The fifth and final round of the 2026 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) was concluded over the weekend with three huge days of action at Queensland Raceway.
Yamaha Racing Team’s, Mike Jones, made it back-to-back round podiums finishing in third place at Queensland Raceway, backing up from a second-place finish at Morgan Park and continue his late season form.
After struggling at the opening rounds, Jones has found some mojo late in the championship and come home strongly to finish the final four races inside the top three. His weekend at Queensland Raceway saw him finish with a third in each of the two Superbike races, both in vastly different conditions.
After being on the pace early, Jones qualifying in P2 for the two main races and not far outside the lap record he set a couple of seasons ago. When the lights went out for race one, Jones made a great start and leapt the front of the pack and lead the field in the opening exchanges.
The QR lends itself to tight racing and the front six riders broken away and raced wheel to wheel for the first half of the race. Jones fought off challenges from Glenn Allerton and then Cru Halliday before Halliday was able to sneak up the inside and take the lead from him and Harrison Voight followed him through.
Jones rebounded a couple of turns later to reclaim second from Voight, but Voight was able to repass and lock down the second position. That’s how the race would stay, but the gaps between the riders remained tight all the way until the end.
Race two and a shower of rain come across the venue making things more than interesting. Officials declared the track wet and all competitors elected to go with treaded tyres. Despite the rain stopping as the riders went out for their warmup lap. It was a dry, wet race!
Again, Jones got start and was looking good into the first turn but was conservative in the slippery conditions and allowed a couple of riders to get around him. He dropped back to third and then lost a couple more positions in the opening laps before finding some feel and confidence on the slick track and began moving forward again.
He passed his way back up to third and make it one of his better performances in the slick conditions.
He rounded out the championship in sixth place and although disappointed with the series result, happy to finish things off on a positive note.
“It was a good weekend for me and happy with how I rode and the work we put in as a team. Everyone was fast here this weekend, and the pace was on right from the first practice session so to remain fast and consistent all weekend, despite a range of conditions, was credit to the team to keep adapting as the weekend went on.
“Overall, we started the season on the back foot and lost a lot of points very early, but it’s good to finish on a positive note at the final two rounds.
“Thanks to the Yamaha Racing team for another big effort this year. The shortened series made things super busy for them, but they kept at it and we were able to turn things around,” Jones ends.
JJ Nahlous started the weekend of strongly and with each session on Friday, he posted personal best lap times and kept lower the mark. His confidence grew and by the time qualifying came around, he was able to park his Yamaha R1M on the front row in P3 and alongside Jones.
The opening race and saw Nahlous on the back of an extremely fast freight train in sixth place. The pace was electrifying with the front group locked into the low 1.07s for lap after lap. At times, Nahlous was as fast as any of them, but the pace so evenly matched meant he was never able to find his way further forward and had to settle for sixth.
For race two, he just couldn’t find any comfort in the tricky conditions. As the pace increased, Nahlous found it difficult to match and dropped back through the field to eventually come across the finish line in eighth.
His 6-8 scores gave him seventh for the round and he rounded out the championship in seventh in the championship.
“I really struggled for grip in that last one, both front and rear. Not sure why that was but will talk to the team and see if we can find a reason or if it was just me being a timid and not riding the conditions well.
“The season has had some ups and downs, but I have really enjoyed working with YRT and have a great relationship in place. There are lots of positives to be taken from the year, where we achieved PB’s at Phillip Island, SMSP and QR, so the aim now is to find ways to close the gap between my best and worst and be a more consistent rider on all tracks and conditions.
“Thank you to everyone who stepped up and helped this year, it’s been a learning curve for me but I’m sure it will make me a better rider from the knowledge and experienced I have gained,” Nahlous said.
The 2027 series will now move to a summer series that kicks off in October 2026 and run through until March 2027.
