Farnsworth crowned SuperSport champion and Edwards wins Next Gen title

Round Five – QLD Raceway – Sunday
kawasaki supersport race 2

Images by RbMotoLens

A shower of rain fell on Queensland Raceway just before the final Kawasaki SuperSport/Next Gen race of the 2026 ASBK season, adding another layer of uncertainty to a race that already had a lot of stakes.

The second event was not only the final race of the round, but the final Supersport event of the year, with both the traditional Supersport and inaugural Next Gen titles up for grabs.

Race One had further sharpened the picture without resolving it. Ollie Simpson dominated the opener on the Desmosport Ducati V2, Tom Edwards extended his Next Gen lead over Hayden Nelson, and Jake Farnsworth reduced Valentino Knezovic’s Supersport championship lead.

This left Edwards leading into the final race with 209 points to Nelson’s 202 points. The BCPerformance Kawasaki teammates had been virtually inseparable for much of the weekend, and Race One underlined this again, with Edwards just 0.060 seconds ahead of Nelson at the flag after finishing second late in the race.

For Edwards, the brief was clear: keep Nelson close enough and the first Next Gen crown would be his. For Nelson, the equation demanded a major change. He needed to keep riders between himself and Edwards, not just beat him, and with the pack now expected to be shuffled due to the weather, the final race was suddenly likely to become very complicated.

Topris was one of the major wildcards. His return to the Yamaha YZF-R6 produced the fastest lap of race one, despite an early Turn 3 excursion that took him out of podium contention. If he can keep it on the blacktop in Race Two, dry or wet, he looks capable of impacting the Next Gen title fight.

In the traditional supersport ranks, Knezovic still dominates. Farnsworth’s race one class win, coupled with his Queensland Raceway pole point, had reduced the gap from 16 points to ten, but Knezovic still controlled his destiny. If Farnsworth was to snatch the crown at the last opportunity, he needed to win and Knezovic needed to finish well in the lower order.

wet track, short race

Race Direction declared the track wet before the start and reduced the original 14-lap distance to 10 laps due to rain. There was drama even before the field was released, with Will Nassif crashing at Turn 5 on the warm-up lap before the restart and a late exit from the pit lane.

When the race started, Farnsworth got off to a great start and led the opening lap ahead of Simpson, Toperis and Nelson, while Flynn finished fifth ahead of Jacobs Edwards, Anupab Sarmun and Knezovic.

That was exactly what Farnsworth needed to do in the Supersport title fight, while Knezovic’s starting position still left the track rider accustomed to protecting his championship advantage if the order remained largely the same.

Toparis sets the pace

Toperis then took control on lap two and began to set the pace in the wet. The stop and seal rider reduced the fastest lap to 1m23.298 on lap two, 1m21.735 on lap three, then 1m20.625 on lap four, which would stand as the fastest lap of the race.

However, Simpson remained with him. The Desmosport Ducati rider was only 0.064 behind Topris at the end of lap two, 0.276 behind at the end of lap three, and 0.442 behind at the end of lap four.

Behind that leading pair, Nelson had dropped to third by the third lap, with Farnsworth, Edwards, Sermun, Jacobs, Soderland, Knezovic and Eddie Leeson all in the top ten as the race reached its decisive stage.

Simpson takes charge

Simpson made his move on lap five and crossed the stripe 0.276 ahead of Toparis, with Nelson third and Edwards fourth. Farnsworth was fifth at the time, still in first place among Supersport riders, while Knezovic was ninth and still on track to win the Supersport championship.

After one round, the picture changed dramatically. Simpson completed lap six still leading Topris by just 0.354 of a second, with Nelson in third and Farnsworth in fourth ahead of Edwards and Supersport in first.

When the leaders completed their sixth lap, Sermun was sixth, Jacobs seventh, Soderland eighth, Leeson ninth and Jordy Simpson tenth.

Moments later, Knezovic crashed at Turn 5. The rider was informed, but the race was red flagged due to the condition of the crashed bike after Turn 5. The race was declared over after the leaders had completed two-thirds of the race distance.

Titles decided by red flag

Simpson was therefore declared the winner, completing the day’s SuperSport/Next Gen double. Toparis finished second, just 0.354 behind, while Nelson completed the podium outright.

Farnsworth finished fourth overall and first in the Supersport class, 10.773 seconds behind Simpson, while Edwards came fifth and did enough to secure the inaugural Australian Supersport Next Gen Championship.

Edwards finished the season with 226 points, six points more than Nelson’s 220 points. Simpson’s double moved him to third in the Next Gen standings with 184 points, ahead of Toparis with 151 points and Leeson with 66 points.

The traditional Supersport title changed hands in dramatic fashion. Farnsworth’s second grade win of the day took him to 219 points, while Knezovic remained on 204 after crashing out of the race. This confirmed Farnsworth as the 2026 Australian Supersport champion.

Jordie Simpson finished third in the final SuperSport standings with 168, ahead of Josh Soderland with 157, Ghez Plowman with 154 and Sam Pezzetta with 153.

The Penright Australian Superbike Championship presented by Pirelli will move to a new summer format for 2026–27, with a six-round schedule running from October 2026 to March 2027.

Supersport/Next Gen Race Two Results

Situation	Class	rider	Bike	time/interval
1	ng	hey simpson	Duke	8m19.009
2	ng	Tea Topris	yam	+0.354
3	ng	H Nelson	Kaav	+2.859
4	ss	jay farnsworth	yam	+10.773
5	ng	t edwards	Kaav	+11.421
6	ss	a sirmoon	yam	+12.596
7	ss	F Jacobs	yam	+18.026
8	ss	Jay Soderland	yam	+18.627
9	ng	E Leeson	Duke	+26.043
10	ss	jay simpson	yam	+54.795
11	ss	S Pezzetta	yam	+1 lap
12	ss	g plowman	yam	+1 lap
13	ss	L Williams	yam	+1 lap
14	ss	W Nasif	yam	+1 lap
dsq	ss	V Knezovic	yam	+5 laps

Final Next Gen Championship Points

Situation	rider	Bike	score
1	t edwards	Kaav	226
2	H Nelson	Kaav	220
3	hey simpson	Duke	184
4	Tea Topris	Duke	151
5	E Leeson	Duke	66

Final Supersport Championship points

Situation	rider	Bike	score
1	jay farnsworth	yam	219
2	V Knezovic	yam	204
3	jay simpson	yam	168
4	Jay Soderland	yam	157
5	g plowman	yam	154
6	S Pezzetta	yam	153
7	L Williams	yam	94
8	F Jacobs	yam	91
9	a sirmoon	yam	74
10	R Tamburini	yam	69
11	h fordyce	yam	61
12	W Nasif	yam	58
13	E Johnson	yam	51
14	S Nicholson	yam	47
15	s drain	yam	44
16	hey short	yam	31
17	M Nicolis	yam	30
18	t zhao	yam	22
19	B Quinlan	yam	12
20	a chiodo	Honorable	10
21	s o’neil	yam	6