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Round two of the Motorcycle Trader & News road race championship at Ruapuna on Sunday, was not a good day for Kawerau’s Tony Rees.
Crashing during the scrub-in session for sports production bikes, Rees then had to deal with a bracket holding the coil on his Yamaha R1, snapping while he was leading the first Superbike race.
“When the bracket broke, a fuse blew and the bike just stopped” said Rees after the race.
However the race only lasted four laps before being red flagged after reigning champion Dean Fulton (Tauranga) crashed heavily. This enabled Rees to join the restart from the back of the grid and weave his Yamaha through the field to take the win from Andrew Stroud on a Suzuki.
But when the points from the two parts of the interrupted race were added together, Shaun Harris winner of the first part of the race, was the overall winner.
In the second Superbike race, Shaun Harris got a rocket start on his Suzuki and although they battled for the whole of the nine laps, Rees could not find a way through and had to settle for second, finishing the day 9 points behind Harris.
His day on his production Yamaha R1 was no better, coming home third behind Andrew Stroud (Christchurch) and Brian Bernard Wanganui) on their Suzuki in both Open Sports Production races, finishing the day 8 points behind Stroud.
Rees was philosophical about his lack of success; “It hasn’t been a good day, but you get that.”
However he was quick to point out, “We are only half way through the points series.”
