Recapping a huge St. George Summer Series double-header under lights at SMP

2025/2026 St. George MCC Summer Series
Round Three – SMP

With Nick Edards – Images by Half Light

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Coming into Round Three of St George MCC Summer Nights Series 25/26 (SNS06 for short), we’d already seen two rounds of excellent racing, even if Round Two, which had been an afternoon/evening event rather than evening-only, was impacted heavily by heatwave conditions, which led to a revised and heavily curtailed schedule of races.

You can read about that epic adventure/assault course here:
Recapping a scorching second St. George Summer Series bout at SMP

Also, find round one here:
Recapping a big St. George MCC Summer Series opener from SMP

Round Three was held over two evenings with track action from 1830 until 2230 on both nights. The weather gave us its best for a change. There was no repeat of the horrific heat that hammered the track at Rounds One and Two.

The usual format was applied for both nights of racing. Three groups (each consisting of two distinct race classes) are scheduled to complete a ten-minute qualifying session, followed by three nine-minute-plus-one-lap races.

The schedule, as ever, was very tight, and any delays can lead to later races being shortened or cancelled, as on-track action must finish by the mandated 2230 curfew.

On this score, Round Three scored a perfect ten as everything ran close to schedule and all races were completed before curfew on both Friday and Saturday. That is a pretty amazing outcome given the logistical challenges of this tight and quick-fire format.

Great weather, no race cancellations, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The group/class breakdown for Round Three would be familiar to anyone who has followed the Summer Nights series since its inception. Where a group is split into F1 and F2 classes, the F1 class is for the international and national (ASBK) riders, and F2 is for the clubbies.

Formula St George (FSG)/400c returned as the ancillary group for Round Three, so there was no Unlimited F3 class running at this round. FSG/400 sees a wide range of machines on track together, including NSR250, SV650, Husqvarna 701 supermoto, and the more usual mix of R7, MT-09, R3, and Ninjas.

It might sound a bit chaotic, but it makes for some great racing. Round Three would be FSG/400’s last showing in SNS06, as they won’t be returning for Round Four.

As always, progressive grid rules apply, so qualifying sets your grid position for Race One, and then it’s your finishing position in Race One that sets the grid for Race Two, and this ‘previous race result sets the next race’s grid positions’ holds for the entire event.

So, there’s the background, here’s the racing…

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Unlimited F1

Unlimited F1 is primarily the hunting ground for ASBK riders. With ASBK Round One sharing the dance card with WorldSBK Round One at Phillip Island, just a week out from SNS06 Round Three, it wasn’t clear whether the ASBK guys would seek to use the meeting as a final opportunity to tune bike and rider going into the national series.

Or if there would be a view that racing so close to the start of the ‘real’ season for riders represented too much of a risk. As it turned out, there was a decent showing from the ASBK lads with SNS06 series leader JJ Nahlous on-deck as well as series regulars, or at least semi-regulars, Glenn Allerton, Joshua Newman, Jack Favelle, Jacob Roulstone and Marcus Hamod.

Mike Jones, who sees Nahlous join him in the official Yamaha squad for ASBK 2026, was a welcome addition to the roster, and Jones’ bike was spannered on the night by his new teammates’ Dad. There’s some great team-bonding right there.

Josh Brookes, making ready for another attack on BSB, returned for another dig at the Nights Series racing, but without the Honda he’d fielded at Rounds One and Two. A massive crash the day before at SMP left the Fireblade too damaged to be used, so Brookes reverted to his old, and very attractive-looking, Yamaha R1.

Official running points score for Summer Nights is a little hard to find at the moment, but unofficially, my calculations had put Nahlous in the series lead, some 20 points ahead of Brookes going into Round Three, with Joshua Newman in third.

Both Friday and Saturday races showcased some excellent racing. Nahlous and Roulstone were on fire, and the first few laps of many of the races were cage fights on bikes. Fabulous to watch and an absolute credit to the two riders that the moves were hard as nails, but always fair.

Josh Brookes and Mike Jones were never far from the action either. It was Nahlous who maintained his upper hand in the series with five wins from the six race starts, with Brookes the only other man to get to the top step of the podium, his win coming in race five, the second of the Saturday night races.

