Teknic Honda riders Jason O’Halloran and Glenn Allerton will start alongside each other on the front row of the grid in tomorrow’s seventh and final round of the Australian Superbike Championship at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway after recording the top two qualifying times this afternoon.

O’Halloran’s pole time of 1:31.054 was an impressive 0.003sec below the Superbike lap record for the 3.93km circuit‚ held by Yamaha Racing Team rider Jamie Stauffer‚ with Allerton just 0.092sec slower than his teammate.

Allerton holds a five-point lead over defending champion Stauffer as they enter this weekend’s winner-take-all finale‚ with Stauffer qualifying fourth-fastest to claim the last position on the front row.

A surprise third quickest overall this afternoon was the MV Agusta 312R of Kevin Curtain‚ the Queensland-based team topping the second session time sheet when track conditions were at their hottest.

Stauffer’s Yamaha teammate – and elder brother – Daniel was pushed back to row two as the qualifying battle intensified‚ but with only 0.281sec covering the top five riders for tomorrow’s two 13-lap Superbike races the battle for the 2008 championship is unlikely to be decided until the last lap of the final race.

"The only plan I have is to go out and ride as hard as I can‚" said reigning champion Stauffer. "The track was a bit greasy today and lacked grip when the temperature rose‚ which didn’t suit our bikes all that well."

With O’Halloran’s bonus point for pole position today‚ just 35pts separates the top four riders in the series. Allerton leads the championship on 230pts to Jamie Stauffer 225‚ Daniel Stauffer 216 and O’Halloran 189.

With 50pts available across both of tomorrow’s races‚ O’Halloran has an arithmetic chance of claiming the title‚ although it is Allerton who is in the best position to bring Honda its first Superbike championship since 2005.

"We’ll assess things after the first race and see what the points look like‚" said Teknic Honda team manager Paul Free. "Hopefully our guys will get a good start and then control things from the front.

"Jason would need a lot of things to fall in his favour to win the title – he’s 35 points behind Glenn. The main thing we need to do is have the Yamaha guys behind us‚" added Free.

Allerton is in the best form of his career at present‚ having won the Superbike support category at the recent Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix meeting at Phillip Island.

"I’m feeling really confident after the recent Island results‚" said Allerton. "Jamie’s always strong at Eastern Creek – he holds the lap record here – so I’m not underestimating the task ahead. But I’m ready for it."

Jamie Stauffer holds both the Superbike (1:31.057) and Supersport (1:32.654) lap records at Eastern Creek‚ with Stauffer’s Superbike lap record just 0.697sec outside Spaniard Alex Criville’s outright 500cc Grand Prix record of 1:30.360.

The equation in the Yamaha team isn’t as clear cut‚ with Dan Stauffer just 9pts behind his brother and only 14pts off the championship lead.

"If I win both races and Jamie is second in both‚ then I’ll win the championship‚" said Dan. "It’s up to me."

"There are no team orders between Jamie and Dan‚" said Yamaha Racing Team crew chief Kev Marshall. "The championship will be decided on the track."

The surprise of today’s qualifying session was the performance of Curtain’s MV Agusta 312R‚ the team having found nearly two seconds per lap since Curtain last raced at Eastern Creek at the season’s opening round.

"There are so many things that are adjustable on this bike it’s taken us a while to understand it‚" said team manager Steve Trinder. "Changing our rear suspension supplier has been one of the biggest steps"

In today’s Supersport qualifying session Teknic Honda CBR600RR rider Wayne Maxwell topped the timesheet with a 1:33.098 to finish 0.064sec ahead of the Yamaha Racing Team trio of Bryan Staring‚ Jamie Stauffer and Jeremy Crowe. Stauffer is contesting both the Superbike and Supersport classes as he aims for the double-crown – a feat he last achieved in 2006.