ASBK 2024
Round Two – Sydney Motorsport Park
Australian Supersport Race One
While Hayden Nelson topped Q2, four riders had gone quicker in the earlier Q1 session, which saw Nelson lining up from the middle of the second row. Tom Toparis was on pole and looked like the man everyone would be chasing this weekend.
Mark Chiodo had improved dramatically on Friday evening, and it would be interesting to see if he had enough in himself and the package to take it up to Toparis over an 11-lap race distance.
The opening round at Phillip Island was a tale of domination by Jonathan Nahlous. At that season opener, Toparis was not amongst the Australian Supersport ranks, instead contesting the World Supersport races as a wildcard. Mark Chiodo was just starting to shake down his new Honda while also struggling with an arm injury. Could Nahlous stick with the seasoned veterans of the category on what was his home turf?
And talking of home turf, nobody can ever discount Sean Condon around here. More than once Condon has completely dominated here in Sydney. Off the top of my head, I would suggest Condon has won more races around there than he has won at every other track in the country combined.
Looking further back on the grid, the talent list continues with Jake Farnsworth, Olly Simpson, Corey Snowsill, Tom Bramich, Jack Favelle, Archie McDonald, Jacob Hatch, Corey Turner, Jack Mahaffy, Glenn Nelson, Marcus Hamod, Brandon Demmery, and more…. Plenty of seriously good punters among that dozen, and while it is early days for season 2024, it is going to be interesting to see how some of the riders, and their teams, progress during the remainder of the season. Many of the packages behind them had been put together as somewhat rushed last-minute affairs thus there is plenty of potential yet to be effectively harnessed.
Morning warm-up was costly for Jack Mahaffy after the Stop and Seal rider went down at turn nine but walked away seemingly unhurt. Team-mate Tom Toparis dropped in a casual 1m31.998 during morning warm-up, that time under both the qualifying and race lap records for the class. In fact, that time would have been good enough for the fourth row of the Superbike grid…
Jonathan Nahlous smoked Toparis and Chiodo off the line. The lights were on for what seemed quite a long time and that had shaken up the starters somewhat. Luke Sanders didn’t survive the opening lap, going down at turn four. The Victorian was transported to hospital for scans but was in a stable condition.
While it had been a terrible start for many, Nahlous was having a dream run up front. That was until the red flag came out to nullify his advantage and put that dream to an end. Competitors came back around to the grid, where team personnel rushed to get tyre-warmers on their charges to try and ensure the rubber didn’t heat cycle and lose its best performance.
In the interim, organisers reduced the race distance by two laps, and competitors were sent out for another warm-up lap before they lined up once again for another crack at the start for a nine-lap contest. Nahlous one of the last to roll into position as the lights lit up…. This time around Toparis got a much better start while Nahlous was swallowed by the pack.
Tom Toparis the early leader but was being chased hard by Sean Condon. Olly Simpson had got off to a flyer to be up to third positions early on. Nahlous regained a few positions around the first half of the opening lap to be back up to fourth place by the time they crossed the stripe to start lap two. Chiodo fifth, Farnsworth sixth, Hayden Nelson seventh, Archie McDonald eighth, Tom Bramich ninth and Jack Mahaffy rounded out the top ten.
On the second lap, Toparis started to hit his straps and was leaving the rest of the field in his dust. Pulling tenths out of his pursuers through every split, Toparis was walking away from the field at a remarkable pace.
Nahlous continued to make a great recovery from that poor start, picking off Simpson and then Condon to move up to second place, but Toparis was gone. A 1m31.484 on the second lap obliterated the Supersport race lap record by more than a second, and also well under the qualifying lap record. The Goulburn speedster was in a different race from the rest and simply buttoned off, controlling the race from there.
Jonathan Nahlous had done brilliantly to pick his way back up to second place after that shocker of a start but struggled to shake Sean Condon from his tail. Olly Simpson crashed at turn 11 as the race entered its second half. Hayden Nelson then also crashed out. Mark Chiodo was having bike problems and getting gobbled up by the pack.
Sean Condon continued to hound Nahlous for second position, eventually nosing back in front of the youngster with two laps to go. Condon used his experience to maintain that position, making Nahlous settle for third.
Jake Farnsworth was a relatively lonely fourth, while Archie McDonald had done well to fight his way forward to fifth place and then hold off a horde of pursuers. Tom Bramich, Jack Mahaffy, Jack Favelle, and Corey Turner all chased McDonald home hard. Corey Snowsill was also a significant figure in that contest but crashed out at turn four on the final lap. Mark Chiodo salvaged decent points in tenth.
1. Tom Toparis
2. Sean Condon +3.384s
3. Jonathan Nahlous +3.442s
After the race, Toparis noted that the temperature dropped markedly after the race got underway and that he started to slide around. Thus, he just backed right off to manage the gap and bring it home safe.
Supersport Race One Results
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Tom TOPARIS | Yamaha | 13m58.874 |
| 2 | Sean CONDON | Yamaha | +3.384 |
| 3 | Jonathan NAHLOUS | Yamaha | +3.442 |
| 4 | Jake FARNSWORTH | Yamaha | +9.783 |
| 5 | Archie McDONALD | Yamaha | +12.105 |
| 6 | Tom BRAMICH | Yamaha | +13.077 |
| 7 | Jack MAHAFFY | Yamaha | +13.154 |
| 8 | Jack FAVELLE | Yamaha | +13.449 |
| 9 | Corey TURNER | Yamaha | +13.799 |
| 10 | Mark CHIODO | Honda | +16.177 |
| 11 | Marcus HAMOD | Honda | +17.850 |
| 12 | Jacob HATCH | Kawasaki | +17.872 |
| 13 | Brandon DEMMERY | Kawasaki | +24.498 |
| 14 | Glenn NELSON | Yamaha | 24.546 |
| 15 | Hunter FORD | Yamaha | +44.172 |
| 16 | Luke JHONSTON | Yamaha | +44.566 |
| 17 | Noel MAHON | Yamaha | +49.393 |
| 18 | Cooper ROWNTREE | Yamaha | +51.015 |
| 19 | Simone BOLDRINI | Yamaha | +52.642 |
| 20 | Kristian O’DONNELL | Kawasaki | +58.325 |
| 21 | Jeremy HUDDLESTONE | Yamaha | 1m12.379 |
| DNF | Corey SNOWSILL | Yamaha | +12.145 |
| DNF | Hayden NELSON | Kawasaki | 3 Laps |
| DNF | Olly SIMPSON | Yamaha | 4 Laps |
Supersport Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Jonathan Nahlous | 94 |
| 2 | Jake Farnsworth | 67 |
| 3 | Tom Bramich | 60 |
| 4 | Olly Simpson | 56 |
| 5 | Archie McDonald | 54 |
| 6 | Marcus Hamod | 54 |
| 7 | Jack Mahaffy | 49 |
| 8 | Mark Chiodo | 47 |
| 9 | Corey Turner | 54 |
2024 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar
Round 1: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC Feb 23-25Round 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
