It was a fast, furious and then wet weekend at round three of the Mi-Bike Insurance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), held at Queensland Raceway over the weekend.
The on-track action was exactly that, as competitors simply scorched around the Queensland Raceway circuit, but rain at the most inconvenient times played havoc with riders and teams as they scrambled to adjust to the conditions. Mike Jones entered the weekend looking to claw back points in the championship. He sat 29 points down on rival and championship leader, Josh Waters, but with the next few rounds in Jones’ home state of Queensland, the time was right to strike and fight his way back into contention.
And things were on track throughout Friday and Saturday with Jones regularly topping the time sheets during the free practice and then when qualifying rolled around, he unleashed the R1M around the QR circuit like no man had ever done before. He uncorked a 1.06.845 to take another .3 of his lap record set there last year.
It wasn’t that long ago that a 1.08 was a race winning lap time around the technical QR layout, now a 1.07 is considered race pace and 1.06 is now a hot lap. The pace at ASBK continues to elevate.
After overnight rain, Sunday dawned to blue skies and light winds, but the threat of possible afternoon showers was in the forecast. Race one was held in perfect conditions and as the Superbike field roared towards the first turn, it was Waters in the lead, with Jones right behind him.
Jones shadowed Waters and then made a move up the inside of the exit of turn three and grabbed the race lead by turn four. This time it was Waters turn to go to school on Jones, and he stalked the Yamaha rider until finding his way past a few laps later.
The pair then stretched their lead over the rest of the pack and the gap between the lead duo hovered around the one second mark. Jones made a last-minute run at Waters but couldn’t get close enough and was forced to settle for second.
Race two and the clouds had gathered. Rain was in coming but was there going to be enough time to finish the superbike race before the weather hit? Jones jumped well and grabbed the lead on the opening lap. He then knuckled down and got on the with the job and held a small gap over Waters. But then the rain came, and the track was declared wet.
Bikes frantically returned to the pits for a change to the wet set up. On with the wet tyres, changing of motor and suspension settings as well as a rethink of race strategy with a full eight laps to run.
They re-gridded and took off again. Jones not known for his wet weather riding, was in the lead early and gave up a couple of positions as he adjusted to the conditions. But he settled in and wound up in a fight for the final spot of the race podium with Waters, as the duo went back and forward for third place. Again, he made a lunge in the closing laps but each time he went past, Waters was able to sneak back up the inside.
The race win went to Glenn Allerton, with Ant West in second, Waters third and Jones fourth. Jones’ 2-4 results gave him equal third on the day but fourth on count back and he still maintains second in the championship.
“I’m disappointed I didn’t win and get some points back in the championship, but I felt I gave it a good crack and achieved some personal bests along the way,” Jones explains. “I set the lap new record three times over the weekend and while it might not sound great, that was probably my best wet weather race.
“We lost some points to Josh so that is the negative, but we have a long way to go and a lot of race laps to come so we will keep working hard and do our best to get ourselves back in championship contention,” he ends.
The weekend marked considerable progress for Max Stauffer. After a sluggish start to the weekend, Stauffer worked his way back into some form throughout the practice sessions and then managed to turn in a solid performance in qualifying to line up in P5 for the two races on Sunday.
He started well in race one and held position on the opening lap, tagging onto the top four ahead of him. The first five riders pulled a gap of the rest of the field, then Stauffer was able to capitalise on a mistake from a rider in front and move into fourth.
He held onto fourth place until the waning moments, when Broc Pearson and Glenn Allerton were able to fight their way past, dropping him to sixth place, but it was confidence building ride for Stauffer and one that he can use as the benchmark moving forward.
He was off to a good start in the dry of race two and again moved with the lead pack as he was again inside the top five. He was staying closer this time, but the chaos erupted when the rain came down.
For the restart, Stauffer spun up badly off the grid and on the opening lap had slipped back down the field as far as 15th place. He then mounted a comeback on the slick conditions to move his way through to seventh at race end and his 6-7 results gave him sixth for the day and he holds sixth in the championship.
“I’m still not where I want to be, but things definitely went in a better direction this weekend than the opening two rounds. I gelled more with the bike and was able to improve my speed each time on the track.
“The YRT team worked hard all weekend, and I feel we are building now, so looking forward to the coming rounds to keep things moving,” he said.
The next round of the ASBK championship stays in Queensland with Morgan Park in Warwick hosting round four on June 13-15.
