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JaredLove.com: - Press Release:
The final round of the Motorcycle Trader and News NZ Road Race Championship was held in sunny conditions over the weekend at Pukekohe Park Raceway. As expected the Superbike class held the closest competition, with the first four finishers crossing the line in Saturday’s race one, within 0.4 seconds of each other!
Tony Rees got the holeshot with Ray Clee in tow, but Jared Love charged past under brakes at the hairpin, to lead for several laps before Andrew Stroud took the lead at the same place. “Then it became an absolute dust-up,” Love said, who broke the lap record on the partly new sealed but bumpier track, setting a blistering 57.832 second lap time. The first recorded under 58 seconds in a race. Defending champion Stroud won that battle – but only just as Rees almost caught and past Stroud coming off the hill. At the final turn Stroud make a slight error which caused second place holder Clee to back off slightly, allowing Rees to get on the gas of his Yamaha R1 earlier than the Suzuki GSXR1000 duo, and pip Clee on the line. Jared Love meantime was stalking in fourth place on his Castrol Honda CBR1000RR, but wasn’t able to improve his position.
Race two saw Tony Rees go straight to the front with Love tucked in behind ahead of Stroud, Clee, Castrol Honda team-mate Dean Fulton and Brian Bernard. With Rees holding a three second lead, mid-race Stroud then Clee got the better of Love, pushing the Honda rider back to fourth. Suffering his third bad race meeting in a row, Isle of Man TT winner Bruce Anstey pulled out mid-race with severe suspension problems. Reflecting the hot pace, Rees further reduced the outright motorcycle lap record to 57.613 seconds.
The third and final 15 lap race included the New Zealand TT title, an important title for motorcycle racers. The only problem was, five riders wanted the same thing and the racing was no different. Rees grabbed the hotshot with Love second, but not for long as Love made a pass stick and took the lead on lap two. The Hamilton-based rider pulled a small gap on the following pack of Stroud, Rees, Clee, Bernard and Fulton, but on the fourth lap the race was stopped due to a fallen rider.
The second part got under way with Castrol Honda Fireblades one and two around turn one, Love ahead of Fulton. The pair enjoyed slipstreaming each other along the back straight, but with a different suspension set-up Fulton had to back off slightly to safely make it around the high speed kink. After a slow start Stroud began making his way to the front, after making important suspension changes following race two. Rees followed suit. Stroud got past Love on lap six with Rees, Clee and Fulton right behind, before Rees edged past in the closing stages to take second, ahead of Love in third. The action was so close that Clee accidentally broke the front brake lever of Fulton’s Castrol Honda mid-race, leaving Fulton room for only one finger on the remaining stub for heavy braking. Scary stuff at 300kmh!
With a second and a first, on aggregate Stroud won the NZTT title, with Love a fighting second and Rees close behind in third. A fitting finale to an action-packed Superbike season. “Hopefully Honda can see how well the season has turned out. Result-wise, I’m a racer - I’m never happy with the result unless I’m first. But to be fair, to come back on a new bike with a new set-up and team, and to achieve what they’ve done with myself and Dean – we’ve been on the front row in qualifying and all the way through the races to finish fourth and fifth in the championship, and with myself second in the NZ Grand Prix, second in the NZTT and winning the Robert Holden Memorial, Honda’s got to be happy. I’m pretty happy with the season too,” Love said at the conclusion of the final round.
Results:
Race 1; Andrew Stroud (Hamilton, Suzuki GSXR1000), Tony Rees (Whakatane, Yamaha R1), Ray Clee (Auckland, Suzuki GSXR1000), Jared Love (Hamilton, Honda CBR1000RR), Dean Fulton (Tauranga, Honda CBR1000RR), Bruce Anstey, UK/Wellington, Suzuki GSXR1000).
Race two; Rees, Stroud, Clee, Love, Fulton, Brian Bernard (Wanganui, Suzuki GSXR1000).
Race three (on aggregate); Stroud, Love, Rees, Clee, Fulton, Bernard.
Final (provisional) New Zealand Superbike championship points;
Rees, 226: Stroud, 208: Clee, 199: Fulton, 156: Love, 141: Anstey, 136.
(Results are provisional pending an MNZ hearing regarding an appeal by Stroud for allegedly passing under a yellow flag at Manfield).
Full results are @ MyLaps.Com:
