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Scott Buckley will be riding the motorbike built by his father when the New Zealand road-racing championships open at Teretonga, Invercargill, this weekend.
The experienced Aucklander\'s father Bill has put millions of dollars into the BSL 500 Grand Prix project, and after overcoming early teething problems the team believes the bike now has the speed and reliability to win races in the Motorcycle Trader championship series.
The pure racing bike, powered by a three-cylinder, two-stroke engine of 500cc, is up against superbike-style modified road bikes with four-stroke engines of up to 1000cc.
In testing at Pukekohe the BSL (Buckley Systems Ltd) racer has hit speeds of around 280kmh, and the long main straight at Teretonga could give Buckley the chance to reach similar speeds there. If the bike goes well this summer the team hopes to have another go at racing in the world 500cc championship.
BSL\'s opposition will be led by Kawerau racer Tony Rees, who has won many titles in his long career but never the superbike championship. This season he should have the machinery to do the job in the shape of a Yamaha R1, a 1000cc road bike modified to Australian Formula Xtreme specifications.
Shaun Harris from New Plymouth will have a brand-new Suzuki GSX-R1000. Harris was greatly impressed with the powerful, lightweight bike when he raced it in two street meetings earlier this season.
Defending champion Dean Fulton of Mt Maunganui will again run his championship winning Kawasaki ZX-7RR, a genuine 750cc superbike that has been uprated for the new season.
Many of the big-bike riders will clash again, on different bikes, in the Open Sports Production races. Other Championship classes are Formula Two, Formula Three, 600cc Sports Production and Sidecars, with two points races for each class on Sunday.
Round two of the series is at Ruapuna, Christchurch, the following weekend. The four-round championships conclude in April with meetings at Pukekohe and Manfeild.
