You couldn’t have scripted the drama that would determine the 2026 Supercat Extreme Championship at Port Adelaide, in a weekend that would deliver some fantastic racing across all four classes in front of a big, passionate, South Australian crowd; it was an event that will long be remembered!
The equation coming in was that points leaders Mick and Jason Kelly (Hornet Racing) held a comfortable 42-point lead, and with just 105 points on the board for Adelaide’s trio of 30-minute races. On paper, they just had to maintain their consistency and the title would be theirs.. but for the popular Victorian team, the weekend certainly didn’t play out as planned..!
Aside from the outright battle, the Supercat Outboard and the Supersport 65 titles were still to be decided as teams hit the water at midday on Saturday, where ultimately Mike Ratcliffe and Karl Wall secured a second Supercat Outboard title in three years, their hat-trick of wins across the weekend very nearly delivering a clean sweep, the only setback in an otherwise perfect season coming in Wyndham Harbour’s opening race after prop failure.
Supercat Extreme
Despite a condensed field thanks to a tough season of competition, the title contenders arrived in Adelaide with their strategies all well planned.
For the points leading Hornet Racing outfit, they needed to continue their impressive consistency, the rookie team having finished no worse than third in any of the nine prior races, whilst for their closest rivals – ‘MOJO’ – they’d suffered a DNF during the opening round at Lake Macquarie (prop failure) and a fourth-placed finish at Geelong (prop, again) to put them 42-points back and with only one focus for Adelaide; victory in every race.
For the reigning Supercat Outboard Champions Antony De Fina and Matt Kelly, they too were in mathematical reach of the title, but 59-points back from the Series lead.
For the Stuart Eustice/Todd Kelly ‘MOJO’ combination, their weekend started perfectly with victory in the opening race over the points-leaders, ‘Hornet Racing’ making their lives difficult with a spin mid-race as they pushed the ‘MOJO’ team for the win; fortunately they lost little time as a result and crossed the line just five seconds back from their rivals.
Post-race the team admitted they’d come very close to tipping the boat over having found the limit, whilst some questioned whether or not they’d have been better off taking a safe and conservative approach, both Mick and Jason though quick to remind observers that they were racing, and taking the very same approach that had given them the points lead coming into the final round; why change a winning formula!?
Sunday’s second race again saw the points leaders locked in a battle for position, although this time the ‘Hornet’ crew stayed just a few boat lengths off the rear of the ‘MOJO’ machine whilst also keeping a close eye on ‘Venturi’, the three boats crossing the line separated by just seven seconds promising for an epic close to the season with next to nothing separating the performance of the three boats. And then things became a whole lot more interesting..
With just 90-minutes separating the end of race two and the start of race three there was much action around the rear of the ‘Hornet Racing’ machine, action centred on the tie bar that controls the steering of the Mercury 6-drives on the iconic ‘Skater’. The team were last to leave the jetty after feverish work in the final minutes ahead of the start, but within moments word came from Race Control that the boat had been forced to withdraw in accordance with the rules.
The silence in the ‘Hornet Racing’ pits highlighted just how big a blow it was, the tight family run team left to reflect on what might have been as the ‘MOJO’ crew – who incredibly had made a crew change ahead of the race to install Todd Kelly’s son Mason into the boat – led ‘Venturi’ away for the start.
For the Kelly crew, they’d made up ten points on their rivals in the opening two races, reducing the margin to 32 points and with 35 points up for grabs for the win; and being undefeated all weekend, the odds were on that they would achieve just that, but no-one had told De Fina and Matt Kelly, the pair jumping to an early lead which they maintained to the chequered flag – the result; their maiden race win in the outright category, and a two point Championship win to ‘Hornet Racing’.
The pit area at North Haven erupted as the result hit home for the ‘Hornet Racing’ team, Mick and Jason Kelly incredibly claiming the 2026 Supercat Extreme title on their debut with an untested package – the margin of victory 12 races in, just two points..
