Voight wins at The Bend as Dunker crowned Supersport Champion

ASBK 2023
Round Seven – The Bend
Supersport Race Two

The opening Supersport bout had been hectic in every sense of the word!

A red flag stoppage in the first instance from a crash involving Jake Farnsworth and Jack Mahaffy.

Then on the re-start yet another red flag after Jack Favelle and Karry Khouri both went down.

Third time lucky we got a race over a much reduced distance that saw Voight take the chequered flag by a nose over Olly Simpson after Tom Toparis suffered a violent high-side on the final lap.  The demise of Toparis promoted Cam Dunker onto the podium, the championship chase thus tightened further, the gap between Dunker and Simpson was down to 12-points heading into this final nine-lap contest that would decide the championship.

Toparis had been on the grid for the second bout but was pushed off the grid just before proceedings got underway due to some sort of problem with the Stop & Seal Yamaha.

Olly Simpson led Harry Voight into the first turn but Voight slotted up the inside of the South Australian a few turns later to take the race lead. Cam Dunker was in third place and by halfway around lap one that leading trio had already pulled away from their pursuers.

Ty Lynch crashed out of the race on lap three while trying to take fourth place from Jonathan Nahlous.

Up front Simpson and Voight swapped the lead a few times, but that pair had left Dunker in their wake.  In fact, Nahlous was closing in on Dunker and looking to threaten for that third place.

Voight finally broke away from Simpson after four laps, but it took lap record pace for Voight to do it. A 1m54.595 on his fourth lap the new Supersport lap record.

Nahlous demoted Dunker to fourth place with just over four laps to run and immediately pulled away from the championship leader. Fourth place still enough for Dunker to clinch the title over Simpson, the youngster’s eyes on the big prize…

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

Simpson didn’t give up the chase for race victory and pushed Voight all the way to the flag. Ultimately though Voight had enough speed up his sleeve to keep Simpson at bay. Lowering the lap record once again on lap seven to 1m54.522, quick enough to stretch away from Simpson over the final laps.  Voight eventually took the chequered flag 1.5-seconds clear of Simpson.

Jonathan Nahlous secured the final step on the rostrum.

Crossing the line in fourth place, and taking series silverware for winning the 2023 Australian Supersport Championship, is Cam Dunker.

Celebrating his 16th birthday today in fine fashion, Dunker is the youngest rider to ever lift the Supersport crown, and he does it only a year after taking the 300 Supersport and YMF R3 Cup double last season.

Supersport Race Two Results

Supersport Championship Points