McLaren-Wood’s wildcard weekend a Kiwi bonus at ASBK finale
Silverdale teen Tyler King right in Supersport 300 title fight as a nail-biting weekend at Queensland Raceway looms
While the headline act is the title fight between McMartin Racing Ducati teammates Harrison Voight and Josh Waters, The Final Sector has its eyes fixed on a quieter, distinctly Kiwi subplot playing out further down the grid at this weekend’s ASBK Final.
A Cambridge wildcard chasing data at Queensland Raceway on a borrowed Yamaha. A Whanganui rookie on his rented Ducati who spent Friday closing the gap on the NZSBK newcomer. A Silverdale teenager within a whisker of claiming Australia Supersport 300 glory. A Christchurch 14-year-old getting his big break (with apologies to Lucas Hyslop back home) in the Oceania Junior Cup thanks to a critical NZSBK development initiative.
Here’s five things worth watching as the 2026 season heads into its final laps in Willowbank.
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Sky Sport 5 (Ch. 55), Sunday 3:00–6:00pm.
The former fence painter chasing data, not a result
While Harrison Voight and Josh Waters slug it out for ASBK Superbike honours, Morgan McLaren-Wood spent Friday at Queensland Raceway doing something far less glamorous but no less exciting at the opposite end of the grid: learning. On a bike he’d never ridden before. At a track he could barely remember. For a team he met for the first time earlier in the week.
“I made I think 2, 3 second progress throughout the day, so I’m pretty happy,” the 21-year-old Cambridge rider told The Final Sector after a Friday practice that saw Cru Halliday eclipse the QR lap record with a 1:07.055 and serve notice on the championship’s minor placings. Cam Dunker, third and just 11 points ahead of Halliday going into the championship’s final weekend, can’t say he hasn’t been warned at Willowbank.
McLaren-Wood’s own numbers on his borrowed YZR-R1, kindly lent for the weekend by MotoGo Yamaha Racing principal Patrick Li, were encouraging. The NZSBK rider trimmed nearly eight tenths off his opening session time across the day’s three sessions, dropping from a 1:10.596 in FP1 to a 1:09.820 on the fourth to last of his 18 laps in FP3.
It’s the trajectory, more than the position, that pleased McLaren-Wood who finished Friday 15th overall — last but one — and 2.765s adrift of Halliday’s blistering pace. But there’s a quieter subplot playing out behind him: fellow Kiwi Luca Durning (DesmoSport Ducati), 16th on the same combined sheet, started Friday 1.872s behind McLaren-Wood and closed it to just 0.893s shy by the final session. The Whanganui rookie v the Waikato wildcard. Two Kiwis with much bigger ASBK plans.
The pair have history. Last summer in NZSBK, it was Durning who had the upper hand — runner-up in the Superbike standings to McLaren-Wood’s sixth. Don’t expect McLaren-Wood to read much into Friday’s reversal, though.
“Honestly, man, it doesn’t worry me, to be honest,” he said when asked about running ahead of Durning after practice.
“I’m not fazed at all where I come or what happens. I just think as long as I get some good testing in and I’m comfortable on the bike, that’s all that matters, really.”
That’s because this weekend was never about the results. McLaren-Wood’s ride came together almost by accident — he simply let it be known he was hunting a seat, and Victorian-based Li (MotoGo Yamaha Racing) came calling, slotting him into a team that also includes a pair of Asian campaigners for this, the fifth and final round of the 2026 Penrite Australian Superbike Championship presented by Pirelli.
It’s his first time aboard an R1, his first real laps of Queensland Raceway — a club day blow-up three years ago barely counts, by his own admission — and his first taste of a much bigger 2026-2027 season plan: a full-time tilt at ASBK.
“It’s just a good experience to get over here and actually spin some laps and just get in data for next year…so I already have an idea of what I’m getting myself into at Queensland when we race here again,” McLaren-Wood explained.
It’s a methodical approach for a rider who’s been almost everywhere already. Cambridge-based with a Scottish mother and the British passport that comes with it, McLaren-Wood spent two seasons in British Supersport and Stock 600, has lapped at speed in meccas like Mallorca and Barcelona, and contested rounds of the Spanish ESBK championship. All before last summer’s NZSBK campaign on a Suzuki GSXR.
Before any of it, there was simpler work: “I was a fence painter, if you want to put that in,” he laughed.
McLaren-Wood is already sizing up QR with a nuanced eye.
