Opening Supersport race a cracker at SMP

ASBK 2023

Round Two – Sydney Motorsport Park

Michelin Supersport Race One

Somewhat miraculously, considering the forecast, Supersport competitors had largely enjoyed dry conditions on Friday and were also greeted by a dry track surface on Saturday afternoon despite the dark clouds above casting their shadows across the Sydney Motorsport Park tarmac.

Sydneysider Sean Condon had the wood over his competitors during practice and qualifying, just like he had here during pre-season testing, but Condon did not carry that form through to the Phillip Island season opener. Back here on home turf however, he looks virtually unbeatable.

Only Jack Passfield had got within a second of Condon in qualifying, but he suffered a hefty tumble in Friday night’s second qualifying session. The 25-year is a bit battered and bruised today and will be competing on his spare bike which might dull his potential somewhat.

Ty Lynch rounded out the front row while Olly Simpson, Jake Farnsworth and Hayden Nelson filled row two.  Tom Bramich, Cam Dunker and Dallas Skeer started from row three while defending champ John Lytras headed row four.

Lytras told us that his recently broken ankle isn’t really holding him back but moreso just their strategy for Friday didn’t exactly work out and the youngster is confident that he has podium pace for the races.

Michelin Supersport Race One

Dark clouds were threatening above Sydney Motorsport Park when 26 competitors rolled out of pit-lane at 1540 on Saturday afternoon ahead of the opening 11-lap contest of the weekend.

The track was dry, the track temperature conducive to good times… Jack Passfield was missing a tyre-warmer on the front of his YZF-R6 on the grid for some reason which would make the warm-up lap very important for him indeed!

Olly Simpson threaded the needle into turn one, splitting other riders to sneak the lead from Sean Condon and Tom Bramich as they tipped in. A number of riders ran off at turn two with Jonathan Nahlous ending up on the deck.

Simpson continued to hold sway from Condon throughout the opening lap and the start of lap two. Jake Farnsworth put a great move on Condon around the back of the circuit on lap two to push the poleman back to third place.

A few corners later Farnsworth then took the lead from Simpson.  Tom Bramich was fourth, John Lytras fifth and Hayden Nelson sixth as they started lap three.

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Olly Simpson then made a mistake that saw him shuffled all the way back to seventh place. Farnsworth and Condon had started to break away from Tom Bramich and John Lytras.

Condon went through to he lead with eight laps to run and immediately started to gap Farnsworth, a 1m32.969 on lap four seeing him stretch away.

Tom Bramich was in third while further back Olly Simpson had recovered from his earlier mistake to be in the middle of a five-rider battle for fourth place, being waged between Simpson, Lytras, Lynch, Dunker and Nelson.

Jake Farnsworth actually started reeling Condon back in late in the race but Condon responded and stretched away again on the last lap to secure victory by just over a second.  Tom Bramich a further 2.5-seconds behind in third to round out the podium.

Olly Simpson won that heady battle for fourth place despite almost being chased down on the final lap by young Cam Dunker. Ty Lynch 1.3-seconds further back in sixth place but with half-a-second over seventh placed John Lytras.

Michelin Supersport Race One Results

Michelin Supersport Championship Points

2023 ASBK Calendar