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It started in early December and wrapped up with the sixth and final round at Taupo last weekend and, at every twist and turn, the 2022-23 New Zealand Superbike Championships delivered.

Actually, the series did get off to an inauspicious start … and probably the less said about that the better … suffice to say that round one at the Taupo International Motorsport Park on December 3-4 never actually got going and it was abandoned before the first race, all due to track surface problems.

Crumbling tarmac aside, though, it had been a mostly joyous occasion, despite the circumstances and no-racing outcome, with the motorcycling community just happy to be back and mixing and mingling once again after two years of inaction brought about by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Even more importantly for the race-hungry 2022-23 season campaigners, the competition would this time be rolling two major series into one.

The first two rounds of the 2022 Suzuki International Series were also this season being recognised for the first time as the opening two rounds of a new, revamped and revitalised, three-phase, six-round New Zealand Superbike Nationals.

So, disappointed but undeterred after the shock of the series’ first of two planned visits to Taupo being cancelled, all parties packed up and moved on to try it all again at the venue for round two – Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon in Feilding – the following weekend, on December 10-11.

This time, thankfully, it all went off without a hitch.

The racing at Manfeild was fierce and of the highest calibre, with several individuals outstanding, particularly runaway Formula One/Superbike class winner Mitch Rees (Whakatane, Honda); F2/Supersport 600 class winner Ashton Hughes (Bulls, Triumph) and unlucky runner-up rider Rogan Chandler (Upper Hutt, Suzuki, who won two of the three races but suffered mechanical gremlins in the other); unbeaten F3/Pro Twins class rider Karl Hooper (Taupo, Honda); Supersport 300 triple race winner Cormac Buchanan (Invercargill, Yamaha); Silverdale’s Tyler King (Supersport 150, Yamaha); Upper Hutt’s Kieran Mair (Gixxer 150, Suzuki); Auckland’s Adam Unsworth and Bryce Rose (F1 sidecars, Aprilia) and Whanganui’s Bryan Stent and Dan Franzen (F2 sidecars, Suzuki).

Thankfully also, the racing on Whanganui’s famous Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day – the third and final round of the Suzuki International Series but not part of the nationals – delivered everything that was expected and asked for.

In addition to wrapping up the 2022 Suzuki International Series, the Whanganui spectacular also included the famous stand-alone Robert Holden Memorial feature race, the winner receiving a trophy that is perhaps among the most coveted of prizes in the road-racing world.

The Monday action in Whanganui also included races for the New Zealand TT titles for the first time, adding further significance to the jam-packed Boxing Day programme.

“It just went to show that the people had been missing a great entertainment package like this,” enthused Suzuki International Series organiser Allan ‘Flea’ Willacy afterwards.

“This event has been going for so many years and I’m so proud that everybody came to the party to put this event on after the setbacks we’ve had. Everybody played their part and everything ran smoothly.”

To cut to the chase, Whakatane’s national superbike champion Mitch Rees carried on the unbeaten run he started at the series’ opener at Manfeild, winning both Formula One/Superbikes races and also clinching the Robert Holden Memorial trophy at Whanganui.

He had also won the series in this class when the competition last ran in December 2020, although it was his younger brother Damon Rees who secured the Robert Holden Memorial trophy on that occasion.

Just two weeks later it was the turn for the South Island to host the nationals action, with round three of the New Zealand Superbike Championships at Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park (Ruapuna) on January 7-8 and round four at Invercargill’s Teretonga Park Raceway circuit on January 14-15.

Unfortunately, the series soon lost several of its big-hitters, with the previous  season’s Supersport 600 champion and now superbike class frontrunner Dale Finch, from Christchurch, forced to drop out with injury, along with Supersport 600 class leader Ashton Hughes, from Bulls, also side-lined due to injury.

It was a battle of attrition in the 600cc class, with not only Hughes sent to the side-lines, but Napier’s SJ Cavell, Taupo’s Karl Hooper and Tirau’s Dillon Telford suffering mishaps at Teretonga too.

There were also a couple of other non-finishers recorded in the glamour 1000ccc Superbikes class at Teretonga, with Taupo’s Scott Moir and Taupiri’s Zak Fuller dropping off the radar at different stages during the weekend.

But, with two months for riders to regather themselves, repair bikes, work on their techniques or simply build up their strength, the racing was always going to be fierce, and critical too, at round five of the New Zealand Superbike Championships at Hampton Downs (on March 4-5), sharing the billing that weekend with the massive MotoFest extravaganza.

Southlander Cormac Buchanan and Bay of Plenty man Mitch Rees were strong at Hampton Downs and able to celebrate successful 2022-23 nationals campaigns with a round to spare, although the series would still go down to the wire in the other bike divisions.

