Tyre gamble pays off for some in opening ASBK Supersport bout at SMP

ASBK 2025

Round Two – SMP – Supersport Race One

Stop & Seal teammates Archie McDonald and Jack Mahaffy qualified an impressive 1.35 seconds ahead of third-placed Jack Farnsworth on Friday night at SMP.  The difference between the first and tenth qualifier was a huge three-seconds… The domination led to some accusations regarding the eligibility of the Michelin-shod Stop & Seal R6 machines being bandied about at the track and on ‘un’social media.

The human headline that is Stop & Seal head honcho Robbie Bolger was incensed at the accusations to the point of having his riders protest each other on Saturday. This would lead to their machines being investigated by Motorcycling Australia regarding their eligibility. Bolger saying that if the accusers didn’t have the balls to protest officially, he would do it for them. Robbie then followed that through by paying the protest money and lodging the protest paperwork himself here on Saturday afternoon. The bikes were then inspected at the end of the warm-up session and cleared to compete, but they only got the bikes back a few minutes before they had to head out for the race!

SMP had been soaked by incessant rain overnight and throughout the morning, but the precipitation had stopped a couple of hours before racing got underway. With such a dump of rain, though, there were still plenty of wet patches around the circuit and also some small areas of standing water.  That led to the majority of the field opting for wets and an air of nervous tension hanging heavy in the air…

Everyone survived the warm-up lap, and they came back around to form up on the grid at 1612, but there was some confusion at the back of the grid with a rider pulling into the wrong slot, which saw riders up front wondering what was going on.

Jack Mahaffy got a great jump off the line to lead Jake Farnsworth and Olly Simpson through turn one for the first time. Archie McDonald was fourth early on after not getting the best jump when the lights went out.

Farnsworth and Simpson pushed Mahaffy back to third through the back of the circuit and that pair then immediately started to streak away from the Stop & Seal rider. Archie McDonald continued to lose places over the first two laps, the championship leader down in tenth place with ten laps to run.

Olly Simpson took the lead from Farnsworth. Behind them, Jack Mahaffy was starting to find his confidence, reeling the leading duo back in on lap three after setting a new fastest lap of the race.

Mahaffy got the better of Farnsworth for second place and set his sights on Olly Simpson. A lap later, Farnsworth pulled off the circuit at turn six with some sort of technical problem, losing an almost certain podium result in the process, a tough blow.

The demise of Farnsworth left Simpson and Mahaffy to fight for the victory. Their lead over third-placed Hayden Nelson more than seven-seconds after only four laps.

Mahaffy took the lead from Simpson at turn one as they started lap six but the South Australian came back at him at turn two, the pair then brushing fairings through three as they really started to take the gloves off and dusting each other up.

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Further back Will Nassif had the bit between his teeth. A new fastest lap of the race had promoted the youngster up to third place and coming along for that ride was Marcus Hamod. The pair made a last-minute decision to switch to slicks before the warm-up lap and that decision was now starting to pay dividends as the track dried, and the wets of others wore…

The lap-time difference, though, didn’t look to be quite enough for them to get on terms with the leading duo. A 1m39.773 from Hamod on lap eight comparing to the 1m41.391 of race leader Simpson, but the gap between them was six-seconds. Could Hamod catch them on the final lap…?

As they started the penultimate lap, Mahaffy had just gotten the better of Simpson, taking the lead and pulling away from Simpson.  At the last lap board, Mahaffy led Simpson by 1.1-seconds, but Hamod and Nassif were only a second further back in third and fourth… A new fastest lap of 1m38.274 to Nassif on lap ten…

Both Hamod and Nassif dispensed with Simpson halfway through the final lap and were now rapidly closing down Mahaffy…

Mahaffy led them around the final sequence of turns, but the chasing pair had way more drive off the final turn… The trio almost side-by-side at the flag… Mahaffy was credited with the win by two-thousandths of a second by the timing system over Nassif, with Hamod taking third.

Olly Simpson took fourth place a massive 20-seconds ahead of fifth-placed Jesus Torres-Carrera, Hayden Nelson and Levi Russo.

There was then a further 17-second gap back to Liam Waters in seventh while Archie McDonald recovered to an eighth-place finish across the final few laps.

The lights go out for the second and final bout of the round two weekend under lights at 1950 on Saturday evening.

Supersport Race One Results

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