Josh Waters and Onyabike KW Civil McMartin Racing with K-Tech five from five.

Josh Waters and the Onyabike KW Civil McMartin Racing with K-Tech Team have continued their winning ways, taking their fifth ASBK round win in a row. This time the Superbikes were back at Queensland Raceway alongside the Supercars Championship over the weekend of 8-10 August.

In similar scenes to the previous round at Queensland Raceway in May, Josh was on the pace from the first dry session of the weekend to extinguish any thoughts that the round win during round four was a fluke finishing .1 behind championship rival Mike Jones in the only dry practice session on Friday. 

Qualifying on Friday afternoon for the scheduled three race program of the weekend was held in dry conditions. This allowed Josh to once again demonstrate his pace at what was previously one of his least successful circuits on the caledar, putting the Onyabike KW Civil McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati Panigale V4R on pole position, and most importantly, taking an additional championship point to add to his season tally.

Unfortunately the first race of the weekend, scheduled for Saturday was cancelled due to an oil spill from the previous race of the day. The round would now be contested over two races on Sunday. 

Starting from pole position Josh got a brilliant launch off the line in race two to lead the field into the first corner, championship rival and Queensland Raceway specialist Mike Jones right on his tail. Josh and the Onyabike KW Civil McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati V4R managed to put in a series of fast laps early while Jones had to deal with a determined Glenn Allerton who moved into second when Jones ran wide at turn three on lap five. By lap six Josh had managed to open a gap of over 1.2 seconds but Jones was soon past Allerton and, on a charge forward. Jones made a bid for the lead at turn two on lap eleven that was repelled but at the same corner a lap later Josh was relegated to second, a position he held to the flag to take twenty valuable championship points. 

Race three saw Josh get another great start and lead the field again in the early stages with a group of four riders dicing for second place while the Onyabike KW Civil McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati V4R managed to make a little break at the front of the pack. Jones had managed to get into second by the completion of lap three, the gap by then was over 1.1 seconds. By lap seven the gap was down to half a second but for the next few laps the leaders matched each other laps times to begin lap twelve with almost the same margin separating them. Lap twelve was the turning point as Josh pushed the gap out to almost .9 and then capitalised by besting his championship rival over the next few laps to head into the final lap with a lead over one second that he was able to hold till the chequered flag to take his second race win at Queensland Raceway this year, and extend his championship lead out to fifty four points.

The Onyabike KW Civil McMartin Racing with K-Tech team now look forward to the next round as we head back to Josh’s favourite track, Phillip Island, in September. 

“Another great weekend that I'm really happy with” commented round winner and championship leader, Josh Waters. “To get pole on Friday was great, unfortunately on Saturday we didn't get to race with oil being split in the race before ours and the clean up taking too long.

To finish second in race 2 and win race three was so good and get then take the overall round win. My team really helped me after this morning’s race, and I was able to go out ride a lot better in the final race of the weekend. Once again, a huge thank you too my team and all of our sponsors”.

“Another great weekend for Josh” said Team Owner Craig McMartin. “We knew Mike was going to be hard to beat here this weekend, but Josh and the team worked all weekend to improve the bike and Josh's riding and it paid off. To leave with an extended points lead is fantastic and we couldn't do it without the continued support of all our sponsors including Onyabikeadvantures, KW Civil, K-Tech, Ducati and Pirelli tyres”.