Supersport race one and race two reports from Phillip Island ASBK

ASBK 2024
Round Five – Phillip Island
Australian Supersport Race One

A stiff breeze was blowing down Phillip Island’s main straight on Sunday morning as Supersport riders gridded up for their opening nine-lap contest.  Mark Chiodo was attempting some last-minute fettling on the grid after discovering a shifter problem on his run to his fourth place on the grid.

Olly Simpson was on pole position, while alongside him on the front row were championship leader Jonathan Nahlous and Archie McDonald.

Simpson capitalised on pole position to lead the field through the opening turns, Nahlous and McDonald tucked in behind him.

Mark Chiodo ran off at turn two after colliding with Jack Mahaffy. Chiodo was deemed at fault in the incident and was hit with a three-position grid penalty to be served in the afternoon bout.

Simpson had a rear slide through turn 11, which allowed Nahlous to get right up on to his tail for the run around 12 and down the chute. The points leader took the lead before turn one and fended off Simpson’s return attacks through Southern Loop. Simpson was back in front at turn four but ran a little wide on the exit, which allowed Nahlous to sweep back through to the lead. McDonald watching this unfold from close astern, that trio had already started to break away from fourth-placed Jake Farnsworth, who had Jack Favelle and Hayden Nelson for company.

Nahlous managed to then stretch away a little, his buffer over Simpson as they started lap four just over four-tenths of a second, with McDonald equidistant further back in third.

The gap between that leading trio continued growing through every sector before Nahlous really got wound up and started lapping more than a second quicker than the rest of the field. Dipping into the 34s, a 1m34.881, before backing off to flat 35s, Nahlous built a three-second lead over the race’s middle stages to take command of the contest.

Archie McDonald made a bold move at MG Hairpin up the inside of Simpson with just over three laps to run and managed to hold it together and maintain his nose in front down the chute to make that second place his as the race passed two-thirds distance. The Albury-Wodonga-based rider managed to stave off Simpson’s immediate retaliations before then starting to pull away from South Australian.

At the last lap board, Nahlous had a 3.4-second buffer over McDonald, while McDonald had more than a second on Simpson.

Nahlous eventually took the chequered flag four-seconds ahead of McDonald while Simpson rounded out the podium a further eight-tenths behind.

That dominant victory extended Nahlous’ championship lead over McDonald out to 37-points.

Jake Farnsworth and Jack Favelle fought a heady battle for fourth place in the closing stages of the nine-lap bout, but it was Farnsworth who claimed that fourth place at the flag.

Likewise, Tom Bramich and Hayden Nelson had their own private tussle over sixth place. Bramich eventually won that contest to claim 15 points.

A four-way battle had been waging between Marcus Hamod, Hunter Ford, Glenn Nelson and Brandon Demmery over eighth position, but it was Hamod fronting that pack when it mattered at the flag.

Supersport Race One Results

Australian Supersport Race Two

Jonathan Nahlous looked to have jumped the start before the lights went out for the second nine-lap bout, well more of a clutch creep and stutter before then getting going properly. The officials made no mention of it so it must have been deemed acceptable.

There were no such problems for Olly Simpson and Archie McDonald, who led the field through Southern Loop for the first time. However, as they approached Lukey Heights, a red flag was produced putting a halt to proceedings due to Luca Durning, Cam Rende, Cooper Rowntree and John Quinn all going down at turn two.

Some bikes were left in hazardous positions, thus should more riders fall at that point on the second lap it would have been a dangerous situation. John Quinn was deemed to have caused the red flag, so he was not permitted to make the re-start.

Clean start for all the front row second time. Olly Simpson had an amazing launch and run towards turn one to lead the field away.

Archie McDonald was in second place but Jonathan Nahlous tried to go up the inside of the Stop & Seal rider mid-turn with plenty of lean angle, lost the front, and subsequently also took McDonald out as they both tumbled through the kitty litter at Southern Loop. The championship leader and second place holder both out of the race.

Some might say it was an ambitious move from Nahlous, but McDonald had left enough room for him to go up the inside, the door was open. It just happened that was not the ideal race line and offered less grip, thus the tumble. A little bit impatient on behalf of Nahlous perhaps, as he had already shown he had enough speed to bide his time and work his way forward.  Stewards declared no further action, but we heard that a protest might have been lodged after the event…

More carnage unfolded at turn four as Mark Chiodo high-sided after running wide on the exit. Hayden Nelson and Jack Favelle also ran wide after taking evasive action to avoid the stricken Chiodo and his CBR600RR.

Well clear of all that kerfuffle was Olly Simpson. The South Australian had clear air, and it looked as though he might be on course to run away with it. However, Jake Farnsworth had other ideas…

Farnsworth reeled in Simpson before taking the lead late on lap two. Olly Simpson came back at him at Hayshed and led Farnsworth down the chute to start lap three.

Farnsworth then went back into the lead but Simpson came right back at him once again, and this time around managed to pull a few bike lengths out on Farnsworth.  This pair had more than five-seconds on the field by half-race distance.

Farnsworth continued to shadow Simpson close over the final laps before lining him up around turn 11 and 12 on the run to the flag for a photo-finish! Simpson scoring the victory by 16-thousandths of a second.

Similarly, nothing separated Tom Bramich and Jack Mahaffy at the flag, but it was Bramich that got the nod for the podium. That pair crossed the stripe seven-seconds behind the leading duo.

Three-seconds further back was Jack Favelle, who had five-seconds over Hayden Nelson and Glenn Nelson.

Marcus Hamod and Scott Nicholson battled hard over eighth place.

With McDonald and Nahlous taking no points from that contest, Olly Simpson moved past McDonald for second place in the championship and closed to within 25 points of series leader Nahlous. Second place for Farnsworth also saw him move past McDonald in the championship chase.

Third place for the race and the round went to Tom Bramich, and that 33-point haul also saw him move further up the championship table, pushing McDonald back to fifth in the points chase. It was a tough break for McDonald, especially when it came about through no fault of his own.

Supersport Race Two Results

Supersport Round Points

Supersport Championship Points

2024 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar

• Round 1: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC Feb 23-25
• Round 2: Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW Mar 22-23
• Round 3: Queensland Raceway, QLD Apr 26-28
• Round 4: Morgan Park Raceway, QLD Jul 12-14
• Round 5: Phillip Island GP Circuit, VIC Sept 7-8
• Round 6: One Raceway, NSW Oct 4-6
• Round 7: The Bend Motorsports Park, SA Nov 8-10