That man Stauffer does it again during qualifying at Winton

Australian Superbike 2008 – Round Three – Winton Motor Raceway (VIC) – Day Two Report
By Trevor Hedge – Quotes by KW

Both Jamie Stauffer (Yamaha) and Jason O’Halloran (Honda) dipped into the 1m21s bracket at Winton Motor Raceway during today’s second and final qualifying session for round three of the Australian Superbike Championship. Jamie’s 1m21.67 earned him pole position from Jason’s 1m21.95 with his Honda teammate Glenn Allerton right behind him on 1m22.15 while Dan Stauffer made it two Yamaha men and two brothers on the front row with a 1m22.18 at a track where the aircraft engineer has often done well.

“The circuit is a lot rougher than the last time we raced here, so the lap times are pretty good considering the bumps,” said Stauffer. “I’ve just been riding through them, as it’s not possible to find a way around them. The track really needs to be resurfaced.”

Stauffer’s comments were echoed by championship leader Allerton, who said his technique for attacking a large dip in the track surface at Turn Five was to keep the throttle of his 200-plus horsepower Honda CBR1000RR Superbike fully open.

“I’m on the gas through there, as that way the bike powers across the top of the bumps,” said Allerton.

Allerton currently holds a narrow 4pt lead in the seven-round series over Team Joe Rocket Suzuki rider and three-time Australian Superbike champion Shawn Giles, with Stauffer a further 4pts back.

The Honda rider rates the 3.0km Victorian circuit as the most physically demanding on the national calendar, but one that suits his style.

“I’m willing to sacrifice top-end power to have a bike that’s more manageable over race distance,” said Allerton. “I was having a lot of trouble getting off the final turn on Friday, as the bike wanted to wheelie all the time. I’ve got a few changes that I want to make to the bike for tomorrow’s races – I’m confident we’ll be on the pace.”

Robert Bugden continued his form from Friday to remain the quickest Suzuki man ahead of Shawn Giles and Craig Coxhell while Zac Davies put in a brilliant performance to claim the final spot on the second row of the grid with a 1m23.10.

Kevin Curtain continues to develop the MV Agusta F4 and recorded a 1m23.23 in the first qualifying session but failed to get anywhere near that time in the second session which suggests that the team had some problems today. Chris Trounson rounds out the top ten ahead of Jon Cartwright who has entered the Superbike ranks this weekend aboard a Yamaha R1.

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Supersport Qualifying saw a Yamaha 1-2-3 despite none of that trio even bothering to take to the track in the first session. Jamie Stauffer took pole with a 1m22.74, a time only 2-tenths shy of what factory Suzuki pilot Craig Coxhell could manage on his Superbike and half a second quicker than the time Kevin Curtain could coax out of the MV Agusta Superbike. Incredible stuff. Jeremy Crowe was second quickest Supersport man ahead of Ben Attard on the Vern Graham backed Yamaha while rounding out the front row was Honda’s Wayne Maxwell. Suzuki teamster Joshua Waters heads the second row.

In the Superstock class it was Patrick Medcalf who took pole position ahead of Adam Christie. Medcalf was also the fastest man in race one but retired after only three laps which left Adam Christie to cruise home for an easy win ahead of Timothy Durie and Jordan Burgess.

In the 125 Grand Prix category Blake Leigh-Smith romped to a clear 12 second victory over Rhys Moller who just managed to take second place from Brad Gross. The first of the new breed 250cc four-stroke Moriwaki machines home was Honda backed Brodie Waters in seventh place just behind Peter Galvin. Brodie’s best race lap was a 1m30.54 recorded on the penultimate lap of the eight lap race.

The tiddler class for very junior riders saw a mixed grid of two-stroke Metrakit 80 GP machines and Honda CBR 150 four-strokes. Predictably the two-stroke machines proved much faster than the budget Honda machine. Adrian Di Giandomenico took victory in the opening bout ahead of Joel Taylor and Ryan Dymond but Dymond bounced back in race two to take a clear win from Joel Taylor. The faster Metrakit lap of the day was a 1m40.78 recorded by Di Giandomenico in race one while the quickest CBR 150 lap was put in by Josh Hook in race two, a 1m47.43.

Kevin Curtain put in a scorching best lap of 1m24.92 in the Nakedbike race but it was Pro Twin Champ Craig McMartin that took the overall race win despite his best lap being more than two seconds slower than Curtain’s best. The start of the race was delayed due to fluid on the circuit from the safety car so we can only assume that Curtain was troubled by the late start and had to try and chase down McMartin from way behind.

Brayden Carr piloted his GSX-R1000 to victory in the opening FX Cup bout from WA Yamaha rider Ben Henry and Victorian Charles Hern. Carr the victor by more than six seconds over the course of the nine lap race and his best lap more than a second better than any other rider could manage suggests he will be hard to beat in the remaining encounters come Sunday.

Superbike Grid

Supersport Grid

Superstock Race One Results

125 GP Race One Results

Junior Metrakit / CBR 150 Race One Results

Junior Metrakit / CBR 150 Race Two Results

Nakedbike / Pro Twin / Forgotten Era Race One Results

FX Cup Race One Results