It was a case of contrasting race conditions and contrasting fortunes at the second round of five in this season’s New Zealand Superbike Championships near Timaru at the weekend.

Canterbury’s John Ross arrived at Levels Raceway, on the outskirts of Timaru, with an equal share of the lead in the wildly-competitive 600cc Supersport class, but the Suzuki ace left the track late Sunday afternoon with a handy points advantage.

The 31-year-old Christchurch landscaper took his Repsol Suzuki GSX-R600 to finish seventh in a wet first race at Levels and was then fifth in a tight ‘freight-train’ of bikes to pass the chequered flag in the second 15-lap outing.

“In that second race, I saw two riders ahead of me clip one another. I was lucky to avoid them and not crash myself. I had to stand the bike up. I was off the track and going ridiculously fast on the grass for a while,” said Ross.

Though he didn’t win the day, Ross had probably done enough anyway to take the series lead in the class after his nearest rival for the crown, Aucklander Jaden Hassan (Homebuyers Reports Yamaha R6), suffered from a crash during Saturday’s qualifying and, in considerable pain, was unable to complete the race day on Sunday, withdrawing before the start of the second race.

“We are off to round three at Teretonga (Invercargill) next weekend and that’s my favourite track,” said Ross. “I’ll just have to see if I can win a couple of race down there,” he smiled.

So, even with his modest 7-5 results at Levels, round one co-winner Ross now finds himself alone at the top of the standings after round two, five points clear of the new joint No.2 riders, Christchurch’s Jake Lewis (Bob McCleary Yamaha R6) and Katikati’s Rhys Holmes (Tuhoe Racing Yamaha R6).

It was Holmes who won the day, finishing runner-up – behind Christchurch’s Seth Devereux (Spectro Oils BikesportNZ.com Kawasaki ZX6R) – in race one and then gratefully accepted the win in the second race when two riders ahead of him collided on the final lap.

While Holmes has moved up from fifth to second-equal in the series standings, Hassan has slipped back to fourth overall and Devereux – who managed sixth in the incident-packed race two, good for overall runner-up on the day – has rocketed from 13th after round one to be now ranked fifth overall.

Two of the day’s outstanding riders, Christchurch man Alastair Hoogenboezem (Triple R Suzuki) and Invercargill’s Jeremy Holmes (Castrol Southland Honda), were the two victims of the last-lap crash in race two and therefore find themselves undeservedly down the standings, level on points in sixth equal position.

Meanwhile, the premier superbikes class was similarly exciting with Suzuki men Robbie Bugden and Craig Shirriffs sharing the race glory.

Defending superbike champion Bugden, of Australia, won the first race and had looked to be on track to make it another set of back-to-back wins, just as he had at round one at Ruapuna Raceway a week earlier.

But Feilding’s Shirriffs had other ideas and pounced to snatch the win away within sight of the flag.

“I didn’t think I could win that but saw my chance and was able to execute the plan I’d formed in race one,” said an elated Shirriffs afterwards.

“It is so very important to get points like these at this early stage of the season.

“Robbie (Bugden) is a true professional and it is so good for us Kiwis to be able to race against him.”

Bugden (Triple R GSX-R1000) continues to lead the championships standings, still 10 points clear of second-ranked Shirriffs (Suzuki NZ GSX-R1000), with a third Suzuki star, Christchurch’s Dennis Charlett (Underground Brown GSX-R1000) finishing third and fourth at Levels. Charlett remains third overall in the series standings.

After Teretonga next weekend, the series takes a short break before resuming at Hampton Downs, near Meremere, on March 16-17, and it finally wraps up at Taupo Motorsport Park on March 23-24.

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

Results from round two of the NZ Superbike Championships at Levels Raceway:

Superbikes:

Race one: Robbie Bugden (Australia) Suzuki 1; Craig Shirriffs (Feilding) Suzuki 2; Dennis Charlett (Christchurch) Suzuki 3; Sloan Frost (Wellington) BMW 4; Ryan Hampton (Christchurch) Honda 5; James Smith (Christchurch) Honda 6.

Race two: Shirriffs 1; Bugden 2; Nick Cole (Hamilton) Kawasaki 3; Charlett 4; Smith 5; Frost 6.

Championship points: Bugden 95, Shirriffs 85, Charlett 61, Cole 49, Fitzgerald 42, Smith 37.

600cc Supersport:

Race one: Seth Devereux (Christchurch) Kawasaki 1; Rhys Holmes (Katikati) Yamaha 2; Jeremy Holmes (Invercargill) Honda 3; Alastair Hoogenboezem (Christchurch) Suzuki 4; Jake Lewis (Christchurch) Yamaha 5.

Race two: R Holmes 1; Jake Lewis (Christchurch) Yamaha 2; Adam Chambers (Clive) Honda 3; Daniel Ornsby (Christchurch) Yamaha 4; John Ross (Christchurch) Suzuki 5.

Points: Ross 65, Lewis and R Holmes both 60, Jaden Hassan (Auckland, Yamaha) 49, Devereux 43.

Superlites:

Race one: Richard Newbery (Balclutha) Kawasaki 450, 1; Glen Orwin (Auckland) Yamaha 450, 2; Glen Agate (Oamaru) Kawasaki ZXR400, 3. Race two: Newbery 1; Gavin Veltmeyer (Auckland) Suzuki SV650, 2; Agate 3. Race three: Newbery 1; Orwin 2; Veltmeyer 3.

Points: Newbery 137.5, Veltmeyer 81.5, Orwin 78.5.

Pro Twins:

Race one: Nathanael Diprose (Auckland) Suzuki SV650, 1; Hamish Murphy (Wellington Suzuki SV650, 2; Nick Southerwood (Auckland) Suzuki SV650, 3. Race two: Murphy 1; Dean Bentley (Lower Hutt) Suzuki SV650, 2; Nathanael Diprose (Auckland) Suzuki SV650, 3. Race three: Murphy 1; Diprose 2; Bentley 3.

Points: Murphy 140, Diprose 119, Southerwood 92.

125 GP:

Race one: Troy Guenther (Australia) Honda 1; Scout Fletcher (Christchurch) Honda 2; Scott Kinder (Geraldine) Honda 3. Race two: Guenther 1; Fletcher 2; Tyler Lincoln (Havelock North) Honda 3. Race three: Guenther 1; Fletcher 2; Aaron Hassan (Auckland) Honda 3.

Points: Guenther 141, Fletcher 96, Kinder 90.

250 Production:

Race one: Luke Burgess (Australia) 1; Grant Ramage (Timaru) 2; Richard Willetts 3. All rode Kawasaki Ninjas. Race two: Burgess 1; Bailie Perriton (Ashburton) Kawasaki 2; Ramage 3. Race three: Burgess 1; Ramage 2; Sarah Elliot (Otaki) Kawasaki 3.

Points: Burgess 150, Ramage 101, Willetts 78.

Sidecars:

Race one: Peter Goodwin/Darren Prentice (Bay of Islands) Windle 1000, 1; Grant Waters (Timaru)/Matthew Gibbs (Christchurch) Windle 1000, 2; Graeme Harris/Colin Grace (both Christchurch) Yamaha 1000, 3. Race two: Spike Taylor (Masterton)/Astrid Hartnell (Wanganui) LCR 1; Waters/Gibbs 2; Harris/Grace 3. Race three: Waters/Gibbs 1; Taylor/Hartnell 2; Goodwin/Prentice 3.

Points: Taylor/Hartnell 133, Waters/Gibbs 113, Goodwin/Prentice 101.