BOOST MOBILE RACING WITH K-TECH AND WAYNE MAXWELL EXTEND ASBK CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD AT ROUND FOUR.

Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech rider Wayne Maxwell has extended his championship lead to twenty-six points following two second place finishes at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway over the weekend of 18-20 June.

Following two consecutive round victories Wayne and the Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech team arrived in the top end of Australia with a 10-point lead in the ASBK Championship.

Friday’s track action saw the Alpinestars Superbike field take to the technical Hidden Valley layout for the first time in three years. With no testing prior to the event Friday’s two practice sessions were of vital importance, especially when the revised qualifying format for this round, run in conjunction with the Supercars Championship, was taken into consideration.

Due to the most recent Victorian lock-down caused by the global COVID-19 Pandemic, Crew Chief Adrian Monti along with Ken and Barry Horner from K-Tech Australia were stranded in Melbourne and unable to travel to Darwin with the remainder of the team. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology Adrian was able to monitor the data from each session and formulate a plan to implement the required changes to the V4R with both Wayne, Greg and Team Owner Craig McMartin, on the ground in Darwin.

Despite topping the first Free Practice session on Friday with a 1:06.215 Wayne asked for an improvement in front end feel from the team. After studying the data with Craig and Wayne, Adrian was able to recommend both mechanical and electronic changes for FP2, held on Friday afternoon.

With updated settings in the Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech V4R, Wayne was able to improve his time from FP1 by nearly 2/10’s to top the timesheets once again on Friday afternoon, but less than half a second covered the top 5.

The entire field of Superbikes took to the track on Saturday morning in the revised qualifying format, the fastest twelve riders to progress to Q2 to finalise the first four rows of the grid. Wayne was once again able to top the session, the first rider of the weekend to break into the 1:05’s and go within .081 of the fastest ever two-wheel lap around the 2.87km layout.

Q2 saw Wayne fire the Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech V4R around the Hidden Valley layout in a new outright fastest ever lap, a blistering 1:05.181, over half a second faster than the previous record, and over .4 faster than the rest of the field to take the Elite Roads Pole Position Award for the second round in succession, in addition Wayne also secured the additional point for pole position to increase the championship lead to eleven points.

Race one was held in from of a healthy crowd on Saturday afternoon and saw Wayne get a great launch from pole position and lead into turn one with great rival Troy Herfoss, Glenn Allerton, and Oli Baylis right behind, the quartet separated by a scant .5 of a second at the completion of the first lap. By lap four Wayne and Troy had started to eke out a gap of five tenths over the BMW of Allerton which increased to a second by the completion of lap five. At the completion of lap nine Wayne continued to lead on the Boost Mobil Racing with K-Tech V4R, Troy on his tail, and a four and a half second gap back to Allerton, now in a lonely third. At the completion of the penultimate lap Wayne held a slender .310 lead over Herfoss, once again it was primed for a last lap showdown. Herfoss made his move at turn ten, Wayne fought back around the outside at eleven but had to give way as they both charged to the last corner slightly offline to make their way onto the straight for the final time. Herfoss just hanging on despite a lunge at the line from Wayne to take the win by .060.

Race two on Sunday morning was unfortunately red flagged and declared after only half a lap due to crash involving race one victor, and Wayne’s fiercest rival, Troy Herfoss. The entire Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech team hope Troy has a swift and full recovery from his injuries and cannot wait to see him back dicing with Wayne on track.

Wayne got another great jump off the line in race three on Sunday afternoon in front of a huge crowd at the track and massive Live TV audience on both Channel 7 and Fox Sports. Unfortunately, the race was red flagged after only four completed laps due to a crash at turn one, Oli Bayliss showing that he had the pace to match the reigning champion before the red flag.

Race three was re-started over a shortened eight lap distance, Wayne started from pole position and Bayliss shadowed him into turn one as the field got away cleanly. On lap four both Wayne and Oli went under the new lap record set by Troy Herfoss in race one of 1:05.618 as they pulled away from the BMW of Allerton, the gap now three seconds. Bayliss was able to match Wayne’s pace until he used the slipstream to find a way past into turn one at the start of the penultimate lap. Wayne shadowed the youngster who was clearly pushing to the limit to take his first ASBK win and despite a good run to the line Wayne and the Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech V4R came up .172 short of the win.

A solid haul of forty-one point means Wayne has increased his championship lead on the Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech V4R to twenty-six points.

Wayne and the team now have a two month break before on track action resumes at Warwick’s Morgan Park Raceway for the next round of the mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance ASBK Championship Presented by Motul over the weekend of 20-22 August.

From the start the Darwin round was always going be our toughest by far” said championship leader Wayne Maxwell. “Apart from the logistics and organising everything COVID popped its head back up and made the challenge even bigger. I can’t thank Craig enough to be honest, he remained positive and his can-do attitude proved to be the difference. His direction rubs off on everyone in the team. We hit the ground running from the first session and carried that pace through qualifying. We led the most laps but failed to convert when it counted so I will have to work on something with my riding and strategy to ensure I can convert. An incredibly special mention must go to team regulars Greg, Julie and Dale, plus Karl, Brett and Gaye who chipped in for this round, without the efforts of everyone, the team doesn’t work. Also, a special mention to Adrian, back in Melbourne who was on comms and was awesome as usual, I know he was missing not being there as much as we missed having him there”.

“Darwin was one of the more difficult weekends I have experienced as a team owner” commented Craig McMartin. “We were compromised with Adrian, Ken and Barry, who are vital members of our team, not being able to attend because of the Melbourne lock down. We are lucky to have a great sponsor in Boost Mobile who provided everything we needed to work remotely with Adrian who was over 3,700km away. The rest of the team worked extra hard over the weekend to get a great result, so I am incredibly happy to leave Darwin with a good lead in the points. Qualifying went extremely well with Wayne putting in an amazing lap to get pole, the first race was a typical Wayne and Troy thriller. I told Wayne to try and stay out front to keep the engine cool as the temp was a little high in practice and qualifying, and that gave Troy the chance to work out where to overtake on the last lap. We changed strategy for the second race but with Troy’s crash it was declared on the first lap. In race three Wayne did exactly what I asked him to by staying on the bike and getting good points for the championship. It was an exciting race between Wayne and Oli with Wayne bringing the bike home second. We had some small problems that slowed Wayne down a little, so I think Wayne did the right thing, with a focus on the championship, all weekend. I would like to congratulate Oli Bayliss on his first win in ASBK and wish Troy Herfoss a speedy recovery and hope to see Wayne and Troy fighting on track again very soon”.