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MARCH 13, 2007: There’s nothing quite as sweet as winning your first national title.
Just ask Pukekohe’s Sam Smith, the just-turned 19-year-old simply bubbling with joy after wrapping up the 600cc sports production title at the fifth and final round of the New Zealand Motorcycle Road-race Championships at Pukekohe on Sunday.
With New Zealand’s prestigious trophy for Most Promising Road-race Newcomer safely tucked away following February’s ritzy awards night in Manukau, Yamaha’s Smith went one better on Sunday when he collected his first national road-racing title at the series finale on his home circuit.
“I’m absolutely over the moon,” he beamed on Sunday afternoon and plans to make the prestigious title the first of many.
But the tyres on his Tecnam Yamaha YZFR6 will barely have time to cool before he turns to the next phase of his 2007 motorcycle racing season, a stint across the Tasman.
It may be too late for him to expect he'll have an honest crack at the Australian motorcycle crown because he will have missed the opening round -- there was a clash of dates with one of his New Zealand commitments -- but that won't stop the 19-year-old from crashing the Aussie party with his Tecnam Yamaha YZFR6.
His first Australian race will be at Winton, north of Melbourne, round two of the Australian series next weekend (March 18).
Smith’s warm-up for Australia could not have been much better at the weekend, the talented teenager winning both races from Australian Yamaha ace Scott Charlton.
“I don’t know how many times we swapped the lead. It was pretty exciting stuff,” said Smith, whose view from the seat of his bike was surely more savage and pulsating than that had by anyone among the crowd in the Pukekohe grandstand.
But last weekend’s racing was probably a foregone conclusion. Smith comfortably led the popular and high-profile 600cc sports production class and, barring major disaster, there was possibly nothing and no-one that could stop him advancing to the top of the podium on Sunday afternoon.
Smith started the day at Pukekohe with a 32-point lead over Charlton and, despite being locked in a handlebar-to-handlebar tussle with Charlton on Sunday, Smith finished the day unbeaten and took the title at a canter.
Life moves swiftly on for Smith, who is now fully focussed on what he might achieve in Australia this season.
“After racing there (in Australia) last season, I now have the advantage of being familiar with the tracks,” he said. “It was just a learning year for me last year,” he said, explaining his 10th placing overall. “I’m a lot quicker now.”
