Supersport race one and race two reports from Morgan Park ASBK

ASBK 2024
Round Four – Morgan Park
Australian Supersport Race One

Jonathan Nahlous had pipped Tom Toparis for pole position on Saturday afternoon but it was tight at the top.

Conditions were cool on Sunday morning, the ambient just broaching ten-degrees, but a brisk wind blowing across the Morgan Park circuit made it feel even colder than that. There was very little cloud cover though, which saw a warmer than expected 24-degree track temperature in the pit-lane. However, that wind would mean that certain parts of the circuit were likely much colder than that.

Michelin has challenged Pirelli’s perennial dominance of this category on Australian soil this year. The Stop & Seal riders all on Michelin rubber while pole-man Nahlous, Tom Bramich, and plenty of others, defend Pirelli’s honour.

Tom Bramich took the lead at turn one ahead of Jonathan Nahlous, Archie McDonald and Olly Simpson.  Tom Toparis got the better of team-mate McDonald around the back of the circuit for the first time and then started to hound Simpson for third place.

Jonathan Nahlous put a great move on Tom Bramich to slip up the inside early on lap two, could he break away…?

Archie McDonald then went down at turn six, losing the front.  Moments later he was joined in the grass by one of his team-mates, then further up the track Tom Bramich was down, Olly Simpson was down… Bikes horizontal everywhere…

Lots of smoke was coming from the machine of Bramich and officials put out the red flag and stopped the race as there were fears that there was oil on the circuit.

It took some time to recover one particularly bent-up Supersport bike that needed to be skull-dragged onto a trailer in order to bring its essentially ruined hulk back to the pits.

Pit-lane was crazy as teams scrambled to make rushed repairs on their machines.

Championship leader Jonathan Nahlous was one of the lucky ones to have nothing to do but wait it out as track crews tried to clean up the surface of the circuit.

RelatedPosts

Recapping the Nolan Superbike Masters finale from The Bend

November 15, 2024

Aussie wildcard stars in bLU cRU Asia-Pacific finale

November 14, 2024

Some of the Supersport riders told us that oil was on every corner, likely stemming from an early crash.  Luca Durning had gone down but then remounted and rode back to the pits, unaware that his side cover was trailing oil all the way around the circuit.

As I walked through the pits I was thinking how dangerous some of those motorcycles might be to race on after various patch-up jobs and rushed repairs. Thus it came as somewhat of a relief when officials eventually decided that Supersport 300 would race next, leaving Supersport competitors more time to repair their damaged motorcycles.

Some of the riders were also nursing some pretty hefty contusions, but luckily, it seemed as though all had escaped any serious injuries.

The Supersport race eventually got underway again just after midday and it was Jonathan Nahlous that led the field towards turn one but then slowed so much after getting turn one a little wrong that Toparis had to take evasive action not to hit him in the rear, which cost Toparis plenty of drive on the way out.

Tom Toparis took the lead as they crossed the stripe to start lap two. Archie McDonald was up to third place at this juncture ahead of Hayden Nelson, Olly Simpson and Tom Bramich.

Nahlous was not allowing Toparis to escape, the youngster doggedly hanging on to the back of the Stop & Seal machine over the course of the opening laps and rising to the challenge.

That pair were leaving their pursuers behind, Archie McDonald 2.5-seconds behind them with eight laps to run.  However, Archie had managed to eke away from Olly Simpson, Hayden Nelson, Tom Bramich and Jack Favelle, as that four tussled over fourth position.

Nahlous was still right on the tail of Toparis at half-race distance. The pair both running 1m15.3s.

A small slide onto the main straight for Toparis as they started lap seven gave Nahlous the opportunity to drive up alongside and then pass Toparis to take the race lead.  He stayed there over the course of that lap and it was Toparis’ turn to sniff exhaust fumes.

With two laps to run Toparis was still shadowing Nahlous, nothing separating them. Toparis poked his nose in front at turn ten only for Nahlous to get him right back two turns later and lead across the stripe at the last lap board.

Toparis down!  Tom Toparis then went down at turn six!  Nahlous has a clear run home….  The Goulburn-based rider looked to be hurt from that high-side, and his machine was still on the track, which brought out the red flag.

The race was declared and Nahlous gets the deserving win in what had been a thrilling contest.

Nahlous took the win five seconds ahead of Archie McDonald, who raced to a fairly lonely second place after the demise of his team-mate.

Olly Simpson rounded out the podium a bike length ahead of Tom Bramich who was racing his spare bike after a big crash yesterday.

Jack Favelle crossed the line in fifth but was subsequently disqualified from the results for using a non-homologated tyre. That promoted Hayden Nelson to fifth and Jake Farnsworth to sixth.

The victory for Nahlous will likely prove pivotal in the championship battle as he extends his lead over Olly Simpson to 35-points.

McDonald’s second place has seen him close to within two points of Simpson, and he is now equal on points with Tom Bramich.

Jake Farnsworth still has his hat in the ring, only three-points behind McDonald and Bramich.

Toparis started this championship behind the eight-ball after not contesting the opening round, where Nahlous took a perfect 76-point haul. And with 20 or 25 points going begging today, he is now 59 points behind Nahlous at this halfway point of the season.  Early indications are that Tom is largely okay from that crash, but he does have some back pain that is being investigated.

Supersport Race One Results

Australian Supersport Race Two

Tom Toparis was missing from the grid in the second Supersport race after crashing heavily late in the opening bout earlier in the day.  He had been battling for the lead with Jonathan Nahlous before high-siding himself out of contention and into the medical centre with back pain.

Jonathan Nahlous got the jump when the lights went out and immediately stretched a gap over Archie McDonald, Hayden Nelson and Olly Simpson.

Just when it looked as though Nahlous might pull an escape act, Archie McDonald and Hayden Nelson started to pull back some ground on the championship leader.

As the race wore on, Hayden Nelson started to lose touch with Archie McDonald, who continued to shadow Nahlous, lap after lap. That was until there was five laps to go when McDonald sent it up the inside at turn one, which prevented Nahlous turning in and saw McDonald emerge with the race lead for the first time.

Archie McDonald stayed in the lead, but Nahlous looked able to run tighter lines and trust his Pirelli front more than the Michelin shod Stop & Seal rider, however Archie was maintaining his advantage. McDonald’s wide sweeping lines though were leaving the door open for Nahlous, and if he decided to send it up the inside there would be little Archie could do about it.

Nahlous was all over the back of McDonald on the penultimate lap but then lost a little ground as they started the final lap, which gave McDonald some breathing space. Nahlous thought that the race had ended and that momentary roll-off was enough for McDonald to go on and take the win by three-tenths.

Hayden Nelson, the only Dunlop runner in the field, rounded out the podium six-seconds behind that duo, but two-seconds ahead of Jack Favelle.  That made for three different tyre brands on the podium.

Further back, Olly Simpson and Jake Farnsworth had a titanic battle over fifth place, but at the flag, Simpson had his nose in front to claim that fifth place.

Tom Bramich a battered and bruised seventh on his spare bike.

Marianos Nikolis took a creditable eighth-place finish ahead of Jack Mahaffy and Glenn Nelson.

Jonathan Nahlous was the round winner by a single point over McDonald thanks to his pole position.

Archie McDonald moved up to second place in the championship on the back of his great resuts at Morgan Park.

The gap between Nahlous and McDonald 32-points as we head to Phillip Island in September.

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