Few could match Wellington’s Sloan Frost at the 22nd annual Battle of the Streets race meeting on the public streets of Paeroa on Sunday, the BMW rider winning each of his three races on the iconic hacksaw-shaped public street circuit.

Frost won both Formula Paeroa (F1) races ahead of Whakatane’s Tony Rees (Castrol Honda CBR1000RR) and also underlined his superiority on the day by dominating the one-off King of the Streets feature race, again finishing ahead of Rees, with Taranaki’s Hayden Fitzgerald (BikesportNZ.com Suzuki GSX-R1000) taking third spot.

This gave Frost his first outright Paeroa win, a huge reason to celebrate in a career that has been impressively plotting a steady and steep upward trajectory in recent times.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Frost took the same BMW S1000RR to also dominate both Bears (non-Japanese bike) races at Paeroa as well.

“I finished second overall in the Suzuki Tri Series (which wound up on the streets of Wanganui on Boxing Day) … so it’s nice to finally win something,” said Frost, a 31-year-old refrigeration engineer.

Meanwhile, as many motorcycle racers hang up their boots and helmet when they reach their mid 40s, multi-time former national superbike champion Rees showed at Paeroa that, even at age 45, he was still a force to be reckoned with.

The Whakatane BikesportNZ.com Honda star certainly demonstrated that he still has plenty of lessons to teach.

Yes, Rees did finish behind Frost in each outing, but he was ahead of the rest of New Zealand’s cream of the crop, Rees also underlining his ability by setting the fastest lap time in each of his three outings.

“It was perhaps the most exciting time I’ve had racing on the streets of Paeroa, and I’ve been around here a few times over the years,” said Rees.

“Every race I was the fastest rider out there. I just needed to get better starts. It was always a struggle to get past other riders.

“Sloan (Frost) and I had a nice dice for the lead, especially in that last race and I guess I was riding too ‘nice’. I could have shoved any of those other riders off the track if I wanted to ride dirty. I must be getting soft in my old age,” he laughed.

“The Honda was great. We just pulled it out of the van after my last ride and didn’t even do anything with the suspension to change it for the tight street circuit. Plus I used the same set of tyres for the whole weekend.

“Perhaps I’ve still got some lessons to teach these young guys.”

Castrol Honda Team manager Peter Finlay, of Auckland, was impressed by Rees’ performance.

“Honda has a really strong history at Paeroa and today was another satisfying chapter,” he said.

“Tony (Rees) has not raced the recent South Island rounds of the superbike nationals and so it was tough for him today to come up against the riders who have been racing a lot lately.

“This is a fantastic today for him and he’s looking forward to contesting the two North Island rounds of the superbike nationals.”

The New Zealand Superbike Championships are to resume shortly with round four at Hampton Downs on March 17, with the fifth and final round set for Taupo on March 24.

Rees will take his Castrol Honda CBR1000RR into battle at both events and, if his performance at Paeroa on Sunday is any indicator, he’ll be a definite threat to the championship leaders, a challenge to riders such as Frost and Fitzgerald, as well as national championship leaders Robbie Bugden (Suzuki GSX-R1000) and Craig Shirriffs (Suzuki GSX-R1000).

While Frost was dominating the Formula One and Bears racing at Paeroa, Auckland’s Toby Summers (R and R Powersports Yamaha) was also battling to score double the glory with outstanding performances in both the Formula Two and Supermotards classes.

The 40-year-old Summers finished first equal in both bike categories.

It probably came as no surprise that the former supermotard champion took his 2011-model Yamaha YZ450F to win the day’s first of two supermotard races, finishing ahead of Taupo’s Scotty Moir (Aprilia SXV550), but Summers had to settle for runner-up spot in the next supermotard race, behind Moir, and this meant the two men shared first spot overall for the day.

It was a similar scenario for Summers in the formula two class, when he took his Summers Plumbers-sponsored Yamaha R6 to share 1-2 finishes with Wanganui rival Ashley Payne (Suzuki GSX-R600).

“My Yamaha R6 is going really well now as a supersport-specification bike, thanks to work on the bike from R and R Powersports. I took pole position in qualifying and, even though it’s the first time riding the bike in supersport mode, I took a race win. I’m pretty pleased about that.

“Both bikes are full of genuine stock parts and they are bikes you could take straight off the showroom floor … and you could win on them right out of the box. With R and R Powersports giving them a tune-up, they were actually too fast for this track. The bikes were lighting up out of the corners and, because street racing like this is all ‘point-and-shoot’ on short sections, it was hard to keep them under control,” said Summers.

For 26-year-old Payne, it was also a good step up after having finished runner-up in the F2 class at Paeroa last season.

“I borrowed Jayden Carrick’s bike and that had a bit more power than my own bike. It certainly made a difference.

“It’s tough racing on the streets. I had a few scary moments, going into corners too hot and nearly ending up in the hay bales.”

Other class winners were Palmerston North’s Glen Williams (Suzuki, Formula Three/Superlites); Napier’s Warren Marsh (Manx Norton, seniors classics); Taupo’s Paul Jelaca (Bultaco, junior classics); Whangarei’s Duncan Coutts (Kawasaki, pre-89 post classics); Ngaruawahia’s Steve Bridge (Ducati, pre-82 post classics); Auckland pair Adam Unsworth and Stu Dawe (Windle Honda, sidecars) and Te Puke pair John Blaymires and Charles Bilby (Moto Guzzi Applecross, post classic sidecars).

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

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