Waters streets them again in second ASBK Superbike race at P.I.

ASBK 2025

Round One – Phillip Island
SW-Motech Superbike Race Two

If you are at all interested in following ASBK in 2025, I thoroughly recommend digesting this piece I wrote on Friday, which is essentially a pre-season form guide. 

It was an early start for the second Superbike bout of the Phillip Island season opener. It had been a very warm night, with the temperature on the Africa Twin registering 23-degrees ambient as I rode into the circuit at 0700 on Sunday morning.

While it had been a hot and uncomfortable night, there had also been a short localised storm in the wee hours, which had resulted in some rain. However, the track was dry when competitors took to the circuit for their warm-up lap just before 0945 on Sunday morning.

Josh Waters had proved dominant in Saturday’s opening race as Anthony West and Mike Jones tussled over second place.

Waters began where he left off, up front, and had a more than five-bike length lead before he even tipped into turn one. Mike Jones second, Anthony West third, Cam Dunker fourth. That quartet actually pulled a little of that ground back on Waters through Southern Loop, Stoner and turn four.

They stayed in that order around the opening lap before Westy took Jones for second at turn four on lap two; with that door pushed open, Cam Dunker also took his opportunity to slip past Jones. The veteran returned the favour on Dunker at Hayshed, which saw the youngster have to sit up a little. Their tussle had allowed Waters and West to break away from them as they tripped each other up.

Westy matched the pace of Waters on lap two and was only half-a-second behind the McMartin Ducati man as they started lap three. Jones was now a further second behind but had pulled away from Dunker.  Allerton was fifth, not far behind Dunker, and closing on that pair was Max Stauffer.

By lap four, Waters had started to edge away from West, the difference between the two just a couple of tenths per lap, but as the laps progressed, the gap started to accumulate. By half-race distance the gap had blown out to more than two-seconds.

Westy had been lapping quicker than Jones, but the YRT man started to turn that table as the race wore on and, through the middle part of the race, had begun to claw back a little ground on the Addicted To Track veteran.

With four laps to run, Jones was on Westy’s tail and starting to look for a way past. Four-seconds further back, Dunker was still keeping Allerton at bay.

RelatedPosts

Motorcycling Australia seek volunteers for ASBK/ProMX Technical Teams

March 6, 2025

R&G support expanded Oceania Junior Cup for 2025

March 5, 2025

Broc Pearson was again figuring more strongly as the race progressed. The DesmoSport Ducati rider steadily reeled in Max Stauffer to challenge for sixth place.

Mike Jones made his move on West for second place at turn four with two and a half laps to run. At this juncture, Waters led by four-seconds. Allerton took fourth place from Dunker, while Pearson moved past Stauffer for sixth.

Westy returned the favour on Jones at turn four on the following lap, but Jonesy was able to cut back under him and take that second place right back.

Broc Pearson continued to get quicker as the race progressed, taking sixth place from Dunker and then immediately moving to challenge Allerton for fourth.

Up front, Waters had backed off the pace to manage his handy lead with plenty of speed still up his sleeve.

On the last lap, both Pearson and Dunker slipped past Allerton, pushing the veteran back to sixth.

Westy tried to slipstream past Jones on the run to the chequered flag but couldn’t quite do it, second place going to the YRT man.

Broc Pearson claimed fourth place after staving off a determined last-lap challenge from Cam Dunker, only a bike length between them at the flag.

Pearson has been losing a lot of time off the starts due to problems with their launch control system, and he is confident that if he can get away well in the final bout, he can challenge for a podium.

The MotoGo crew had worked through the night to repair Dunker’s bike after his crash yesterday, and they were rewarded with a strong fifth-place finish.

Glenn Allerton sixth, 1.5-seconds clear of Max Stauffer. Both are suffering from a far-from-ideal pre-season preparation but are not too far away from working their way forward and should figure more highly as the season progresses.

Cru Halliday took eighth place by a nose over rookie Jonathan Nahlous. The Stop & Seal squad certainly have their Supersport preparations down pat, but clearly still have plenty of work to do before their Superbike riders have the correct tools to go into battle.

Nahlous is looking really impressive for a rookie, with good racecraft and great speed early on in the race.

John Lytras rounded out the top ten ahead of Tom Toparis, Jack Favelle, Arthur Sissis and Tom Edwards. All of them battling their own set-up issues to varying degrees at this season opener.

SW-Motech Superbike Race Two Results

2025 Australian Superbike Championship Calendar

Round	Location	Date
1	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC	Feb 21-23
2	Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW	Mar 28-29
3	Queensland Raceway, QLD	May 2-4
4	Morgan Park Raceway, QLD	Jun 13-15
5	Queensland Raceway, QLD (Superbike Only)	Aug 8-10
6	Phillip Island GP Circuit, VIC	Sept 6-7
7	One Raceway, NSW	Oct 3-5
8	The Bend, SA	Nov 7-9