“We sat at the boat ramp and everyone worked to fix it,” Mick Kelly explained. “We started motoring out there and realised the rule states you’ve got to have a tie bar fitted; safety first. We were sitting here biting our nails for the last half an hour but yeah, pretty awesome. It’s been a hard year, a lot of ups and downs; pretty emotional.”
“Unbelievable.. Emotions are through the roof at the moment; never in a million years did we think we would come out of an 85-class boat and then take out the Championship in Supercat Extreme,” Jason Kelly added. “Going out after yesterday’s spin, nerves were high. Mick [Kelly] and I just decided that ‘let’s have a crack’ we’d push, see what it’s like after the first two laps, but as soon as the flag drops, you get in that rhythm – I feel like we were closing on ‘MOJO’ a little bit. We finished, popped the hatch, Mick got out and had a look out the back and the tie bar was half hanging off so it had to come off. We made the decision to try and lock the drive on one engine and use the steering on the other; all we had to do was 50% of that race and we’d get points.
“Everyone from everywhere came in to push and help. We contacted race control and told them what we were doing, shut the hatch, fired it up, headed out to try and get out there and circulate, but we were told that under the rules we weren’t allowed to be out there without the tie bar on the back of the boat. They were right, 100%, we respect the decision so we went back to the crane, head in hands – the only way we could win the Championship was if ‘MOJO’ finished second and ‘Venturi’ won!”
“We gave that [last race] absolutely everything we had,” Todd Kelly explained. “Mason [Kelly] had his first run behind the wheel and I thought we’d just ease into it a little, but then we saw that ‘Venturi’ must have made a few changes and had some pretty decent pace, so right from the start we gave it everything off the line – the speed they had compared to other races blew us away a little bit. Then we just worked the rest of the race to try and get back to them; had probably three or four moments where we nearly spun it pushing as hard as we could. As it turned out, I didn’t ease into it at all, I was full tilt into the chicane for the first lap and I was giving as much info to him [Mason] as I could and there was enough communication there for him to be able to drive that race as good as anyone; we didn’t really leave anything on the table at all.”
“An interesting weekend,” Antony De Fina admitted. “We had three different setups for three different races, so I suppose we sort of looked at it as a big test session; we got better first race today and then made another change, and I think we nailed it with the combination of gears and props and weight, it all came together. When you get a Bathurst winner asking what the hell you did to the boat, you know you’re on the right track!!”
“We had a few setup issues yesterday, but this morning’s race was a little better and the last race was really good,” Matt Kelly reflected. “We went to different gear ratios and different props from yesterday and then between races today we changed again. Unfortunately in this kind of racing, once you get behind someone into the cross wash, it makes it a lot harder to take the race line you want to take, so once you fall behind it is hard to get your exit speeds up and stuff like that. We’ll get there, the boat is a great boat, the former owners won everything in it, so we’ve just got to get used to it.
“We didn’t know [about the Championship equation] until we came back in, the team rang and congratulated us and told us the result; it’s actually quite funny because we ran out of fuel on the finish line – if it was one more lap, we were done!”
Supercat Outboard
Having won eight of the nine prior races in the 2026 Supercat Outboard season, the result was likely a foregone conclusion heading into Port Adelaide’s season final, but as had played out in the outright category, you can never rely on a sure thing, so everyone; the points leading ‘Sting’ operation included, came in looking for a strong finish to the season.
Ultimately it took just one race; and their ninth win of the year – for Mike Ratcliffe and Karl Wall to seal the title in what would be their second Championship win in two years, the duo lamenting what might have been last season if not for a big spin at Geelong which forced them to conclude the season ahead of Adelaide’s final.
