TWOTHREE PR/WAYNE MAXWELL RACING:

Oleon Motologic Racing’s Wayne Maxwell has made his intentions clear during practice for this weekend’s final round of the 2009 Australian Superbike Championship, setting the fastest lap in both 30-minute sessions today at Phillip Island in Victoria.

The 26-year-old rode his Honda CBR1000RR to a best lap of 1:32.581 during this morning’s opening practice session – a time just shy of his current race lap record of 1:32.316 despite rain falling throughout the morning before the session commenced.

Maxwell was in superb form during Friday’s practice as he aims to win his first Australian Superbike Championship this weekend in his return to the category after competing in Supersport last season, with Sunday’s pair of 12-lap races set to decide the title for 2009.

Sitting nine points behind teammate Glenn Allerton entering the round, Maxwell’s fastest lap of the day was a massive 1.155 seconds quicker than his closest competitor, championship rival Josh Waters, setting him up for a strong race come Sunday.

Maxwell also topped the timesheets in the afternoon session today, again being the lone rider to lap beneath the 1:33 mark with a 1:32.993 to round of the day’s Superbike action at the 4.445-kilometre oceanside circuit.

Tomorrow will see the Superbikes complete a pair of qualifying sessions and the Superpole Shootout to decide the grid positions for race day, with Maxwell looking to secure his fourth pole position in succession after a solid run of form in the second half of the season.

Wayne Maxwell – Superbike #47
What a great start to the weekend, I guess all the hard work that I’ve been putting in is starting to pay off, so I just need to continue in that direction for tomorrow. We’ve got a good set-up and I’m comfortable at Phillip Island – obviously we’ve done quite a bit of riding here over the last few months. The grip wasn’t so high today but I still managed to do a good lap time even though it wasn’t very consistent. Tomorrow’s going to be another tough day and we’re not quite sure what the weather’s going to do – it’s been raining all over Victoria – but we’ll try to do our best lap in Superpole and will see where we end up. Hopefully we can keep it up throughout the weekend.