Image: Foremost Media.

Two-time Australian Supersport champion Tom Toparis picked up where he left off on return in Sydney tonight, winning both races for a dominant overall victory, as Valentino Knezovic won Supersport 300 and Hunter Corney the Oceania Junior Cup round.

Toparis set pole position on Friday and then broke the lap record with a flying 1m31.484s in Saturday afternoon’s opening race, going on to win by 3.384s from Sean Condon (Yamaha) and round one winner JJ Nahlous (Yamaha).

Stop and Seal Yamaha rider Toparis repeated with a 2.952s winning margin under lights tonight, this time from Nahlous ahead of Jake Farnsworth (Yamaha) following a late crash from Condon. Toparis sealed the overall from Nahlous and Farnsworth, who was fourth in race one, as the top five was filled by two more R6s in Tom Bramich and Jack Mahaffy.

It’s Nahlous who holds onto the championship lead, extending his advantage to 29 points over Farnsworth, with Bramich nine points further back in third position. Despite missing the season-opener, Toparis has instantly climbed to 10th in the standings.

Three separate race winners emerged in the Supersport 300, with Jesse Stroud (Kawasaki) winning race one and pole-setter Josh Newman (Kawasaki) breaking through to take out race two, before both went down together in the final stages of race three under lights.

That enabled Yamaha-mounted Valentino Knezovic to run away with the victory and the overall, winning round two ahead of Harrison Watts (Kawasaki) and Newman, who remounted for 18th in race three. It’s Newman and Watts now tied on points at the top of the series table, with Knezovic P3.

The first Oceania Junior Cup round of the season saw Hunter Corney race to the opening two victories of the weekend, before Hunter Charlett edged Rossi McAdam to the final race win, with Corney third – the top five split by just 0.223s. Overall it was Corney who stood in the middle of the podium, from Charlett and McAdam.

Next on the 2024 Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) schedule will be the Queensland swing of the series, beginning with Queensland Raceway in one month’s time between 26-28 April.

Detailed results