Image: Foremost Media.

Defending Australian Superbike champion Wayne Maxwell has dominated qualifying at Phillip Island, fronting the grid for tomorrow’s two 12-lap races with a new record and sizeable 1.4s margin over his nearest rival.

The Boost Mobile-backed McMartin Racing rider has topped every session of the weekend so far, with 1m31.363s in a windy qualifier seeing him in pole position ahead of Yamaha Racing Team’s Cru Halliday.

Josh Waters qualified an impressive third in his debut national race weekend with the Maxima BMW team courtesy of a 1m32.911s in the closing stages, as YRT newcomer Mike Jones narrowly missed the front row, just nine-thousandths away with a 1m32.920s.

DesmoSport Ducati signing Bryan Staring completed the top five, with Daniel Falzon (JD Racing Yamaha) delivering a strong performance to qualify P6, the South Australian still building back strength from a broken femur, pelvis and lower back sustained only in December last year.

Lachlan Epis (BMW Alliance) suffered from a crash at turn four, losing out in the closing stages as those around him improved their times which resulted in him dropping to seventh position.

Superbike rookie Broc Pearson (727 Moto Team Yamaha) transferred through Q1, then recorded a 1m33.568s lap-time to finish inside the top eight, as Glenn Allerton (Maxima BMW) and Matt Walters (Kawasaki Connection) completed the top 10 this afternoon.

Notably, two-time champion Troy Herfoss (Penrite Honda Racing) qualified down in 16th overall, only able to post a 1m35.042s in qualifying one and meaning he was unable to progress to the second session.

Detailed results