Image: Russell Colvin.

Crankt Protein Honda Racing’s Jamie Stauffer proved there’s still life in his career yet, with a thrilling Australian Superbike race two win this afternoon at Phillip Island’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Stauffer sliced his way to the front in the lone eight-lap encounter of Saturday’s action, taking victory by 0.6s of a second ahead of race one winner Josh Waters (Custom Plates Apex Motorsport Yamaha) and national champion Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing).

With the driest track conditions of their weekend so far, Herfoss led for the opening three laps before Stauffer made his way to the front. An entertaining battle ensued, however the latter was able to lead over the line on every lap following.

As Stauffer held on for the win, Waters too was able to make his way by Herfoss on the final lap in the run for the line for the runner-up. The top five was rounded out by Brayden Elliott (Knobby Underwear Suzuki) and Michael Blair (IPONE Yamaha), while Cru Halliday (DesmoSport Ducati) got the better of Sloan Frost (Next Gen Motorsports Suzuki) for P6.

In Supersport first thing this morning it was Sam Clarke (Kawasaki) who claimed the chequered flag first by near five seconds, despite starting from pit-lane when he opted to race his back-up bike with wet settings in the rainy conditions.

Clarke led home rookie Jack Gallagher (Yamaha) and Callum Spriggs (Cube Racing), who also pitted for his wet bike, while it was heartbreak for Stephanie Redman (Yamaha), crashing out of the lead with just three laps remaining.

Both the Superbike and Supersport categories will be back on track during race day Sunday for their final outings of the weekend, both dropping one of their races following the cancellations of Friday afternoon’s running.