Phew, what a season of road-racing we have just experienced in New Zealand this summer – highs and lows, celebrations and commiserations, sweet champagne and bitter coffee.
There were also a few mechanical gremlins, rider errors, flat tyres, tip-offs and high-sides, wheelies and power slides, late braking and quick throttle twisting, zigging and zagging, hugs and smiles, you name it, the nationals had it.
Today we thought we’d take a small pictorial look back at the weekend just gone, the sixth and final round of the 2022-23 New Zealand Superbike Championships at the Taupo International Motorsport Park.
By the way, our 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).
Invercargill’s Cormac Buchanan, winner this year of both the Supersport 600 class and the Supersport 300 class as well. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
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
Check back here on www.BikesportNZ.com tomorrow as we bring you more words and photos from the weekend.
© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
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Upper Hutt’s Keiran Mair, on his way to finishing fourth overall in the Supersport 150 class this season. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Rolleston’s Lucas Guthrie, who finished third overall in the Supersport 150 class this season. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
A bunch of the likely lads of the Supersport 150 class, (from left) Haydn Fordyce, Nixon Frost and Keiran Mair chat together at Taupo on Sunday. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Former All Black Josh Kronfeld, frontman for TV sports show “The Crowd Goes Wild” came to Taupo on Sunday to conduct a few interviews with the riders. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Whanganui’s Luca Durning, something of a revelation in the Supersport 600 class this season. It was just a handful of years ago that he was starting out in the Suzuki GIXXER 150 Cup class and now he’s running with the leaders on a 600cc bike. He finished sixth overall for 2022-23. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com