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From - Ray Whitham:
Tune into `Motor Sport Half Hour`
FINALS DAY AT MANFEILD
Record-breaking New Zealand Superbike champion Andrew Stroud will be among the starters when road racing’s longest championship season in many years reaches its anti-climatic close this coming weekend at Manfeild.
Stroud, now based in Hamilton, became the first rider to win three successive championships in his own right (Rodger Freeth shared his third successive win in 1983/84 with Robert Holden) on the way to winning a record sixth premiere championship.
With the 2003/04 title now safely in the bag after a second and first at Taupo last weekend he is going to Manfeild as a thank you to his sponsors, and to enjoy himself, he added with a smile in a post-race interview at Taupo.
New 600 Sports Production champion Shaun Harris will however not be riding in the final round. Still carrying painful injuries from a practise crash at the John Britten Memorial, Harris did just enough to secure the points he needed and with them the title at Taupo and he is now taking a well-earned rest before preparing for his Isle of Man campaign.
The combined car/bike Manfeild final round however will not be without its “best of the rest” battles. Brian Bernard has had one of his best seasons ever but he has a tough task to retain the #2 plate. He is 28 points behind Ray Clee who while he didn’t cut it on an unfamiliar Taupo circuit did set the fastest lap and has led most of the championship races most of the time. Both will still have Stroud to deal with, even if he is just having fun.
If former Superbike champion Dean Fulton (Tauranga) can get the Honda RC45 sorted he will be in the mix on finals day. His was an inspired ride at Taupo and Fulton will be keen to repeat the dose at Manfeild.
Deposed 600 Sports Production champion Craig Shirriffs enjoys a 20 point breathing space over team-mate Dennis Charlett. Charlett won both heats at Taupo and could do so again at Manfeild. Shirriffs won’t be easy to bowl on his home track but two second places behind Charlett will leave him in second place overall to Harris in the Blue Wing Honda sponsored class.
Yamaha R6-mounted Craig Gollop (Upper Hutt) has been one of the big improvers during the season, on the streets as well as in the championship. His third place in Race Two at Taupo was well-earned as was Hayden Fitzgerald’s (New Plymouth) third in the first race. Along with Derek McAdam (Wellington) on what is now a well-sorted Honda CBR600RR, these three are all now showing consistently good form and they will be amongst the leaders.
Championship winner Shaun Harris’s absence from the field didn’t detract from the quality of racing at Taupo. It won’t effect the racing at Manfeild either.
Practise and qualifying is set down for Saturday, with both races in each class being run on the Sunday.
Ray Whitham
