Symmons Plains Results from Yamaha

After a wet and wild start to its Symmons Plains weekend, the Yamaha Racing Team has delivered a solid showing of results in both premier classes, with Jamie Stauffer taking the Supersport round win and coming a close second in Superbikes.

Friday’s free practice sessions saw riders take to the track in extremely wet conditions, with many opting to wait out the deluge in the garages before chasing a setup. Having tested at the Tasmanian circuit prior to the round, the Yamaha Racing Team was confident its race machines, the dominant R1 and R6, were on song and risked little, setting a few ‘banker’ laps across the course of the day but holding off their biggest attack for qualifying.

And attack they did, with Dan Stauffer putting his hand up for a deserved Superbike pole position and Jason O’Halloran maintaining his electrifying form for the number one grid position in Supersport.

Yamaha Racing Team Superbike

Jamie Stauffer has today put the equivalent of an entire round worth of championship points between himself and second place in the YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship title hunt, rounding out the weekend to finish on equal points as the eventual round victor.

The points system favours the winner of the second and final race of the event, therefore Stauffer was forced to take a back seat to Glenn Allerton, after the pair recorded 1-4 and 4-1 race finishes respectively. Stauffer headed into Sunday nursing a slight soreness from a spectacular qualifying crash, but was determined not to use it as an excuse.

From second place on the grid he rode a smooth opening race to take the win, pleased with the ability of his R1 to put the power down strongly and handly equally as well through the tight corners.He fought a close battle with his brother and rival manufacturer frontrunners for much of the second race, and was disappointed to have his late charge thwarted by a backmarker, having to settle for 4th.

“The opening race was pretty good, I knew the bike had some good pace and I sat with Dan there for a while, mirroring what he was doing as he was having a great race,” said Stauffer. “I coasted around before making the move for first and brought it home, it all came together in the second half of the race for Yamaha and Dan was unlucky to lose out to Craig Coxhell there for second.”

“The second race didn’t really go to plan, I’d gotten off to an average start and was reeling in the leaders but ended up having my run slowed in the last few laps so there was no opportunity to give the win a shot. It was a good weekend however and to stretch the championship lead to an even round (50 points) is a good position to be in.”

Dan Stauffer had one of his most competitive showings of the year, beginning with a fantastic pole position after a day of trying conditions and uncertainty as to the track’s condition. He got away to a good start in the first race and found himself leading the pack for a number of laps, with brother Jamie shadowing his every move.Pacesetter and pioneer lap after lap, Dan revealed post-race that he had pushed the rear tyre to the limit and after falling back to third he had little grip to push ahead with.

He crossed the line in third in race 1, and recorded an identical result in the second and final race of the day to finish in 4th overall for the weekend, adding a valuable 37 points to his championship standings.

“It was a pretty good weekend, starting off very well with the pole position and we really showed some good pace there, enjoying a few good fights at the front,” said Stauffer. “I pushed quite hard at the beginning of both races and it probably hurt me in the long run, I might have given the tyres too much of a hard time there but Dunlop certainly gave us a good package to work with.”

“Full credit to the team for a good result once again, it’s good to be up at the pointy end of the standings and still firmly in second place on the home run in the championship.”

Yamaha Racing Team Supersport

The Yamaha Racing Team’s Supersport trio was once again leading the charge on track this weekend, with pole position, a race win and the eventual round win all claimed by the dominant factory R6 machine.

Jason O’Halloran, the form rider and championship leader got off to the best possible start, snaring pole position from Jamie Stauffer by less than a tenth of a second. This intriguing internal battle continued on track, with O’Halloran and Stauffer dicing for the race lead, both strong under brakes and producing some close and spectacular racing.Stauffer eventually found a way past, and took the race 1 win by just over a second from O’Halloran.

The battle raged again in race 2, but the Yamaha duo found themselves bumped down a position by a determined Josh Waters who was the runaway winner, Stauffer second, O’Halloran finishing in third.
In terms of the round, Stauffer’s 1st and 2nd placings handed him the overall Supersport win, his first for the year, and O’Halloran rounded out the podium in third.

While disappointed to see his win streak come to an end, O’Halloran was pleased he had not lost much ground in his championship campaign and was looking forward to a competitive showing at Queensland Raceway. “Everyone worked really hard at it this weekend but we just weren’t quite good enough,” explained O’Halloran. “It was great to start on pole but I didn’t quite have the race pace hold on for a win, Jamie was strong under brakes in a number of corners a and managed to slip by me.”

“It was a competitive class this weekend and some really tight corners and short areas to get the power down meant I was giving the rear tyre a real workout, two third placings is fairly good and means I am still leading the championship by 13 points.”After taking his maiden Supersport round win at Symmons Plains in 2006, Jeremy Crowe was confident heading into the weekend, but understandably deflated this afternoon after having struggled to make an impression on the race leaders across the course of the day.

He finished race 1 in 5th place and race 2 in 9th, unable to find a rhythm and getting few opportunities to break through the tight battle pack. “It wasn’t really my weekend, the bike was running well and I went into the round pretty confident after the test and of course last year’s round win but just couldn’t find the pace to catch the front guys,” said Crowe.

“It’s disappointing to drop a place in the series standings but there’s still lots of opportunities to make this back, I’m looking forward to heading up to Queensland in the next few weeks and chasing a good balance on the R6 in the initial tests.”

2007 YMF Loan Australian Superbike Championship – Rnd 5,
Symmons Plains Raceway, Tasmania

Superbike
1. Glenn ALLERTON, 422.
Jamie STAUFFER, 42
3. Craig COXHELL, 40
4. Daniel STAUFFER, 37
5. Scott CHARLTON, 31
6. Russell HOLLAND, 29
7. Wayne MAXWELL, 29
8. Robert BUGDEN, 26
9. Shawn GILES, 25
10. Christopher SEATON, 21

Supersport
1. Jamie STAUFFER, 45
2. Joshua WATERS, 42
3. Jason O'HALLORAN, 39
4. Russell HOLLAND, 35
5. Sam SMITH, 31
6. Gareth JONES, 29
7. Jeremy CROWE, 28
8. Nick HENDERSON, 26
9. Chris TROUNSON, 22
10. Wayne MAXWELL, 22
 

Current championship points after Round 5 of 8

Superbike
1. Jamie STAUFFER, 235
2. Daniel STAUFFER, 185
3. Craig COXHELL, 175
4. Glenn ALLERTON, 169
5. Wayne MAXWELL, 140
6. Shawn GILES, 132
7. Shannon JOHNSON, 126
8. Scott CHARLTON, 118
9. Russell HOLLAND, 117
10. Robert BUGDEN, 100

Supersport
1. Jason O'HALLORAN, 224
2. Jamie STAUFFER, 211
3. Joshua WATERS, 176
4. Jeremy CROWE, 169
5. Russell HOLLAND, 168
6. Gareth JONES, 109
7. Wayne MAXWELL, 104
8. Bryan STARING, 97
9. Christopher SEATON, 94
10. Mick KELLY, 93