Buchanan successfully completed his Supersport 300 class title defence at Hampton Downs and Rees did likewise when he also made it two consecutive national 1000cc superbike title wins, both men able to crack open the champagne a week early.

Despite this, neither rider was inclined to back off and take things easy at Taupo’s finale.

Rees won two of his three superbike class races at Taupo, forced to accept the runner-up spot, behind his Christchurch-based arch-rival and Hoogenboezem in the final race of the weekend, and he ended the series a massive 99 points clear of Hoogenboezem, with Auckland’s Dave Sharp completing the Superbikes podium for 2022-23.

Buchanan, meanwhile, still had a job to do.

He arrived at Taupo just one point behind Supersport 600 class leader Jake Lewis, of Rangiora, and knew that a solid performance might see him clinch that title as well.

And that’s exactly what happened, with Buchanan finishing with a 1-3-1 score-card in the 600cc class at Taupo, giving him the title by five points from Lewis, with Upper Hutt’s Rogan Chandler claiming the third podium spot for the season.

Buchanan had not needed to continue racing in the Supersport 300 class after wrapping up that title a week earlier, but he did anyway and it nearly cost him dearly, especially considering that a plane was warming up at Auckland airport on Sunday night, ready to fly him to Europe and his international racing commitments.

Buchanan crashed out of the first two of three 300cc races at Taupo and he was fortunate that these didn’t result in serious injury (pictured above, main photo).

Other title winners this season were Whitby’s Dave Fellows (Pro Twins, post-2020 bikes); Waiuku’s Bob Irving (Pro Twins, pre-2020 bikes); Christchurch’s Hunter Charlett (Supersport 150); Panmure’s Adam Unsworth with Whanganui’s Bryce Rose (F1 Sidecars) and Albany’s Mark Halls with Geoff Davies sharing first equal in the F2 Sidecars class with all-female Whanganui/Hamilton crew Tracey Bryan and Jo Mickleson.

Because the sidecars class was not run at either of the South Island rounds of the series this season, the third and final sidecar race at Taupo became doubly significant for the three-wheeled brigade, with that race designated as their Grand Prix trophy race for the season.

Unsworth and Rose won the GP title for the F1 class on Sunday and Bryan and Mickleson won the corresponding trophy in the F2 class.

Anyway, following on from yesterday’s offerings on BikesportNZ.com, we thought we’d display another small pictorial from the weekend just gone, the sixth and final round of the 2022-23 New Zealand Superbike Championships and the series’ second visit to the Taupo International Motorsport Park.

By the way, our eventual championship title winners this season were:

Superbikes: 1. Whakatane’s Mitch Rees (Honda); 2. Christchurch’s Alastair Hoogenboezem (Yamaha); 3. Auckland’s Dave Sharp (Kawasaki).

Supersport 600: 1. Invercargill’s Cormac Buchanan (Yamaha); 2. Rangiora’s Jake Lewis (Yamaha); 3. Upper Hutt’s Rogan Chandler (Suzuki).

Pro Twins, post-2020 bikes: 1. Whitby’s Dave Fellows (Aprilia); 2. Otaki’s Bruce Telford (Aprilia); 3. Mahana’s Jonny Lewis (Aprilia).

Pro Twins, pre-2020 bikes: 1. Waiuku’s Bob Irving (CF Moto); 2. Whangamata’s Jarad Horn (Suzuki); 3. Auckland’s Vaughan Maine (Suzuki).

Supersport 300: 1. Invercargill’s Cormac Buchanan (Yamaha); 2. Hamilton’s Jesse Stroud (Yamaha); 3. Christchurch’s Dennis Charlett (Yamaha).

Supersport 150: 1. Christchurch’s Hunter Charlett (Yamaha); 2. Wellington’s Nixon Frost (Yamaha); 3. Rolleston’s Lucas Guthrie (Yamaha).

F1 Sidecars: 1. Panmure’s Adam Unsworth with Whanganui’s Bryce Rose (LCR Aprilia); 2. Tokomaru’s Barry Smith with Auckland’s Stu Dawe (LCR); 3. Auckland’s Chris Lawrence with Richard Lawrence (Suzuki).

F2 Sidecars: 1 equal. Albany’s Mark Halls with Geoff Davies (Kawasaki) and Whanganui’s Tracey Bryan with Hamilton’s Jo Mickleson (LCR); 3. Whanganui’s Peter Dowman with Lucy Dowman or Michael Dowman (Windle).

Full championship standings for the 2022-23 season can be found HERE

© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ

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