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June 8th & 9th are the action days at the Taupo Motor Racing Circuit for the 3rd round of the Suzuki Championship Road Race Series.
About 160 riders will take part in the 21 race programme on Sunday. Saturday is the coaching & practice day, while Sunday is full on racing from 10.30am to 4 pm. During the race-day midday lunch break is an “expression session” when anything can happen! Spectator admission is free.
The newly introduced class >> Super Motard is growing quickly from nowhere at the start of the series. It is different from other road racing classes, in that the bikes must be originally “dirt” or off-road bikes, which maybe modified by fitting “slick” or street tyres, larger brakes & a few other modifications to suit racing on the “hard top”.
More than 20 bikes will race in this class at the June 9 Taupo event, & the “dirt riding sliding” style with lots of “wheelies” are part of the action of Super Motard. Entries will include top road race riders Stephen Briggs from Auckland riding a KTM & Jason McEwen from Palmerston North riding a Honda XR650.
While at the Suzuki Championship Road Race Series they race on 100% seal, at dedicated Super Motard events, the circuits are both seal & dirt.
Another class that is doubling in size at every round is the “Rent-a-Racer” class, where riders may rent for the weekend, a new Suzuki SV650. All the bikes are identical as they are all prepared & maintained by ace racer Brian Bernard from Wanganui. Riders draw straws for which bike they race. And the fastest bikes in this class lap the Taupo Motor race Circuit in 42 seconds - very, very fast by any standards.
The Formula 3 Plus class is again very competitive this year, which is a mix of four cylinder 400cc & V-twins with 2 valve cylinder heads. Glen Tanner from Tauranga riding a Kawasaki ZXR400 holds a slim lead of 7 points over Hamilton’s Jared Love on a Yamaha FZR400, while 3rd placeman Carey Brier will be “sitting out” this round, giving Matt Meads from Hawera & his Ducati F1 750 a chance to move up from 4th place.
As usual the Streetstock 150 class is hot & competitive. 14 year old school boy Karl Morgan from Waitakere blitzed the field at Round 2, so now leads this class by 4 points from Stratford’s William Richards (both ride Suzuki RG150’s) with Wanganui’s Stew Graham (Kawasaki KR150) just 3 points behind. Race tactics in this class are important, as with a relatively low powered engine, every chance of a “tow” (slipstreaming) are well worth it.
“Big fellas” of the day will be the A grade class which will see renewals of the race long duels we’ve seen so far between the front runners – Dean Fulton from Tauranga, Dennis Charlett from Palmerston North – both of whom ride Brian Bernard Racing Suzuki GSX1000’s, & Ronnie Dewys from Whitianga who gets faster every race on his Aprilia RSV 1000 “Mille”.
Within this A Grade race are sub classes of “Production Superbike” & “Sports Production”. Naturally in the Production Superbike class the major places are Fulton, Charlett & Dewys, but the smaller bikes are headed by New Plymouth’s Terry Fitzgerald (Labrum Suzuki GSXR600), skydiving instructor James Cardow from Sandringham (Kawasaki ZX6R) & Westmere’s Greg Hassan riding a Yamaha R6.
More details, up to date results & media photos are available from –
Tim Gibbes
Phone (06) 353 0750 – mobile (025) 422 662,
or e-mail: Tim Gibbes:
Full race be race results & series points updates class by class appear on the website - MotorCycleSport
