Superbikes roar into town

Round one of the Australian Superbikes was held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on the weekend.

Bryan Staring (Ductai V4R) took out the Alpinestars Superbikes Race One, after leader Wayne Maxwell (Ducati V4R) crashed out in lap 5. Maxwell walked away unscathed but the error left Staring in the lead, with a four-second margin over the rest of the field.

An emotional Staring was almost lost for words on the podium, saying that he’d been “pretty patient for a pretty long time” waiting for this victory. 

“We were chasing (Wayne) all weekend,” said Staring.

“I knew that we had good race pace, but I didn’t know how good it needed to be though. Once we set out I could see the areas where we were strong and in the end, I kept the pressure on.” 

Despite nursing a sore ankle from his excursion at Hayshed in Race One, Maxwell kept it neat and clean in race Two and was able to slowly edge a two-second gap to the fellow Ducati rider to take victory ahead of Staring and Cru Halliday (Yamaha YZF-R1). 

Maxwell commended his team on preparing the number two bike to give him the win. 

“It was good to get a bit back,” said Maxwell. “I’ve got a few bruises so I’ll go and get the body healed up.”

Full details and results from the weekend can be found at asbk.com.au.

More photos from the weekend’s racing at pisra.com.au