Maxwell Cleans Up at Phillip Island
D
ucati's Wayne Maxwell made
the perfect start to the 2020
Australian Superbike Champi-
onship, taking three wins from
three starts ahead of Yamaha's
Cru Halliday.
Maxwell and the new Ducati
V4 R were devastatingly fast all
weekend, as the veteran claimed
the Superpole win by almost
one second over Halliday and
JW Suzuki's Josh Waters. He
would then go onto claim three
closely contested wins as he and
Halliday proved to be the class of
the field.
"It's a true testament to Craig
McMartin Racing Team; [the]
Boost Mobile K-tech machine
was unbelievable," Maxwell said.
"The scary thing is it's got room
for improvement and I can im-
prove. I've never walked into an
environment where people have
believed in me more than I have
myself, so for me that's fantastic
and the relationship makes me
want to work harder."
Halliday's start to the title
chase was a good one, given
he was right with Phillip Island
specialist Maxwell throughout
the weekend.
"I'm not going to lie, Wayne
was just a bit quicker, I got a bit
greedy on the throttle early and
it probably hurt me a little," said
Halliday after race three.
"I kept closing the gap and
then making mistakes, but that
was really hard, that little micro
second you stuff up on, it can
cost you when Wayne is rid-
ing so hard, but hats off to the
Yamaha Racing Team and bring
on Wakefield."
Current ASBK number one
Mike Jones had an off weekend
by his standards, recording DNF
in race one, a third in race two
and fourth in race three.
American legend Josh Hayes
made an appearance on the
Addicted to Track Yamaha YZF-
R1, taking 10th in race one, but
failing to finish race two and not
starting race three. CN
IN
THE
WIND
P40
Wayne Maxwell and the new Ducati V4 R are going to
take some beating if Phillip Island is anything to go by.