With ‘The Sting’ claiming victory in Adelaide’s opening race the focus turned to the battle for second where things had suddenly become a lot more interesting after ‘TCR Offshore’ very nearly stole the win, Scott Richardson and Steve Kelly turning in one of their best performances in recent years to hold the much faster yellow boat back until the dying stages. Meanwhile, reigning AUS#2 (in Supercat Outboard) ‘DLR Offshore’ were facing the start of what would be a challenging weekend, a hard-to-trace electrical issue forcing the father-and-son team to battle on with having to stop and restart the electrical system each time the twin Mercury 300XS engines went into ‘guardian’ mode making for very slow forward progress; they finished, but three laps behind their rivals.
With the title wrapped up, ‘The Sting’ used the final two races to test ahead of their debut in the USA later in the year, turning focus to the emerging battle between ‘TCR’, ‘Kess Racing’ and ‘DLR Offshore’ for second. That three way battle soon became a two-boat race, Scott Richardson and Steve Kelly out early with another engine failure; their season was over, whilst for Craig Dove and son Lachlan, they continued to face their electrical issues and resetting the system, again keeping them off the pace of their rivals allowing Steve Lancaster and Scott Kelly to gain themselves some more valuable laps to close down the points gap to second with just one race remaining.
Ultimately Mike Ratcliffe and Karl Wall would emerge with their eleventh win of the season to fall just one race shy of clean-sweeping the year, the mighty yellow ‘Sting’ now set for a complete overhaul ahead of its delivery to the USA to contest rounds of the US-Championship later in the year ahead of a full season campaign in 2027. The pair though have confirmed they will return next season to defend their Australian title in their original, title-winning ‘Skater’.
For Steve Lancaster and Scott Kelly, their final run of the season saw arguably their greatest challenge to the points leaders all season to cross the line just 22-seconds in arrears at the flag, Steve Lancaster’s wide smile post-race suggesting they were back on track after their rollover at Wyndham Harbour and the setbacks that created, the ‘Kess Racing’ team already planning for Lake Macquarie’s return in October for their chance to advance what they’ve learnt this season.
For Craig Dove, he’d started calling the aluminium ‘DLR’ machine ‘the tortoise’ having out-lasted many of the faster boats last season to claim second in the Championship; last year alongside Steve Lancaster, and this year alongside son Lachlan, the pair again classified second in the Championship despite the setbacks they’d faced throughout the Adelaide weekend.
“We drew pole four for the first race so we had some work to get around the others,” Mike Ratcliffe explained. “It was a really good race though, I really enjoyed it. It’s good to come away at the end of the season with the #1 title to go over to challenge the Americans as the Australian Champions.”
“We’re extremely proud of the team for giving us a fast boat,” Karl Wall admitted. “Unfortunately at Geelong last year we broke the boat beyond a quick repair to be back on the water for Adelaide, which put us back to third in the Championship, but this year we’ve redeemed ourselves and come away with first place.”
“It was an awesome first year [with the new boat], everything got thrown at us, but we only missed that one race after the rollover, so we couldn’t be happier,” Steve Lancaster admitted. “Race two this morning we threw a blade, so that was the end of that one for us, but the third race was fantastic, so much so that Scott Kelly even smiled [laughs].”
“Unfortunately number three cylinder detonated on us; it was a bit disappointing,” Scott Richardson lamented. “We’re very competitive when it all goes well, but unfortunately these motors are now 15 years old, although we’ll continue on and see how it goes.”
“With the way it went yesterday [TCR] I thought, ‘we’re on here, this is going to be good’; went out today and unfortunately torched an engine,” Steve Kelly explained. “We’ve got to get to the bottom of why it’s doing it, but he’s [Richardson] keen now, so he wants me to rebuild it again so he can go back to Lake Macquarie. Congratulations to DLR [who claimed second in the Championship] they circulated, they’ve been there consistently and finished every race which is what you’ve got to do. Also, congratulations to ‘The Sting’ they’ve been consistent too, so well deserved to them.”
