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Jason McEwen\'s triumph in winning the New Zealand Tourist Trophy motorcycle race at Pukekohe today more than made up for his despondency at being forced out of his previous race.
\"That makes it all worthwhile,\" the Palmerston North rider smiled after a flat-out race on his Kawasaki ZX-9R - narrowly ahead of two pursuers - earned him victory in the feature race at the fourth round of the Motorcycle Trader national championships.
Earlier he had been feeling down when he had to pull out of the Open Sports Production Tourist Trophy (TT) race because his other Kawasaki was suffering a variety of problems - and that was after it had been completely rebuilt following a heavy crash yesterday.
But McEwen had no such problems in the TT, which also counted as the Geoff Perry Memorial race. He leapt into the lead and held it throughout in spite of strenuous efforts by Dean Fulton of Mt Maunganui and Jared Love of Hamilton, riding a Kawasaki ZX-7RR and Suzuki GSX-R750 respectively.
Fulton lost ground when his bike spluttered for a few moments, but regained second with a forceful move that made Love go onto the grass at the hairpin. McEwen also won the first Formula One race and now trails Fulton by nine points, with the series concluding next weekend at Manfeild.
Tony Rees of Kawerau took both the Open Sports Production races, including the TT, by clear margins from Aucklander Paul Gee, both riding Yamaha R1s. As the result of McEwen\'s problems, Rees has now opened a 33-point lead in the championship.
Rees also has a big lead with his Yamaha R6 in the 600cc Sports Production class, although Auckland\'s Ray Clee was back to his top form and won both races on his Honda CBR600.
Daniel McLachlan of Lower Hutt brought his Kawasaki ZX-6R home first in the Formula Two TT but victory was given to Taranaki Honda rider Shaun Harris because McLachlan had passed him under a yellow flag. McLachlan leads Harris by 35 points.
Round 4 results available on site.
