Australian SBK Race One Report – By Trevor Hedge
A good field of 38 riders fronted up to the line for the opening Superbike contest of the inaugural Phillip Island Championship.
Josh Hook headed the all Honda front row but it was Jamie Stauffer who held sway in turn one from Hook and Maxwell. The Honda triumvirate chased by Chris Trounson, on another Honda. Stauffer and Hook on the new CBR 1000 RR SP machines, their pursuers on the regular model Fireblade.
Hook chased Stauffer for the opening two laps before making his move at turn one on the third lap after putting in a 1m33.166. Maxwell was on a mission also, putting a 33.22 in to close right on to the back of his Honda teammates to declare battle.
Stauffer edged his way past Hook once again but the youngster used the slipstream and perhaps a slight weight advantage to again take the lead at turn one. With nine laps to run the Honda trio had ten seconds on the rest of the field, with Mike Jones leading the race for the best of the rest on his Superbike debut on the Crazy Dogs Kawasaki ZX-10R.
Maxwell had been right on the tail of the leading pair, and almost seemed to be happy to stay there as Hook and Stauffer perhaps tore their tyres up in their constant tussle for position…. That was until Hook started to get a couple of bike lengths on Stauffer, then Maxwell made his move past Jamie with seven laps to run, and dropped the hammer to chase down Hook. With half the race still to run the leading trio were covered by a slender four-tenths of a second.
Maxwell could seemingly run a tighter line than Hook, perhaps through sheer upper body strength in comparison to Hook rather than bike set-up.
The leaders started to encounter lapped traffic with four laps still to run. Hook had a little slide out of turn four which opened the door for Maxwell, the 2013 ASBK Champion took that invitation and as they crossed the stripe with three laps to run Maxwell led Hook by a single tenth of a second. Hook seems to have an advantage over his teammates through 12 and down the chute, the back section of the circuit also perhaps advantage Hook but his teammates perhaps having a slightly better mastery between turns two and six.
With two laps to run the leading trio could hardly negotiate any track on the 4.45km circuit without their being lapped traffic in their way.
Hook showed his determination to win with a gutsy entry in to turn one for the final time to head Maxwell. Wayne on his tail through Siberia, tries up the inside on entry to Lukey Heights, the pair touched and Maxwell folded the front seemingly forever, and almost saved it but it just did not want to re-grip and he went down, leaving Hook to take his maiden Superbike win. What a way to start season 2014….  Stauffer claimed second place 1.5 seconds behind Hook while Maxwell’s misfortune promoted Mike Jones on to the podium ahead of Sean Condon and Chris Trounson.
Unfortunately we will have to wait until the running of tomorrow’s (Sunday) second World Superbike race before Australian Superbike competitors can again wow the Phillip Island crowd.
MCNews.com.au spoke with an elated Josh Hook – “The team has worked hard, to come off with pole position yesterday and to come here and convert it into a race win today and repay the team, it has been a long time coming but we have all been working hard, I have a good feel with the bike and am feeling good and everything seems to be working out for us and I am stoked to score the win here today.”
MCNews.com.au – It looked as though perhaps you and Wayne actually might have touched on that final run up over Lukey?
Josh Hook – “I went in to Lukey and had a bit of a moment and ran wide, Wayne saw a bit of an opportunity and he has thrown the thing up the inside, and he has shut off the gas as he got near the top of the crest and loaded up the front and lost the front there, we didn’t hit each other but it was awfully close, but that’s racing I guess. It’s a shame he came down, it was a bit of a dogfight out there, which was good to see and the boys made it really hard for me.”
MCNews.com.au then spoke with Wayne Maxwell immediately after the race – “I’m very disappointed to crash out of the battle for the lead on the last lap with three corners to go, huge apologies to the boys at Team Honda Racing, we will repair it and get out there for the race tomorrow.”
MCNews.com.au – Did you and Hooky actually touch on that climb up to Lukey?
Wayne Maxwell – “Nar we didn’t touch, Hooky lost the front going in, and he might have touched me, I don’t know, at first that was what I thought had happened, he had hit me but then obviously not, I just lost the front, one of those freak things when you are just pushing and crash. Just sorry for the team it would have been great to have a Honda 1-2-3 but we will live to fight another day and come out swinging tomorrow.”
MCNews.com.au – Did you have the pace to take the win today?
Wayne Maxwell – “For sure, yes, the lappers definitely caught me up, but Josh and Jamie rode great races, they did the work at the start, while I had a pretty bad start and sort of got caught up there, it was a very even race, just happy there was two Honda’s on the podium.”
