8th March 2011 - Round two of the Australian Superbike Championships was held at Symmons Plains Raceway in Tasmania over the weekend and it was another action packed event.

GAS Honda Racing’s Cole Odendaal and Craig Coxhell hit the track keen to improve on the results from the prior round at Phillip Island the previous weekend. Thursday and Friday free practice gave both riders time to get to grips with the Tasmanian circuit and get some much needed track time under their belts.

Qualifying on Saturday was hard work for the whole team. Coxhell and Odendaal were struggling with a front end suspension issue which had the team working frantically to help fine tune the suspension issue. Both riders improved throughout qualifying but did not gain the results they were looking for. Coxhell qualified in 8th position just scrapping into the ‘Superpole’ top eight shoot out again whilst Odendaal set the 11th fastest time.
Coxhell set out on his ‘Superpole’ lap with a new suspension set up eager to try and make some more progress before Sunday’s races. Coxhell set the 8th fastest lap in Superpole; it wasn’t the result that he wanted and he was eager to improve in Sundays races.
It was a had long Saturday night at the track for the GAS Honda Racing team, it was all hands on deck to try and come up with a positive setup for the riders on Sunday. The team left the circuit past 9:30pm and was hopeful that the hard work would pay off in the morning.