Supersport 300 at One Raceway – An illustrated recap of the three contests

ASBK 2024
Round Six – One Raceway
Race and Road Australian Supersport 300

Supersport 300 Race One

Valentino Knezovic lined up on pole position with Jordy Simpson and Will Nassif alongside him while Casey Middleton headed row two. Championship leader Josh Newman started from fifth on the grid ahead of Calvin Moylan and Keo Watson in what was a blustery Saturday afternoon at the new-look One Raceway, previously known as Wakefield Park.

Will Nassif took the early lead ahead of Josh Newman and Casey Middleton but Newman made his move through to the lead around the back of the circuit and led them across the stripe for the first time. Nothing separated Middleton, Newman and Nassif early on lap two as Jordy Simpson had his head down in a quest to join that party.

Jesse Stroud had been struggling to muster the pace of the leading group and lost a number of positions before going down at turn ten.

The leading group at the halfway point consisted of Casey Middleton, Josh Newman, Valentino Knezovic, Jordan Simpson and Will Nassif.  Behind them Keo Watson had worked his way through a number of riders and was the fastest man on track.  The leading quintet were tripping each other up which was allowing Watson to start reeling them in.  Knezovic then crashed out of podium contention at turn six.

With three laps to run Keo Watson had honed in on the leading group and was still lapping faster than all of them.  Will Nassif made a mistake on the penultimate lap, running wide and losing touch with the leading group.

At the last lap board Newman had half-a-second on Simpson, Middleton was third, Watson fourth and Harrison Watts was looking to join that party from fifth. Calvin Moylan also not out of podium contention.

Newman the victor over Casey Middleton while Jordy Simpson rounded out the podium ahead of Keo Watson and Harrison Watts while Calvin Moylan claimed sixth. They all closed up quite dramatically on that final lap, less than second covering the top six.

Will Nassif recovered from his mistake to salvage good points for seventh place, ten-seconds ahead of Oliver Short.

Supersport 300 Race One Results

Supersport 300 Race Two

Heartbreak for poleman Valentino Knezovic when his machine refused to start prior to the warm-up lap, it was a disconsolate sight to see him pushed off the grid while his competitors set off on the warm-up lap.  They eventually managed to get the machine to fire and Tino managed to roll out of pit-lane to go around take up his position at the front of the grid.

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Will Nassif scored the holeshot ahead of Jordy Simpson and Knezovic before Josh Newman moved up to third place after getting the better of Knezovic under brakes.

Casey Middleton then moved into the lead on the RaceDNA entry and led Simpson, Newman, Nassif and Knezovic across the stripe to start lap three as we got news that the race start was under investigation… The top six were covered by less than a second, those protagonists Middleton, Nassif, Simpson, Moylan, Newman and Knezovic.

Middleton stayed in front for the next couple of laps before being overhauled by Will Nassif at half-race distance. The top six were now six-seconds clear of seventh-placed William Hunt who was engaged in battle with Harrison Watts. At this juncture Keo Watson and Jesse Stroud both went down at turn 12.

Casey Middleton moved back through to the lead as they entered the second-half of the ten-lap contest but fourth-placed Calvin Moylan had just set the fastest lap of the race, a 66.814.

The battle for second place between Simpson, Moylan and Nassif really started to hot up and as they tripped each other up with thrusts and parries Middleton was breaking away… With three laps to run Middleton enjoyed a lead of 1.6-seconds and had the race won if he could keep it together.

Middleton not only kept it together but actually increased his lead over the final laps to take victory by more than two-seconds despite celebrating well before the line.

A mistake from Jordan Simpson late on the penultimate lap cost the South Australian a number of positions and could only finish sixth.

Calvin Moylan and Valentino Knezovic had a heady battle over second place on the final lap with the Western Australian winning that tussle while Knezovic had to settle for third by half a bike length.

Will Nassif managed to stave off the advances of Josh Newman on the final lap to secure fourth.

Tara Morrison put in some great laps towards the end of the race to move forward and take seventh, crossing the line 13-seconds behind the race winner and just ahead of Harrison Watts, William Hunt and Tom Nicolson.

Supersport 300 Race Two Results

Supersport 300 Race Three

Will Nassif, Casey Middleton, Valentino Knezovic, Josh Newman, Jordan Simpson and Calvin Moylan immediately pulled away from the rest of the field when the final 10-lap Supersport 300 contest got underway on Sunday afternoon at One Raceway.

That sextet hustled each other throughout the whole race but it was Nassif with his nose in front for the majority of those ten laps.

Simpson challenged hard at the final sequence of turns but Nassif held on for the win by a nose.

There looked as though there might have been a little bit of fairing rubbing and line changing between Middleton and Knezovic close to the wall on the run to the flag that officials quickly indicated would come under review.  Moments later the results got the all clear.

Nassif the race winner but it was Casey Middleton that won the round.

Nassif and Newman both finished with 56-points for the round but the important metric for Newman was that he leaves One Raceway with 13-points more than his closest championship rival, Valentino Knezovic. That sees Newman head to The Bend finale with a very handy 32-point advantage over Knezovic.

Supersport 300 Race Three Results

Supersport 300 Round Points

Supersport 300 Championship Points

Supersport 300 Qualifying

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