Josh Waters and Mike Jones lived up to their star billing at round five of the 2025 mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul (ASBK) at Queensland Raceway on August 10, sharing the top spots in the two 15-lap races.
On the same program as the Repco Supercars for the first time in two years, Jones (Yamaha Racing Team) greeted the chequered flag in the opening SW-Motech Superbike race on Sunday – held at a spritely 8:55am – before polesitter Waters (McMartin Racing Ducati) found another gear in the afternoon to turn the tables on his great rival.
Thanks to a bonus point for pole position, Waters claimed the overall round five spoils on 46pts, one ahead of Jones (45pts), with Glenn Allerton (Superbike Advocates Racing Ducati, 35pts) in third after his 4-3 scorecard.
ASBK QUEENSLAND RACEWAY RESULTS
race 2
“Thanks to my team for preparing a great motorcycle,” said Waters. “In race one I was quite tight, so more thanks goes to my cousin (and Supercars driver) Cam (Waters) for organising a physio in between races.
“The team also told me to believe in myself ahead of race two, but the pace in that one was so fast – Mike just wouldn’t give in!”
With three rounds remaining in the 2025 championship, Waters is now 54pts (261 to 207) in front of Jones – and, ominously, with the next battle at Phillip Island on September 6-7 where Waters rarely lowers his colours.
Related: Waters earns another ASBK stripe with Queensland Raceway pole
SW-Motech race one
Jones is a master at Queensland Raceway, and he proved it again with a brilliant performance in race one to defeat Waters by just over half a second.
And, to make his fifth Superbike victory at the circuit even sweeter, he did it the hard way after running wide on lap five and forfeiting second position to Allerton.
Three laps later Jones was back in second and, thanks to a race-best 1:07.646 on lap nine, he was swiftly on the tail of Waters. Jones then made his move on lap 12, slicing underneath Waters at turn two.
“That was an awesome race, and I’m a little bit surprised to be up here to be honest,” said Jones. “Josh (Waters) had so much pace in qualifying, but the Yamaha Racing Team just hasn’t stopped trying, so a big thank you to them as well.”
Waters nailed the holeshot from pole position, and the early scramble for positions also saw Harrison Voight (McMartin Racing Ducati) as high as second before he retired with an electrical issue.
The intense jockeying for real estate eased about half-distance as Jones set out in his ultimately successful pursuit of Waters and the impressive Broc Pearson (DesmoSport Ducati) moved into third position
And that’s the way they would finish, with Allerton fourth from Anthony West (Addicted to Track Yamaha), Cameron Dunker (MotoGO Yamaha), Jonathan Nahlous (Omega Racing Team Yamaha) and Max Stauffer (Yamaha Racing Team).
SW-Motech race two
“He does what he does.” Those words were used in today’s Superbike television commentary to describe just how Waters go about his business: in a consummate, no-fuss, methodical manner.
That was the 38-year-old’s modus operandi in race two, as he led from start to finish to bring up his eighth victory in 2025 and the 41st in a glittering Superbike career.
Meanwhile, Jones fell back to fourth in the early stages before moving into second on lap three – just before a collision between Voight and Pearson at turn six saw them both go down.
With the bit between his teeth, Jones set another best lap (1:07.299, just shy of the 1:07.265 circuit benchmark) in his pursuit of Waters.
He would reduce the gap to about 0.4 seconds, but that was as combative as it got with Waters holding firm.
The final margin was just over one second, while the battle for third was much closer as Allerton was pushed all the way by West.
The consistent Dunker was fifth from Nahlous, Stauffer and Jack Favelle (Addicted to Track Yamaha).
After another high-points outing, Allerton (161pts) has now bumped himself up to fourth in the standings, ahead of Dunker (150pts), Pearson (147pts), Stauffer (147pts) and Nahlous (142pts).
In the Supersport Next gen class at Queensland Raceway, Archie McDonald (Yamaha, 2-1) and Tom Toparis (Ducati, 1-2) dominated, with Jack Mahaffy (Yamaha) making it a clean sweep for the Stop and Seal team. Luca Durning (DesmoSport Ducati) was fourth.
