Team Honda Racing teammates Jamie Stauffer and Wayne Maxwell have put forward the challenge to Australian Superbike Championship leader Glenn Allerton in final qualifying at Symmons Plains today.

Procon Maxima BMW rider Allerton had set the benchmark all weekend including this morning’s first qualifier of the weekend, but it was Stauffer who stepped it up to steal the show in Q2 with a 53.271sec lap – the fastest ever Superbike effort around the Tasmanian venue.

Maxwell was a close second, his best of a 53.331 good enough to edge out Allerton’s 53.480.

Team Suzuki’s Josh Waters began to make inroads on the leaders following a challenging start to the weekend for the 2009 champion, lapping fourth quickest with a 53.568, which bumped teammate Troy Herfoss’ 53.615 back to fifth.

With this afternoon’s Superpole session set to feature the top eight qualifiers in a single lap shootout to decide the front two rows, the final Superpole runners will include Ben Attard (i-Style The Natural Aprilia), Robbie Bugden (Team Mack Trucks Suzuki) and Craig Coxhell (Demolition Plus GAS Honda Racing).

In Supersport, AARK Racing Triumph’s Christan Casella rounded from a difficult opening round to claim provisional pole in the final moments of regular qualifying.

Casella posted a 56.006 lap to bump Team Suzuki’s early pace-setter Brodie Waters from the top spot, while Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Racing Team) and Nick Waters (Waters Racing/Sunstate Racing Suzuki) were the final of the four Supersport Superpole qualifiers.

In Superstock it was Mike Jones (Yamaha) who scored pole position, Cru Halliday (Yamaha) in Prostock and Josh Hook (Aprilia) in the Superlites.

Superpole will take place this afternoon at 3:45 for both the Superbike and Supersport top qualifiers.

Viking Group Australian Superbike Championship
Round Two – Symmons Plains, TAS

Superbike Overall Qualifying Results (Superpole to come):

Supersport Overall Qualifying Results (Superpole to come):