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It seems Suzuki owns the New Zealand roads.
Suzuki was twice called to the podium at the fourth annual Motorcycling New Zealand Awards Night, at the in TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre in Manukau, South Auckland, on Saturday night.
It’s official, Suzuki has both the No.1 road bike and the No.1 road bike rider.
The first award for Suzuki was for many-times National Road Race Champion Andrew Stroud to collect the Rider of the Year (road) award. Suzuki star Stroud is the reigning National Superbike Champion and is currently running second in this year’s series after three of six rounds.
He’s locked in a tense three-way battle with fellow Suzuki riders Robbie Bugden and Craig Shirriffs.
Saturday night’s black-tie function attracted the cream of New Zealand’s motorcycling community with Suzuki Motorcycle Sales Manager Simon Meade one of the night’s guest speakers and also there to present the award to Stroud.
“Suzuki has always been right behind me,” Stroud acknowledged. “I need to thank my wife, Karen, too because I’m always running off to race meetings and leaving her to look after our six children.”
Then, as if Stroud’s remarkable achievements on his Suzuki weren’t enough, Meade was asked to return to the spot-lit stage to accept the award for one of the bikes produced by his company.
Suzuki’s GSX R750 was declared the Road Bike of the Year for 2006 because “it is a bike that offers nearly 1000cc levels performance in a 600cc size package”.
Suzuki motorcycles topped all the main categories at the New Zealand Motorcycle Road-Race Championships last season with Stroud leading a Suzuki 1-2-3-4 in Superbikes, Shirriffs leading a Suzuki 1-2 in the 600 sports production class and Taranaki’s Terry Fitzgerald easily winning the Formula Three class.