“Imagine Manfeild, but no camber,” he said. “There’s like four long straights, so if you don’t get set up to get drive out of the corners, you’re not making a good lap time. It’s a very superbiker’s track — you’re just focused on getting the drive out of these corners.”
McLaren-Wood is eyeing this summer’s Suzuki International Series, headlined by the 75th Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day, and NZSBK’s three round season from Jan-March. But his presence at QR is not done on a whim.
ASBK expands to seven rounds for the new 2026-27 summer season, starting at Phillip Island alongside the MotoGP alphas in October — exactly the type of stage McLaren-Wood wants to be ready for when his full-time tilt hopefully arrives. Friday’s laps are simply the down payment.
Saturday’s final practice and qualifying will sharpen the picture before Sunday’s last two SW-Motech Superbike races of the season — Race 10 and Race 11 — bring the curtain down on 2026 and, with it, the latest instalment of a quiet Kiwi subplot with a much grander long-term narrative.
King within touching distance of Nauta as Supersport 300 title fight goes to wire
Tyler King began the final round of ASBK just four points behind Riley Nauta. He ended Friday’s three Australian Supersport 300 practice sessions even closer - just 0.495s adrift of the white-hot Queenslander. This is going to be a nerve-jangling weekend to decide the coveted development class.
Nauta undoubtedly has the momentum, five successive wins including all three races in the penultimate round at Morgan Park last month. A crash didn’t help King’s cause as his 27-point lead quickly became a four point deficit courtesy of Nauta’s perfect weekend.
But the Silverdale 19-year-old, riding a rented Kawasaki Ninji 400, is quietly determined; his 1:21.580 in FP2 was the best response anyone could muster to Nauta’s pace-setting 1:20.399. The Queenslander also had an off in the light rain of FP3 with King remaining in the pits.
It’s all to play for then in Saturday’s qualifying and Race 13, before Sunday’s Race’s 14 and 15. The good news? You’ll be able to catch the penultimate race on the ASBK website live feed and race 15 on Sunday’s Sky Sports coverage from 3pm.
Hyslop off-line after inline hockey incident
Lucas Hyslop had grand plans to finish a topsy-turvy Yamaha bLU cRU Oceania Junior Championship (OJC) campaign on a high, perhaps even climbing to as high as third in the 150cc championship overall.
That was until the Orewa 15-year-old broke his foot playing inline hockey a week out from his flight to Brisbane. It means the #31 will sadly have to watch the action from Queensland Raceway on telly which we’re guessing will be more painful than his mending foot.
Chamberlain off to promising start
Fortunately there is still much Kiwi interest in the OJC decider with Christchurch’s Ryder Chamberlain at Queensland Raceway courtesy of a freshly minted opportunity: the Superbike Pathways Foundation, established by NZSBK promoter Mike Marsden with backing from former Kiwi international Stu Avant.
The 14-year-old — runner-up to another Cantab, Hunter Charlett, in last summer’s NZSBK Supersport 150 class — has travelled to Brisbane with father Stu and will be hosted by Avant and wife Bec.
Chamberlain is off to an impressive start too, 14th (of 18) in the combined OJC practice classification with a 1:40.145 on his loaner YZR-R15. Champion elect Tom Cameron topped the Friday sessions with a 1:37.259.
Title decider looms as Voight, Waters head to Queensland
The 2026 SW-Motech Australian Superbike Championship looks Harrison Voight’s to lose with the 20-year-old Queenslander holding a 24-point lead over McMartin Racing Ducati teammate Josh Waters heading into Sunday’s title-deciding races.
A Voight win puts the issue beyond doubt; if five-time defending champion Waters sweeps the round (pole and wins in race 10 and 11), Voight needs just two top-seven finishes to be crowned the youngest Australian Superbike champion, eclipsing Mat Mladin’s 1992 mark.
It seems the weekend won’t be a two-horse race, though. Cru Halliday served an emphatic reminder of that on Friday, unofficially smashing the Willowbank lap record and topping both afternoon sessions on his Stop and Seal Ducati — a statement aimed squarely at Cameron Dunker, who he trails by just 11 points for third in the championship.
Glenn Allerton ran Halliday him closest, with Mike Jones rounding out the top three. The title combatants themselves were further back, with Waters 6th and Voight 7th, separated from Halliday by less than a second across the top 10.
Qualifying on Saturday sets the grid for Sunday’s final two races of the season, with the championship — and a piece of Australian Superbike history — on the line. Plus that intriguing NZSBK, Whanganui v Waikato subplot too.