“It [the season] was a good learning experience and I felt like – in the end – I definitely got a lot better,” Lachlan Dove explained. “At the start, Dad [Craig Dove] was controlling a lot of the trim, but at the end of it I was fully controlling the trim and I felt like that last race, I got the boat to sit a lot better.”
That’s it for the 2025/26 Australian Offshore Superboat Championship, focus now turns back to Lake Macquarie in October to kick off the 2026/27 season, details of which will be revealed in the coming weeks.
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R4. 2025/26 Australian Offshore Superboat Championships
Port Adelaide, South Australia
09-10 May, 2026
RND#4 – Race#1
Supercat Extreme
1. Stuart Eustice/Todd Kelly (#15 MOJO) – 00:30:07 (12-laps)
2. Mick Kelly/Jason Kelly (#525 Hornet Racing) – 00:30:12 (12-laps)
3. Antony De Fina/Matt Kelly (#5 Venturi Offshore) – 00:31:14 (12-laps)
Supercat Outboard
1. Mike Ratcliffe/Karl Wall (#99 The Sting) – 00:31:39 (11-laps)
2. Scott Richardson/Steve Kelly (#161 TCR Racing) – 00:31:43 (11-laps)
3. Steve Lancaster/Scott Kelly (#801 Kess Racing) – 00:31:50 (11-laps)
4. Craig Dove/Lachlan Dove (#81 DLR Offshore) – 00:30:58 (8-laps)
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RND#4 – Race#2
Supercat Extreme
1. Stuart Eustice/Todd Kelly (#15 MOJO) – 00:31:38 (13-laps)
2. Mick Kelly/Jason Kelly (#525 Hornet Racing) – 00:31:42 (13-laps)
3. Antony De Fina/Matt Kelly (#5 Venturi Offshore) – 00:31:45 (13-laps)
Supercat Outboard
1. Mike Ratcliffe/Karl Wall (#99 The Sting) – 00:32:12 (12-laps)
2. Steve Lancaster/Scott Kelly (#801 Kess Racing) – 00:27:22 (10-laps)
3. Craig Dove/Lachlan Dove (#81 DLR Offshore) – 00:34:37 (9-laps)
4. Scott Richardson/Steve Kelly (#161 TCR Racing) – DNF (0-laps)
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RND#4 – Race#3
Supercat Extreme
1. Antony De Fina/Matt Kelly (#5 Venturi Offshore) – 00:30:52 (13-laps)
2. Mason Kelly/Todd Kelly (#15 MOJO) – 00:30:56 (13-laps)
3. Mick Kelly/Jason Kelly (#525 Hornet Racing) – DNS
Supercat Outboard
1. Mike Ratcliffe/Karl Wall (#99 The Sting) – 00:31:29 (12-laps)
2. Steve Lancaster/Scott Kelly (#801 Kess Racing) – 00:31:51 (12-laps)
3. Craig Dove/Lachlan Dove (#81 DLR Offshore) – 00:33:10 (10-laps)
4. Scott Richardson/Steve Kelly (#161 TCR Racing) – DNS
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2025/26 Australian Offshore Superboat Championships
Championship Points (after round four of four)*
AUS#1 Championship
1. Hornet Racing (328-points), 2. MOJO (295), 3. Venturi Offshore (293), 4. The Sting (245), 5. Mobile X (214), 6. Kess Racing (157), 7. TCR Offshore (131), 8. DLR Offshore (116), 9. Special Edition/TR Racing (106), 10. Nut Case (101), 11. Cardiac Arrest (97), 12. The Con (71), 13. Valentus (52), 14. The Colonel (48), 15. Team 38 Offshore (37)
Supercat Extreme
1. Hornet Racing (363-points), 2. MOJO (361), 3. Venturi Offshore (331), 4. Mobile X (211)
Supercat Outboard
1. The Sting (421-points), 2. DLR Offshore (331), 3. Kess Racing (302), 4. TCR Offshore (265)
* only those boats that competed in more than 50% of the rounds are classified in the Championship
