Image: Keith Muir.

Yamaha Racing Team’s Wayne Maxwell has shot into the lead of the 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli after winning at Morgan Park today.

Maxwell and YMF/YMI/IPONE-backed Yamaha privateer Cru Halliday split the premier class race victories in a pivotal day of competition in Queensland.

In the first 16-lap affair Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Josh Waters led the field from turn one followed by Halliday and Troy Herfoss (Crankt Protein Honda Racing), who’d ultimately come unstuck in turn one moments after lodging a new lap record of 1m13.317s on lap five, seeing his race come to a premature end.

This allowed his teammate Bryan Staring to move into the position, later being relegated down the field with an apparent technical problem. Halliday made the move for the lead as Maxwell slotted into second, with the number 65 later making a costly mistake, seeing Maxwell go into the lead and that’s where he remained.

DesmoSport Ducati newcomer Corey Turner also got by Halliday in the following laps to claim a career-best second 0.931s behind Maxwell. Halliday was third ahead of Waters and Daniel Falzon (Caterpillar JD Racing Yamaha), while the top 10 was rounded out by Robbie Bugden (BCperformance Kawasaki), Alex Phillis (Yamaha), Beau Beaton (Racer’s Edge Performance/McMartin Racing Ducati), Glenn Allerton (Yamaha Racing Team) and Michael Blair (Yamaha).

The win for Maxwell put him in the championship lead after being 22 points down entering race one, while early front-runner Staring eventually lodged a DNF due to the mechanical malfunction.

In the final Superbike race of the day, Halliday maintained P1 around the opening turn as Staring positioned himself in second, the following laps would be chaotic as Falzon, Staring, Matt Walters (Swann Insurance Kawasaki) and Beaton all crashed out in seperate incidents.

The crashing wouldn’t stop there with Troy Guenther (Next Gen Motorsports) and Sloan Frost (Suzuki) also exiting the race prematurely, followed by title contender Bugden on lap six. Herfoss then took the reigns, however was demoted from a hard-charging Halliday, who went onto take the win.

Maxwell was battling for the lead, although dropped to third before making a successful move on eventual third-place finisher Herfoss. Waters concluded the race just on the tail of the lead pack, ahead of Allerton. The top 10 was completed by Mitch Levy (Yamaha), Phillis, Turner – who crashed while in fifth only to remount – Blair and Ryan Yanko (Ducati).

Overall it was Maxwell who took the round and leads the championship by five points, as Halliday and Waters completed the podium on race day.

The 2017 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) presented by Motul Pirelli will now take a single weekend off before resuming at Sydney Motorsport Park in New South Wales on 8-10 September.