Team Suzuki’s reigning Australian Superbike Champion Josh Waters says that he and the team couldn’t get a set-up that he was 100 percent satisfied with at Queensland Raceway’s third round of the 2010 championship last weekend, forcing him to settle for second overall in another solid haul of points for the season.

Waters finished second in both races behind Cougar Bourbon Honda Racing’s Bryan Staring, his tally of 40 points from the round has consolidated third in the championship at the halfway point of the six-round series, just 9.5pts off the series lead.

“I’m happy with the points for second, but I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t find a setting I was happy with,” Waters commented. “My team was awesome and worked non-stop to improve the bike every time I went out. We got it better each time and there wasn’t much between Bryan and I at the finish, but I just didn’t get the job done.

“We changed the bike for this meeting after the previous round in Darwin, but will have to go back to what we know. Nobody was going to beat Bryan this weekend. I’ve only lost one and a half points to the championship lead, so I’m looking forward to the next round.”

Waters claimed the fastest lap on race day at 1:10.424sec, set in race two, as he tried to find a way past Staring.

Three-time New Zealand Superbike champion Robbie Bugden and three-time Australian Superbike champion Shawn Giles finished fourth and fifth respectively to give Team Suzuki three riders in the top five at the round.

Giles, who celebrated his 40th birthday on the Tuesday after the meeting, was just 1.230sec off the podium in race one, while Bugden missed the podium by just 0.236sec in race two after a titanic battle with Wayne Maxwell, the latter third in each race.

“It’s always great to race in front of my friends and family at my home round at Queensland Raceway,” Bugden said. “It would have been good to have got on the podium in that final race, but Wayne just got me on the last lap by a bike length. It’s been a good weekend and fourth overall is a good result.”

For Giles, top five was a good result at the circuit he still holds the race lap record at.

“I’m happy with the results and fifth overall, especially as the weekend didn’t start too well for me,” he explained. “I had a few problems getting a set-up I was happy with, and I couldn’t get the confident feel in the front end I was after. That made it hard for me to pull the bike up.

“The team worked non-stop all weekend, and kept making set-up changes until I had the confidence to push harder. I can’t thank them enough. Those guys up front were riding elbows out and pretty aggressively, and I guess I was riding a bit placid while I chased set-up. I’m looking forward to coming back for the next round at Queensland Raceway in August.”

Waters’ Team Suzuki GSX-R1000 was the fastest bike through the speed trap on Queensland Raceway’s back straight, recording a top speed of 273km/h in Friday’s opening practice session.

The fastest lap of the day, set by Waters in Sunday’s race two with a 1:10.424, was 0.1656 below the V8 Supercar lap record of 1:10.5896 held by Ford Falcon driver James Courtney.

There was further good news for Team Suzuki with Troy Herfoss taking overall honours in the Australian Supersport Championship on his Suzuki GSX-R600 and extending his lead at the head of the points table after three rounds of the six-round series.

Herfoss qualified in pole position, and won both races by 2.568sec and 0.645sec respectively over fellow Suzuki GSX-R600 rider Brodie Waters. The 23-year-old had earlier set the fastest Supersport time of the day in race one at 1:13.005.

“I’m really pleased with the weekend results – the bike was great all weekend and the team did an awesome job,” Herfoss said. “Race one was a little harder than I expected. I didn’t know who was behind me, but I knew they were close.

“I would have preferred if race two hadn’t been red-flagged and had gone the full distance, as I felt good out front. Once I got in front of Brodie I felt comfortable that I could stay there. There was no luck involved with the red flag, that’s for sure.”

Team manager Phil Tainton was also pleased with the results of his all-star team.

“It’s been a great weekend for Suzuki, with four of the top six positions in Superbike and the top two in Supersport,” he said. “Troy has now won all three rounds in Supersport this year, and again displayed a maturity beyond his years to take a clean sweep of pole position and both races.

“The level of competition in the Superbike class is extremely high, so to have Josh, Robbie and Shawn finish second, fourth and fifth was a great result. It was a challenging weekend finding a set-up for the Superbike guys that they were happy with, as the circuit is quite bumpy in parts.

“Of course we want to win every time we go out there, and winning both classes was our aim. But Bryan got his package working a little better on the day, so congratulations to him. Josh is just 9.5pts off the championship lead, and we learned a lot this weekend which will allow us to come back stronger when we return for the next round here in August.”

The series returns to Queensland Raceway on 19-22 August for round four of the six-round series.