McDonald pips Mahaffy on the line in second Supersport bout at SMP

ASBK 2025

Round Two – SMP – Supersport Race Two

Conditions had been damp for the opening 11-lap Supersport bout on Saturday afternoon, but the track was completely dry by the time it came to race under lights for the second and final stanza of the SMP weekend at 1950.  Jack Mahaffy had resisted a late charge from behind by Will Nassif and Marcus Hamod in the opening race. That latter pair chasing him down on slicks as Mahaffy’s wets went away late in the race. The gap at the flag was a single hundredth of a second…

Poleman Archie McDonald had a poor start to the first race, and it didn’t get much better for the championship leader from there. A ninth-place finish saw McDonald lose that championship lead to Stop & Seal teammate Mahaffy. When the lights went out on Saturday evening, he was out to get it back.

On the sighting lap for the second Supersport race, Jake Farnsworth went down on a run of water across that part of the circuit.  Farnsworth had been quick all weekend and displayed clear podium pace. Still, it had all gone wrong for him in the opening Supersport bout, and history was repeating itself before the second bout even got underway!

Will Nassif’s team could not get the new tyre they had ready for him in the back of the bike on the grid, and the race one podium finisher was pushed off the grid as a result.

Despite the few damp patches, it was clearly an all-slick affair in this second and final bout of the SMP weekend.

Archie McDonald got the jump this time around and led team-mate Jack Mahaffy through the opening turns ahead of Olly Simpson.   Mahaffy and Simpson slotted under McDonald on the change of direction at turn five, pushing McDonald back to third. Glenn Nelson was fourth at this early juncture ahead of Hayden Nelson, Jesus Torres-Cabrera, Tom Bramich and Marcus Hamod.

Mahaffy pulled the pin once out front. He left Simpson and McDonald in his wake on lap two. When McDonald saw his teammate pulling away, he put a move on Simpson for a second and set about chasing him down. A 1m33.694 to Mahaffy on the first flying lap. Archie McDonald responded on the next lap with a 1m33.292 to bring the gap down to under seven-tenths as the Stop & Seal boys really started to pull away from Simpson.

McDonald then reduced Mahaffy’s lead to four-tenths after putting in a 1m33.093. With four laps complete, they were now more than four-seconds clear of Olly Simpson.

Mahaffy then seemed to drift wide a few times; it seemed as though Mahaffy was almost inviting McDonald to take the lead and purposefully slowing the race. Tactics…

By half-race distance, the Stop & Seal pair had almost six-seconds over third placed Olly Simpson.  The South Australian then lost that third place to Jesus Torres-Cabrera, and Hayden Nelson made that battle for the final step on the rostrum into a hectic three-way affair.

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Jack Mahaffy had enough of playing fox and hare with a few laps to run, dropping in a 1m32.980 on lap eight to try and break McDonald.

Archie then said ‘whatever you can do I can do better‘….  A 1m32.784 to McDonald on lap nine to close back onto the tail-pipe of his teammate.

Just when it looked as though Mahaffy had enough up his sleeve to hold McDonald out to the chequered flag for the double to extend his championship lead, Archie got a better drive out of the final turn. He then slipstreamed Jack down the chute before popping out and taking the win by four-hundreths of a second. There did seem to be yellow flags at the final turn and down the chute but no protests were lodged thus McDonald’s victory stood.

Mahaffy was still the round winner and will take a one-point lead over McDonald to QLD Raceway.

Jesus Torres Cabrera eventually got the better of Hayden Nelson and Olly Simpson to claim third place in this bout. That also earned him third outright for the round ahead of Simpson and Nelson.

Supersport Race Two Results

Supersport Round Points

Supersport Championship Standings

2025 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar

Round	Location	Date
1	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC	Feb 21-23
2	Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW	Mar 28-29
3	Queensland Raceway, QLD	May 2-4
4	Morgan Park Raceway, QLD	Jun 13-15
5	Queensland Raceway, QLD (Superbike Only)	Aug 8-10
6	Phillip Island GP Circuit, VIC	Sept 6-7
7	One Raceway, NSW	Oct 3-5
8	The Bend, SA	Nov 7-9