THE FORMATION LAP: Six Kiwis, potential carnage and a title race on a knife-edge
Your weekend guide to ASBK Round 3 at The Bend near Adelaide
Welcome to the inaugural ‘Formation Lap’, The Final Sector’s full fat but bite-sized preview to the weekend of two-wheeled goodness ahead.
In the future we’ll (also) feature Antipodeans blazing a trail in MotoGP and WorldSBK/WCR but to open, we’re buzzing to be in the paddock at The Bend for round three of the Penrite Oil Australian Superbike Championship presented by Pirelli.
It’s the halfway stage of the 2026 ASBK season and we’re poised for a bumper weekend at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park where we’ve got our peepers on six Kiwis campaigning in four of the weekend’s classes. We’re also keeping a watchful eye on the skies above South Australia with rain forecast across the weekend for races six and seven of the premier Superbike class where Whanganui’s Luca Durning finds himself battling in one of the most exciting title races in years. Think a gaggle of fearless youngsters giving it to and getting as good as they give from the old guard led by five-time defending champion Josh Waters.
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Flying (Solo) Kiwi
Luca Durning is the sole Kiwi in the premier class and enters the weekend 13th in the championship. It’s a position he mirrored in free practice on Friday. We covered that minor frustration here. You should come back and read that, but first…
Australian Supersport 300
Silverdale teen Tyler King is the fastest of the three Kiwis in the Supersport 300 class thus far, both across the championship – which he leads – and Friday’s free practice at The Bend where he finished 4th overall on his Kawasaki Ninja 400. The #128’s best lap was a 2:12.208 with Wellington’s Nixon Frost 13th (2:13.825) and Whangarei’s Alvin Wu 16th with a 2:15.255.
Fuelled by his third place in the ASBK 300s last year and from the fresh disappointment of finishing runner-up to Zak Fuller in last summer’s NZSBK Sportbike class - by one, harrowing point no less - King is happy to be on the pace again in Australia.
“Yeah, today’s gone good,” the 19-year-old told The Final Sector.
“Made good progress and yeah, top four for a whole day, so not too bad. I’ve had a tow as well, so qualifying’s [going to be about] trying to get behind someone, get a good tow, and hopefully go a bit better. When I was behind someone, my lap time was saying minus, whatever. And then I go down a straight when I’m not behind someone, I lose a second straight away.
“The track’s so big [4.95km]. It’s 17 corners or something crazy and yeah, it takes a while to get your head around it, but no, I’ve got it pretty nailed now.”
King is also loving the argy-bargy that comes standard in ASBK racing.
“Everyone here’s way more pushy. The competition’s just way tighter and everyone’s a bit faster than New Zealand. It’s good. You learn heaps… learn to get your elbows out a bit.”
Frost is 21st in the championship and Wu 23rd heading into Saturday’s qualifying and race 1. Two further races follow on Sunday and for King, the mission is simple, albeit not easily achieved.
“Yeah, the main goal’s probably just to leave the weekend still leading and hopefully extend the points lead. Obviously, the goal’s to win as well, but got to keep it on two wheels at the same time, so play it safe and competitive, I guess.”
Oceania Junior Cup
Lucas Hyslop is the sole Kiwi campaigner in the OJC, 9th in the Yamaha bLU cRU-sponsored championship. The #31 was also 9th fastest on Friday with a 2:39.750. Aussie Charlie Nicolls went fastest with a 2:36.859.
Yamaha bLU cRU Asia-Pacific R3 Championship
After surviving a baptism of fire at the opening round of the APAC R3 where bike set-up issues and crashes ahead of him made for a challenging weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park, Hunter Charlett is still handily placed in 7th in the championship. But he wants way more out of his weekend at The Bend.
It’s started well with the Christchurch 15-year-old mixing at the very top of the timing sheets all of Friday, eventually settling for 5th with a 2:14.398. Namesake Hunter Corney produced the day’s fastest lap with a 2:12.668 but Charlett’s final lap in FP3 was stunted marginally by a couple of slower riders.
Dad Dennis Charlett is at The Bend helping put right the things they didn’t know in Sydney re the setup of the identical Yamaha YZF-R3s being used across the class.
“At the first round at Sydney, Hunter’s bike was so different to his bike in New Zealand, and we didn’t realise that you could actually change the geometry of the bike,” Charlett Snr said.
“The forks, for example, you can’t push the forks through. He has his forks through at least 30mm at the top of the triple clamp [on his NZSBK Supersport 300 winning R3], and these ones are about 10. So that’s a huge difference.
“They evened all the kids out by weight too, so Hunter was running a full tank of gas [in Sydney], whereas normally in New Zealand he’s only running three litres of gas, and he was running about eight or nine litres of gas.
“So yeah, the bike felt heavy to him. It didn’t want to turn in.”
Charlett Jnr did well to gain 6th and 10th places at SMP and was gaining in the second race after narrowly avoiding a big crash …until it was red-flagged by another incident.
Friday’s free practice was on tires run at Sydney so it will be fascinating to see how Charlett goes on a fresh set in qualifying and across the two APAC R3 races at The Bend.
“He really wants to win,” Charlett Snr said. “For me, I’d like to see him in the top five. It would be a good position going forward, but he needs to finish the races and do as good as he can, and he’s pretty determined to win. So we’ll see how we go.”
SW-Motech Australian Superbike
It’s crunch time in the premier class as the wily campaigners led by five-time ASBK champion Josh Waters and three-time winner Mike Jones look to hold off the exciting emergence of young guns Harrison Voight, Jacob Roulstone, Jonathan Nahlous and Cameron Dunker.
Voight and Waters have won four of the five races between them thus far – Roulstone is the other rider to find the top step of the podium in race 2 at Sydney – and have shared a pole position apiece, Voight at Phillip Island and Waters at Sydney.
Waters topped Friday’s free practice times with a 1:50.398. Current championship leader Voight was 4th in the combined session times on 1:50.982 to sit behind Waters, New South Welshman Cru Halliday on yet another Ducati V4R and a Yamaha R1 pilot Jones, the latter duo sharing identical 1:50.970 laps. It’s paper-thin tight at the top and with rain forecast, hold all bets.
Saturday sees qualifying with the top 12 emerging from Q1 for Q2 while races six and seven of the championship are scheduled for Sunday. Waters’ FP times and championship clinching success here in 2025 make him the man to beat. - By Kent Gray in Adelaide