This extended JJ’s lead in the series by another 27-points, which all but secures the series title for him as second-placed Brookes will not be available for the final round in March. Jacob Roulstone took out a very well-deserved third place for the event, with Jones in fourth. Hamod and Favelle also scored valuable series points.

The Superbike Advocates Racing duo of Allerton and Newman only intended to use the weekend for a shakedown ahead of ASBK Round One, so they did not feature in the points other than a seventh-place finish for Newman in Race One.

So, going to Round Four, we know that JJ Nahlous has one hand on the title, but we’ll have to wait for the official points tally from St George MCC before the standings can be confirmed.

Unlimited F2

In Unlimited F2, Damien Adams and his beautifully prepared Gixxer put in another strong performance at Round Three, extending his series lead.

Dom De Leon had a much better outing than he’d had at Round Two, but with Adams scoring five wins from the six races and taking out the event win, De Leon’s grasp on the trophy is getting a little shaky.

He’s not out of the picture yet, one win, four second place finishes and a third place keeps him in mathematical touch with Adams heading to the March finale.

The points difference between him and Adams is something in the region of 50-points, with six more races to run in the series. Harley Borkowski was consistent across both nights and claimed third spot for the event on the immaculate RB Racing R1.

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Unlimited F1 & F2 Overall & Rider Quotes

Unlimited F1 Round Points

Unlimited F1 Standings

TBC

Unlimited F2 Standings

TBC

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Unlimited F1 & F2 Race One Results

Unlimited F1 & F2 Race Two Results

Unlimited F1 & F2 Race Three Results

Unlimited F1 & F2 Race Four Results

Unlimited F1 & F2 Race Five Results

Unlimited F1 & F2 Race Six Results

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AGV 600 F1

Jake Farnsworth has dominated AGV 600 F1 so far this season, and nothing much changed at Round Three. Five wins from six starts gives him a huge lead in the series.

He led from the start in every race except the sixth and laid down laptimes that were consistently a second and a half faster than his closest challengers, Valentino Knezovic and Will Nassif.

The only blot on Farnsworth’s score card was a DNF in that sixth and final race of the event. A mistake in T2 on Lap 1 dropped him back in the field, and then a misjudgement whilst trying to regain lost ground ended his weekend a little bit earlier than he would have liked.

Regardless, he’s shown fabulous form in the series to date and would be going into ASBK Round One on a high.

Nassif and Knezovic collected all the other big points on offer across the two nights, and once the official points scores are available, we’ll likely see them in strong positions going into Round Four.

AGV 600 F2

In AGV F2, Mark Vaartjes is really hitting some form on the Kawasaki, taking four wins across the two evenings. Timothy Rodley, series leader going into Round Three, took out one win, as did Scott Newham.

Going to Round Four, in the absence of official points standings, I think we’ll see Rodley still topping the table with Knezovic and Newham not that far behind.

600cc F1 Round Results

600cc F1 Standings

TBC

600cc F2 Standings

TBC

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FSG/400cc

Brian Bolster, celebrating his 35th birthday on Friday night, took out FSG with three wins and three third-place finishes on the venerable SV650.

Mick Jeffery’s two wins and a string of consistent results on the Kramer 690 gave him second spot, and Matthew Edwards, on the Aprilia 660, took out third place.

Levi Russo really made a mark on the NSR250 on Saturday evening with a win and two second places, but he didn’t run on Friday, so he didn’t feature in the event points score.

Not sure I can tally the series point scores as the official numbers aren’t to hand at the moment, and as that ends the FSG/400cc class appearances at Summer Nights for this season, we’ll have to report on the final standings when we put together the Round Four report in a few weeks.

Brad Gander on the mighty Husky 701 could well be in with a shot at the title, given his consistency at the two rounds where Formula St George has made an appearance.

In the 400 cc class, Connor Lewis took six wins from six starts on the R3 to take out the event, with Oscar Lewis and Jed Louis securing second and third.

Formula Round Results

400 & Formula Standings

TBC