr on the leader board.
QBE Australian Superbike Championship Points
1. J Waters (Suzuki) 247.5
2. W Maxwell (Honda) 228
3. J Stauffer (Honda) 200.5
4. G Allerton (BMW) 198pts
5. R Bugden (Suzuki) 180
6. B Attard (Suzuki) 178.5
7. S Charlton (Suzuki) 159
8. B Henry (Suzuki) 147.5
9. B Waters (Suzuki) 45
10. C Trounson (BMW) 26
