Maxwell clean sweeps ASBK opener

Wayne Maxwell has scored a brilliant double victory in round one of the 2010 Australian Superbike Championship (ASC) at Phillip Island.

The reigning No. 3 scored maximum points (51) for his pole position and two race wins, with Bryan Staring (38pts) making it a Honda one-two ahead of Ducati's Jamie Stauffer.

"To come out here and win both races without much testing, hats off to the team - they gave me a motorbike that could win, and I'm absolutely stoked with the result," Maxwell said.

"I'm aggressive into the turns and gentle coming off the turn, so we're going to do some testing and see how we can get more out of the tyre and continue this momentum into (the second round in) Darwin.

"I don't think there are many riders who have ridden at the Darwin circuit before so it'll interesting to see who can pick up the circuit and adapt and get their motorcycle working.

"It's going to be hot, and we'll see who has been training and I'm looking forward to it."

Maxwell edged out Staring and defending champion Josh Waters (Suzuki) in the opening 12-lap race, and in race two - reduced to 10 laps -- it was Stauffer and Staring who completed the podium.

Waters' gear lever broke in race two when he was battling at the front, and he was forced to limp home in third gear. He still scored points with an 11th place finish, and he's eighth in the title on 27pts, behind KTM's Shannon Johnson (33), Suzuki's Scott Charlton (29), three-time champion Shawn Giles (Suzuki, 29) and Honda's Glenn Allerton (28).

Staring was the biggest revelation in round one, after only announcing his ASC ambitions a few weeks ago.

"This is more than I ever imagined going into round one," Staring said. "We really put this together with four tests in three weeks. It is remarkable what the team has done.

"We had a 2008 CBR1000RR that had done two seasons, and we modified the suspension, freshened it up, and worked on the gearing and set it up as best we could to suit my style.

"Wayne (Maxwell) did an amazing job on his Honda and I just need to concentrate on getting more prepared."

Ben Attard (Ducati) won the Superstock 1000 class.

In supersport, Suzuki's Troy Herfoss walked away with the overall win on 43pts from Christian Casella (Triumph, 42) and Suzuki's Brodie Waters (38).

In his debut for Triumph, Casella was the race one victor, while Herfoss rebounded to win the second.

“I’m really pleased with the weekend results. My plan for race two was to get in front early and avoid the close battle that I had with Christian and Brodie in race one," said Herfoss. “It was hard to settle down and be consistent in race one as we were fighting for position all the time. Race one was a real hard scrap – nobody gave a millimetre.

“The team made some suspension changes for race two which gave me more confidence in the front-end and I could push harder.

“The plan for race two worked and we got the result we were after. It’s great to be leading the championship.”

Click on the following link for full results from Phillip Island.