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In brilliant sunshine yesterday at Pukekohe, Kawerau’s Tony Rees clinched the Superbike championship after a hard fought battle with Christchurch’s Andrew Stroud and New Plymouth’s Shaun Harris.
Rees was elated to bring his Yamaha R1 home ahead of the more powerful Suzukis.
“I’m rapt, it is the one I wanted, I have finished second five times and third twice before. We will definitely celebrate tonight!” Rees said after his win.
This championship was no cake walk, Rees won it the hard way, he came into this last round with a 1.5 points lead over Stroud and 7 points in front of Harris, who had crashed at round three.
Race one saw, Rees take the lead from the start and although the Suzukis of Harris and Auckland’s Ray Clee had more power down the back straight, Rees made up for it, riding that much harder through the tighter parts of the circuit, to take the win.
Rees main challenge, which was expected to come from Stroud, evaporated when his fairing broke loose soon after the start and he was only able to score at seventh.
Race two, produced some of the best racing seen this season. Rees and Harris battled for the lead for the first half of the race, they were then joined by Stroud and the race finished with Harris taking the win, with Stroud second and Rees third, exactly where he needed to be to clinch the title.
Stroud gained some consolation by taking the Open Sport Production championship, a title Rees has held since its inception five years ago. Yesterday saw Clee take two wins, Stroud two seconds and Rees two thirds.
Giving Rees second overall on his Yamaha.
