Maxwell applies the blowtorch

Polesitter Wayne Maxwell (Honda) clean swept the penultimate round of the 2012 QBE Australian Superbike Championship at Phillip Island on August 19, taking valuable points away from Suzuki rival Josh Waters who was forced to settle for a pair of second places.

The Team Honda rider made up 11pts on Waters, collecting the maximum haul available from round six and increasing his claims on a maiden ASBK championship.

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 early in both races.

Attard relinquished the lead to teammate Waters on both occasions, and faced further setback as he was penalised for a jump start in race two.

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 Waters in the closing laps of race one, 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 six wins to date in 2012, with five 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 has 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 was strong today but decided discretion was the better part of valour as Maxwell applied the blowtorch.

“Once I got a gap over third I just did what I needed to do, Wayne was too strong in those last few laps and to come away with two second places isn’t too bad,” said Waters.

“I knew I’d have to be riding at 110 percent to beat him and now I have to go back to Queensland Raceway and just try to bring it home.

“It’s been wet there in races and we’ve had two rained out tests so who knows what we’ll be up against – hopefully it’s a dry weekend and we can get a lot of fans out there to watch the title get decided.”

He will head to the final round needing to protect an advantage of 19.5pts to secure his second Australian Superbike Championship.

Team Honda’s Jamie Stauffer completed a carbon copy of results with a pair of third places.

The two-time champion admitted he didn’t have the pace displayed by the leaders today and was content to come away with two consistent finishes.

“Wayne and Josh always do well here and they pretty much broke away in the last few laps to leave me with two third places,” said Stauffer.

“I had a good battle with Glenn (Allerton) his afternoon and managed to get back by him which was important for our points.

“Queensland Raceway seems to be the track I do the best at so hopefully we can go there and get back on the top step of the podium.”

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 2.5pts.

Allerton finished fourth in both races, and he also holds down fourth on the standings and will be looking to finish a challenging season on a high next month.

Team Suzuki’s Brodie Waters won both Australian Supersport Championship races to close within half-a-point of Triumph’s Mitchell Carr on the leaderboard.

Three riders waged war in a close battle for the win in both races.

Just 0.131 seconds separated the top three riders at race end, with Team Honda’s Josh Hook taking third and second and Carr second and third.

Hook took second overall for the round by virtue of a higher place in the second race, and is only 4.5pts shy of the lead with a round still to run.

Visit www.computime.com.au for detailed results and points, including the full suite of support classes.