The Yamaha Racing Team rode a roller-coaster of emotion throughout the final round of the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK), but ultimately came home without the championship trophy after a gripping weekend of racing at Winton, Victoria, over the weekend.
Despite the rough weekend for the team and not results they were after, they still managed a 2-3-4 result in the championship and vowed to be back faster and stronger in 2017.
Heading into the grand finale, Yamaha Racing Team‰Ûªs Wayne Maxwell had a seven point advantage over championship rival Troy Herfoss, while fellow YRT rider Glenn Allerton was a further eleven points down on Maxwell.
For the second year running, Wayne Maxwell and Troy Herfoss were locked in battle for the ASBK crown but the weekend got off to a sluggish start for Maxwell when he could only managed ninth in qualifying and had to start well behind the leaders in the two seventeen lap races. However, in race one, Maxwell stormed his way from ninth to fourth place and put up a valiant effort to keep his grip on the points lead which saw him take a three point championship lead into the last race.
Once again Maxwell again used every bit of his experience to fight through the field. He got up to as high as fourth, but unfortunately lost the front end at turn five and went down which cost him any chance of winning his second ASBK crown.
Maxwell finished the day in 12th place and was third in the championship standings on his Yamaha R1.
‰ÛÏI knew we we‰Ûªre going to be on the back foot from the word go as we didn‰Ûªt have a lot of dry time,‰Û
