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Photo - Jared Love, at Manfield on the weekend, courtesy Terry Stevenson:
JaredLove.com: - Press Release:
27/2/05 The penultimate round of the Motorcycle Trader and News NZ Road Race Championship took place at Manfield over the weekend, with the Superbike class providing the expected entertainment for the crowd. With fresh bumps on a deteriorating surface, Manfield is not the great circuit it once was, leaving all the top Superbike riders with suspension problems to iron out. Jared Love had a steady day at the office on his Castrol Honda CBR1000RR, recording a fourth (on corrected finish order) and two fifth placings.
In race one Love suffered a slow start and was sixth into the first corner. With Brian Bernard on his tail most of the race, Love overtook Anstey on the final lap. Tony Rees (Yamaha R1) got the holeshot with Castrol Honda team-mate Dean Fulton holding second, until Andrews Stroud (GSX-R1000) and later Ray Clee passed a hard charging Fulton, who also rode well on the day. With two corners remaining, Stroud passed Rees under a yellow flag and went on to win the race, but was later disqualified from the results in accordance with Motorcycling New Zealand rules. (Stroud has appealed the ruling, claiming to have completed the pass before the yellow flag. If successful he will lead the championship.)
In race two Love was first into turn one but an impressive Rees came out ahead, with Fulton right on Love’s tail. Stroud started down in sixth but found the going hard as he worked his way past Love for second, particularly mid-race when Love out braked Stroud going into the fast ‘sweeper’ corner, only for Stroud to let the brakes off and retake Love - still entering the turn. Love then dived underneath the Suzuki rider right on the apex to come out ahead. Three passes in one corner!
The second half of both race two and three ended as titanic Stroud/Rees battles, with Stroud making the most of his slightly superior top-end performance advantage and demon-like late braking to win each race, just ahead of Rees.
Both races provided great challenges to secure the final podium position, with Fulton earning third position in race two, and Ray Clee (GSXR1000) in race three, on probably the fastest bike on the track. Love took the holeshot again in the final Superbike race but succumbed to outstanding riders on slightly faster machinery - performing at their very best. More than once Love and Fulton were side by side on their Castrol Honda Fireblades racing each other.
Suzuki GSX-R1000 rider Bruce Anstey started the day with a 12 point lead, but pulled out of races two and three after struggling to find grip on the bumpy surface, because of difficult suspension problems Love said. “It was a good weekend, I started great in qualifying. Result wise, we didn’t win - that’s what we came here to do, but we’re slowly coming up and we are definitely more competitive now. Suspension wise, it was probably the best learning weekend of my life. I came up with some primo suspension set-ups which I’ve had problems with all my life. The Honda is now ten times more competitive and it’s a good package at the moment.” “The others still have a bit more power but they still have to lay their power a bit better off the corners, which is a huge thing around here.”
Superbike points; Rees, 164: Clee, 152: Stroud, 140: Anstey, 126: Fulton, 123: Love, 94.
Full Results are at MyLaps.Com:
2005 New Zealand Road Race schedule;
March 5-6, Pukekohe (includes TT titles).
