Superboats roar into Lake Macquarie for championship opener

Lake Macquarie has a habit of turning into a racecourse, and the weekend of 17-18 October was no exception. The 2026 Australian Offshore Superboat Championships opened on the water with record boat entries and packed spectator areas, two days of high-octane racing that formed the centrepiece of the broader Lake Macquarie Action Fest. The racing ran from midday to 3 pm, with boats charging between Eleebana, Warners Bay and Speers Point and the start and finish line at Marmong Point.

The Supercat Extreme class, Australia's largest offshore powerboat category, was the crowd favourite, and it handed the weekend's biggest headline to a familiar name. Todd Kelly, well known from the Supercars paddock, was on throttle for Miss Mojo, driven by Stuart Eustice, and the pair took out all three races. Club Marine Venturi, with Matt Kelly at the wheel and Antony de Fina on throttle, finished second in races one and three and fourth in race two. The defending champions, Hornet Racing, ran two boats: Michael and Jason Kelly in Hornet 750 came third, third and fourth, while Paul Fowlds and Steve Kelly in Hornet 525 finished fourth, fifth and third. The local team 222 Offshore, run by Darren Nicholson and Steve Jellick, had a rough outing, failing to finish race one, finishing second behind Mojo in race two, and not starting race three at all with mechanical problems. Team Australia did not take part in any of the three races.

The other classes kept the water busy. In the Supercat Outboard, The Sting took the first race for Mike Ratcliffe and Karl Wall before Steve Lancaster and Scott Kelly in Kess Racing won the next two, with Anthony Bann and Scott Richardson in Sugar Daddy Racing a consistent second across the board. SuperSport 85 was a clean sweep for TR Racing, with The Colonel, driven by Jordan Kelly and Mark Sutherland, finishing second in all three. The most crowded class was SuperSport 65, with eleven boats on the grid; Cardiac Arrest took the first two races and finished second in the third, while Red Hot Racing turned heads with a small all-female crew, 17-year-old Sophie and 19-year-old Ella.

What made the weekend work was that the racing sat inside a bigger day out. The Action Fest filled the land around the water: Let's Surf Lake Mac ran a Pro Junior Surf competition at Redhead Beach, a live site at Warners Bay foreshore carried commentary on a giant screen, the Morisset Lake Macquarie Agricultural Show brought horses, dogs, cattle and fireworks to the weekend, and a Show & Shine at Speers Point Park put vintage, classic and custom cars on display. For anyone who prefers running to watching, the Fernleigh 15 sent a pack of runners from Adamstown to Belmont along the old railway line on Sunday morning.

With the opener done, the championship now heads south. Round two is set for Wyndham Harbour in Victoria on 20-21 February, followed by Geelong in mid-March, Adelaide in May and Redcliffe in late June. Organisers thanked Lake Macquarie Council and Empire Marina for their support in getting the season off to such a full-throttle start.