Two teams have set themselves apart as the ones to watch with just one round remaining in the 2025 to 2026 Australian Offshore Superboat Championships. North Haven in Adelaide will host the series finale next month, only the second time the venue has appeared on the championship calendar. The course runs two to three kilometres toward Largs Bay, with boats staged and launched from the CYCSA. Spectators can watch from the beach directly opposite North Haven, with unobstructed views across a stretch of water known for building sea conditions as the afternoon progresses. That tendency to roughen up makes life harder for crews while keeping the shore-based crowd well entertained.
The series opened in 2025 at Lake Macquarie in New South Wales, then shifted to Wyndham Harbour in Melbourne for Round 2 in February. Round 3 followed at Geelong in Victoria in March. Three different venues, three distinct sets of challenges, and the results accumulated across them have produced a championship picture with genuine drama heading into the final weekend.
DNFs have threaded themselves through the results all season, frequently dragging boats into subsequent races as DNS entries. Machinery has failed, and crews have taken their share of physical punishment. This is the nature of offshore powerboat racing, something well understood on the New Zealand scene, where a single weekend can leave a boat thoroughly worked over. On both sides of the Tasman, what the sport consistently reveals is how crews respond to adversity. They repair what can be repaired, present themselves at the next round, and go racing again. Those not behind the wheel pick up tools, get into engine hatches, and deal with whatever needs dealing with. That cycle says something honest about both the health of the sport and the character of the people sustaining it.
Two campaigns have dominated the first three rounds. Mike Ratcliffe and Karl Wall, aboard The Sting, have been the class of the Supercat Outboard field. In the Supersport 65 class, Cardiac Arrest has built its points lead through reliability rather than any particular streak of dominance.
The The Sting record through nine races is hard to fault. Eight wins from nine starts, with the only blemish a DNF in Race 1 at Wyndham Harbour. The boat was back on the water before that round concluded, suggesting the problem was identified and fixed quickly. Eight race victories have placed Ratcliffe and Wall firmly in command of the Supercat Outboard standings.
The challenge comes from DLR Offshore, with Craig and Lachlan Dove, who have built their championship position through steady improvement and a clean record free of penalties across the series. A race win has not yet come their way, but consistent finishes have kept them within 63 points of the leaders. That margin is not beyond reach. A run of wins for DLR Offshore combined with any sort of trouble for The Sting could shift the standings rapidly, and there is still enough racing ahead for exactly that scenario to unfold.
It was good to see Supercat Outboard number 13, Superstition, back on the water for Round 3 with George Collins and Tom Barry-Cotter. There were glimpses of genuine pace, though consistency remains a work in progress. More time on the water should see them return stronger next season.
In the Supersport 65 class, Cardiac Arrest leads the standings on 285 points, a tally built on three wins and six second-place finishes across the series. Nut Case sits second on 258 points, with Valentus third on 224. Both challengers have produced wins and podium results at various points, but neither has managed to replicate the regularity that has kept Cardiac Arrest at the top, and that inconsistency has cost them ground in the overall standings.
Heading into North Haven, Nut Case arrives carrying momentum. Three consecutive wins at Geelong in Round 3 trimmed the gap to just 27 points. A sustained winning run in Adelaide would put the championship back in genuine contention very quickly, and 27 points is very little buffer if that form carries over to the final round.
The Supercat Extreme class presents a different sort of story. Hornet Racing, with Mick Kelly and Jason Kelly, does not hold the fastest race times in the class, but does hold the most important distinction at this point in the season: they are the only team yet to record a DNF or DNS. 222 Offshore (Mobile X), crewed by Darren Nicholson and Steve Jellick, has been the quickest boat on the water and has claimed six race wins. One DNF and two DNS results, however, have pushed them back to fourth overall, 57 points adrift of Hornet Racing. If the pattern established across the first three rounds continues into North Haven, outright speed will not decide this class. Getting to the finish line will.
The Supersports 85 class looks to be heading toward a conclusion at North Haven. Mark Pecherzewski and Mel Nelson aboard Special Edition are well placed. The Donzi entry joined the field in Round 3, and the return of The Colonel introduces a degree of pressure, though consistency has not yet come with it. Absent mechanical misfortune, three clean finishes at North Haven should be enough for Special Edition to claim the title.
A clear theme has run through three rounds. The fastest boats are not leading the championships. Across every class, the teams managing risk carefully, reading conditions, and crossing the finish line are the ones in front. North Haven is next, several titles remain genuinely unresolved, and it has shaped up as an outstanding final round.
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