Maxwell claims overall honours in Qld

Shares victories with his Honda teammate Jamie Stauffer, but it was BMW's Glenn Allerton who increased his lead in the championship

Team Honda rider Wayne Maxwell’s heady mix of speed and consistency saw him claim overall honours in round six of the 2011 QBE Australian Superbike Championship at Queensland Raceway on August 19-21.

Maxwell backed up his victory in Saturday’s 16-lap opener – his first for the year – with a fifth place in race two, enough for a weekend haul of 41pts. He finished ahead of championship leader Glenn Allerton (BMW, 37pts), Aprilia’s Ben Attard (36), and Suzuki pair Josh Waters (35) and Robbie Bugden (32).

“To get the overall win here in front of an awesome crowd is good,” said Maxwell. “The overall win is a bit of a surprise, it's a lucky win with Jamie and some of the other boys making mistakes. It puts us back in contention for second in the championship and that’s all we can achieve after the year we’ve had.

“Full credit to the guys at Team Honda Racing, they’ve given me the confidence to get up the front and battle with those guys. We move on to some tracks that I’m a bit stronger at, Tassie and Phillip Island, so I should be able to get up there and end up second in the championship overall.”

With two rounds remaining (Symmons Plains on November 11-13 and Phillip Island on November 18-20), Maxwell (177pts) is now in sixth position, behind Allerton (263), Jamie Stauffer (Honda, 196), Attard (196), Suzuki’s Troy Herfoss (185) and Honda's Craig Coxhell (181).

Stauffer blew a golden opportunity to close the gap on Allerton at Queensland Raceway, near Ipswich, crashing out of the lead in race one while Allerton was a close second behind Maxwell.

Stauffer’s redemption was a 2.262-second victory over Waters in race two, but the net result of the weekend was that Allerton extended his lead from 56 to 67pts.

“The positives from this weekend are that we came away with an even bigger championship points lead and I finished second for the weekend, I can’t complain about that,” said Allerton. “The Procon Maxima BMW went really well, I think if we had have done a test between the last race and this one like everyone else did we would have been that step further forward and battling for the win.

"Unfortunately we couldn’t do that due to me being overseas and doing some racing. We’ll go to the next round and try to consolidate, I’m strong at Tasmania so I’ll go to my favourite track and hopefully take the No. 1 plate there.”

In race one, Attard led the race momentarily before a big braking manouevre from Stauffer saw the polesitter wrestle back the lead.

It lasted just a few hundred metres as Stauffer’s Honda slid out from beneath him into turn four, the first left-hander on the six-corner, 3.12km circuit.

The race then fell in favour of Maxwell and Allerton, with Attard buying into their battle before running wide and off the circuit at turn three while attempting a pass under brakes. He then rallied, picking off riders with ease before passing Budgen for third with a swoop on the final corner.

Meanwhile, up front the battle to the chequered flag ended in Maxwell’s favour by 0.224 seconds.

In the 14-lap race two, Stauffer was full of poise as he held off the constant challenge from Waters, with Attard completing a pair of thirds ahead of Allerton and Maxwell.

Prostock Challenge honours went to BMW rider Linden Magee, who held off Team Suzuki’s Brodie Waters and local Honda rider Nathan Houtermann in identical race and round results.

QBE Australian Superbike Championship round six results

1. Wayne MAXWELL (VIC), 41

2. Glenn ALLERTON (VIC), 37

3. Ben ATTARD (QLD), 36

4. Joshua WATERS (VIC), 35

5. Robert BUGDEN (QLD), 32

6. Craig COXHELL (VIC), 30

7. Scott CHARLTON (VIC), 27

8. Jamie STAUFFER (NSW), 26

9. Troy HERFOSS (VIC), 25

10. Ben HENRY (QLD), 23

Current standings (after round six of eight):

1. ALLERTON 263

2. STAUFFER 196

3. ATTARD 196

4. HERFOSS 185
5. COXHELL 181

6. MAXWELL 177

7. WATERS 159

8. BUGDEN 148

9. Cole ODENDAAL (NSW), 123

10. HENRY 121

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Maxwell claims overall honours in Qld

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