Maxwell raced to victory in the second leg at Phillip Island this afternoon.

Demolition Plus GAS Honda Racing’s Wayne Maxwell has broken fellow Honda rider Bryan Staring’s win streak with a superb race two victory at this weekend’s sixth round on the Viking Group Australian Superbike Championship.

Contested at Phillip Island alongside the L&H 500 round of the V8 Supercars Championship Series, Maxwell was the victor in a thrilling 10-lap affair that commenced with a five-rider battle for the lead in the opening laps.

Racers Edge Performance Suzuki’s Scott Charlton lead before Valvoline Superbike Team rider Glenn Allerton snatched the position to lead the opening lap, however it wasn’t long before Maxwell, Ducati Motologic Racing’s Jamie Stauffer and Staring worked their way to the front.

Stauffer worked his way through the five-rider freight train at the front of the pack, with Maxwell quickly chasing him down. Maxwell took the lead on lap three.

Staring was the last to work his way through, eventually getting up to third and giving chase.

Maxwell reclaimed the lead on lap seven, only for Stauffer to re-pass him again before the pair went back and forth as the laps wound down, enabling Staring to inch closer lap after lap.

The final lap saw Maxwell establish himself at the front as Stauffer had a scary near-highside exiting Siberia, allowing Staring to work his way through and claim the position for a Honda 1-2 finish, 0.550 in arrears of Maxwell.

“I felt on about lap five the tyre started to go and I thought ‘ah, here we go again’, but then I was like ‘I don’t care, I’ve just got to win this race’ so I kept hanging it out,” Maxwell beamed from the podium. “I just kept asking the question and thankfully luck was on our side and it went our way – I’ll take it any way that I can get it!

“Demolition Plus GAS Honda worked hard last night, I was up at 2:00am thinking about what we had to do and when I got to the track my team all had the same ideas. It’s good that we can all agree and move forward, helping us forget about yesterday.”

Maxwell won overall from Staring and Valvoline Superbike Team rider Glenn Allerton, who scored his second podium of the season after he claimed fifth in the second leg.

Behind the top three in race two was impressive privateer Scott Charlton in fourth after beating Allerton and KTM’s Shannon Johnson to the line.

Team Suzuki’s Shawn Giles was seventh with teammate Robbie Bugden eighth, and Craig McMartin scoring another solid result in ninth after a spread out battle.

Rounding out the top 10 was top Superstock 1000 competitor Craig Coxhell, followed by category first-timer Cru Halliday and Beau Beaton.
Victorian Honda privateer Kris McLaren crashed on the exit of Turn Four on the opening lap.

Click here for detailed results