Dunker charges from ninth to beat Nahlous by 0.138s at The Bend

2027 Australian Superbike Championship

Round Two – The Bend

Superbike Race One

Cam Dunker came from ninth on the grid to win the opening Superbike race at The Bend, holding off Jonathan Nahlous by 0.138s to take the championship lead. He had already taken his Addicted to Track R6 to second in Supersport before climbing aboard the Blue Marlin Pools East Racing Yamaha R1.

Nahlous had come from eighth on the grid to win his first Superbike race at Phillip Island. He started second at The Bend, 0.186s off the 1m50.313 that put Yamaha team-mate Mike Jones on pole. Olly Simpson completed the front row for DesmoSport Ducati.

Harrison Voight had won Race Two at the Island and left three points clear of Nahlous after rain washed out the third race. The defending champion’s testing crash at One Raceway kept him out of The Bend. Nahlous was the best placed of the 16 starters, three points ahead of Dunker and four clear of Cru Halliday, who qualified fourth.

Half an inch of rain had fallen during Friday practice at The Bend. Saturday qualifying ran in the dry. The Bureau had forecast a top of 20°C with up to 1 mm of rain for Sunday. A little rain did arrive that morning. The track had mostly dried by the Superbike start, with a few damp patches around the back and a much stronger wind.

Simpson leads the opening lap

Max Stauffer had qualified eighth and started from the back on his Ducati V4 R, which was yet to be homologated. That brought Dunker, tenth in qualifying, up to ninth on the grid.

Nahlous led into Turn One and ran a little wide, opening the door for Simpson. The Ducati rider led across the line ahead of Nahlous, Glenn Allerton and Halliday. Dunker was seventh, still within a second of the lead.

Nahlous, Simpson and Allerton were virtually three abreast under brakes for Turn One as they started lap two. Nahlous came out in front, with Simpson second and Allerton third. Just behind them, Jack Favelle and Cru Halliday went down together. Both riders were up. Halliday later rejoined before stopping again at Turn One.

Dunker closes on Nahlous

Nahlous set the early pace with a 1m51.789 on lap two and led Simpson by six tenths at the line. Dunker was already fourth. He passed Allerton early on lap three and got ahead of Simpson later that lap, leaving him a second behind Nahlous with eight laps to go.

Dunker took six tenths out of the lead with the fastest lap to that point on lap four. He went quicker again with a 1m51.423 on lap five, bringing the gap under two tenths. By the end of lap six the two Yamahas were four seconds clear of Simpson, who had Allerton right behind him.

Dunker found a way through on the switchback early on lap seven. He led by almost half a second at the line, and Nahlous stayed within half a second at every subsequent crossing. Dunker ran all ten of his flying laps in the 1m51s.

At the last-lap board Dunker had three tenths in hand. He stretched that to just over half a second at the first split, then Nahlous took time back through each of the remaining three sectors. Nahlous saved his quickest lap for last, just eight thousandths off Dunker’s race best. Dunker held on by just over a tenth.

Dunker said he’d been stressing about the race after qualifying. He credited the crew’s work on the R1.

Cam Dunker

“The boys done an awesome job. Found a little problem with the bike that ended up turning out to be quite a big problem. So yeah, I feel unreal on the bike.”

Jonathan Nahlous

“Cam put up a good fight … gave my all in the end, but yeah, it just wasn’t quite enough.”

Four riders in the fight for third

Allerton put the Superbike Advocates Ducati into third when he passed Simpson late on lap seven. With two laps to go, less than a second covered the pair and the two Yamahas of John Lytras and Mike Jones. Lytras and Jones both passed Simpson on the penultimate lap. Lytras kept after Allerton and finished seven tenths shy of the podium, with Jones fifth. At 45, Allerton still had a few years on the two riders ahead of him put together.

Glenn Allerton

“Really happy to get into a battle there and come out on top. Those two just got away from us.”

Simpson came home sixth, more than two seconds clear of DesmoSport Ducati team-mate Josh Waters. Harry Khouri was eighth for Addicted to Track, with Jayden Martin passing Luca Durning on the final lap for ninth. Charles Holding finished 11th and Morgan McLaren-Wood recovered from a Turn Six crash to finish 12th.

Stauffer had come through from last to seventh by the end of lap three and set the third-quickest lap of the race. He pulled into the pits on lap ten. Michael Edwards also retired.

Dunker now leads the championship with 63 points to Nahlous’s 61. Allerton sits third on 51 and Lytras fourth on 45, one point ahead of the absent Voight. The Superbikes are due back on the grid later this afternoon for their second race of the weekend.

ASBK Superbike Race One
The Bend – Provisional Results

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	C. Dunker	Yam	20m34.209
2	J. Nahlous	Yam	+0.138
3	G. Allerton	Duc	+8.953
4	J. Lytras	Yam	+9.628
5	M. Jones	Yam	+11.223
6	O. Simpson	Duc	+12.244
7	J. Waters	Duc	+14.617
8	H. Khouri	Yam	+29.409
9	J. Martin	Yam	+46.936
10	L. Durning	BMW	+47.526
11	C. Holding	Yam	+1m19.275
12	M. McLaren-Wood	Yam	+1m29.538
Retirements
DNF	M. Stauffer	Duc	Retired
DNF	M. Edwards	Yam	Retired
DNF	C. Halliday	Duc	Retired
DNF	J. Favelle	Hon	Retired

Results remain provisional until the protest and appeal time limit expires.

ASBK Superbike Championship Standings
After Race One at The Bend

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	C. Dunker	63
2	J. Nahlous	61
3	G. Allerton	51
4	J. Lytras	45
5	H. Voight	44
6	M. Jones	43
7	J. Waters	41
8	C. Halliday	37
9	M. McLaren-Wood	29
10	J. Roulstone	26
11	J. Martin	25
12	L. Durning	23
13	B. Pearson	19
14	J. Newman	16
15	O. Simpson	15
16	H. Khouri	13
17	C. Holding	13
18	B. Wilson	13
19	J. Favelle	11
20	T. Binaisse	9
21	J. Quinn	8
22	M. Hamod	5
23	S. Bleazby	3
24	E. Leeson	1

Provisional championship points after Race One.

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