News 23 Nov 2014

Maxwell clinches 2014 ASC crown in Sydney

Herfoss breaks through for final round overall victory.

Image: Keith Muir.

Image: Keith Muir.

Team Motul Honda’s Wayne Maxwell has clinched the 2014 Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship, which concluded with Team Honda Racing riders 1-2-3 in the series.

A conservative sixth overall for Maxwell was enough to claim the title, adding it to the 2013 ASBK championship and 2014 Australian FX-Superbike Championship he won on Saturday.

Maxwell won the series by seven points from teammate Jamie Stauffer, with final round winner Troy Herfoss fending off Glenn Allerton (Next Gen Motorsports BMW) for third in the standings.

Overall in Sydney it was Herfoss the winner with 2-3-2 results, four ahead of Allerton and race one winner Stauffer rounded out the podium overall. Mike Jones (Crazy Dogs Kawasaki) finished fourth after winning race two, with final race winner Josh Hook (Team Honda Racing) fifth.

Maxwell posted an eighth, fifth and fifth from his three races, overcoming a difficult final round in scorching 40-degree conditions at the Eastern Creek complex.

Off the line in race one it was Stauffer, Cru Halliday (YRT with YMI), Jones and Allerton leading the way into the opening corner. Maxwell moved his way up into third position early and by the end of the opening lap it was Stauffer leading the way from Maxwell, Hook, Halliday and Herfoss.

On the second lap the series went to a whole new level of interesting as championship leader Maxwell made a mistake and dropped to 16th spot. Hook was looking the goods and applying serious pressure on Stauffer, posting a sizzling lap on the third lap of the race of 1m31.135.

However, Hook was given a jump-start penalty for starting the race in the wrong grid position, changing the state of play with the race standings. Behind Stauffer and Hook, Herfoss was riding smart and was clear in third at the halfway mark of the race.

Allerton was behind him in fourth, while Beau Beaton (Racers Edge Performance) took his Ducati into fifth. On the fifth lap Hook moved past Stauffer and into the lead, while Maxwell slowly worked his way up the field to get himself into 12th spot with only two laps remaining.

Jones worked his way into fifth spot ahead of the final lap, while Maxwell continued his climb – getting himself into ninth with just the final lap to go. At the chequered flag it was Hook in front and the young rider was ecstatic until he learned of his penalty when he returned to the pits.

It pushed him back into ninth overall allowing Stauffer to take the race win from Herfoss, with Allerton rounding out the podium placings in third. The result meant that Stauffer was only nine points behind Maxwell in the championship battle.

Off the line Stauffer appeared to be a man on a mission as he shot to an early race lead from Herfoss, Halliday and Hook. It was an incredible start from Hook coming off ninth into the grid and working himself into podium contention early.

Maxwell settled back into seventh place and tongues were already wagging talking of what this could mean in the overall series standings. But there was still a whole race of action to be run, and while Stauffer held onto his lead in the opening laps, less than a second separated him from sixth position.

Jones was again on a mission, and like he did in the opening race, worked his way up into the top five and claiming fourth spot from Hook after three laps. At that point Stauffer was passed by Herfoss and Halliday, and relegated back to third, while Maxwell in seventh was 1.244 seconds off the lead.

There were plenty of changes in the top positions throughout the race, and lap seven saw the action heat up. Herfoss and Halliday swapped positions four times on the lap, and Jones also had his time briefly at the front of the field.

While the trio were fighting up front, Stauffer dropped back to fifth, and found himself in a tight battle of his own with Allerton. When Allerton moved up into third on the penultimate lap, the four Hondas were back in fourth to seventh spot, as Jones fizzed passed Halliday into the lead down the straight heading into the last lap.

It was a perfectly-timed move by Jones and he went on to hold his nerve and win the race in emphatic style, while Allerton calculated his move superbly to finish the race in second. Herfoss took advantage of a momentary lapse in concentration from Halliday and passed the Yamaha rider to take third.

Maxwell earned important points finishing in fifth, while teammate Hook did him a favour by just edging out Stauffer on the line to claim sixth. From the outset of the final race, Maxwell only needed to finish seventh or better to take out the championship crown.

As they set off it was again Stauffer who rode into the lead at the opening turn, and he was followed by Hook, Herfoss, Halliday and Allerton while Maxwell settled into sixth spot.

Halliday dropped right off the pace on the second lap, which effectively bumped Maxwell into fifth spot, simply needing to hold his nerve and get through the race unscathed to come up trumps.

Up front Stauffer continued to lead though the gap between himself Herfoss in third was less than half a second. At the mid-point of the race positions remained the same before Hook and then Herfoss both made their ways past Stauffer.

It effectively ended Stauffer’s championship hopes and Maxwell was given the message from his crew that Stauffer was back in third. It didn’t hold the champion in waiting back and he worked hard to get past Allerton with two laps to go before Allerton pushed back past him heading into the final lap.

Hook held his nerve to take the race win ahead of Herfoss, with Stauffer finishing third, Allerton in fourth and Maxwell in fifth.

The result handed Maxwell a seven-point championship win from Stauffer, with Herfoss making it a Team Honda trifecta on the final podium.

2014 Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship
Round six – Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW

Superbike overall results:
1. Troy HERFOSS 64
2. Glenn ALLERTON 60
3. Jamie STAUFFER 59
4. Mike JONES 58
5. Josh HOOK 52
6. Wayne MAXWELL 45
7. Sean CONDON 42
8. Cru HALLIDAY 38
9. Matthew WALTERS 33
10. Robert BUGDEN 29
11. Ben HENRY 26
12. Rick OLSON 25
13. Glenn SCOTT 22
14. Hamish McMURRAY 18
15. Ben BURKE 16
16. Beau BEATON 15
17. Dustin GOLDSMITH 9
18. Mitch PAYNTER 6
19. Michael McLINDEN 4

Superbike Championship standings:
1. Wayne MAXWELL 362
2. Jamie STAUFFER 355
3. Troy HERFOSS 324
4. Glenn ALLERTON 314
5. Josh HOOK 263
6. Cru HALLIDAY 258
7. Sean CONDON 235
8. Robert BUGDEN 235
9. Mike JONES 218
10. Glenn SCOTT 200
11. Matthew WALTERS 150
12. Rick OLSON 129
13. Ben BURKE 111
14. Ben HENRY 103
15. Paul BYRNE 83
16. Linden MAGEE 79
17. Chris TROUNSON 69
18. Beau BEATON 67
19. Dustin GOLDSMITH 66
20. Mitch PAYNTER 47

Click here for detailed results

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