A MIXED BAG OF RESULTS

It was a case of the good, the bad and the ugly for Auckland’s Toby Summers on Sunday.

Instead of the three wins from four starts he enjoyed at the opening round of motorcycling’s popular Suzuki Series at Hampton Downs a week ago, the Yamaha ace was reluctantly only able to score one victory at round two at Manfeild’s second round on Sunday.

However, it was a most important win, allowing him to extend his points lead in the closely-fought Formula Two (600cc) class, his main focus for the season.

Summers (Yamaha R6) comfortably won the day’s opening F2 race, leading home young rising star Daniel Mettam (Honda CRB600), of Auckland, and national 600cc champion John Ross (Suzuki GSX-R600), of Christchurch.

The second race was a little tougher with Summers stuck in traffic soon after the start and the Manukau plumber was forced into an ugly battle to get through the congestion.

He fought with Kiwi international Avalon Biddle (Suzuki GSX-R600), of Orewa, for several laps before finally snatching the lead. German visitor Thomas Kreutz then joined the party with his Yamaha R6 machine, eventually forcing his way past Summers to take the win.

Summers’ 1-2 results gave him the overall win for the day, making it a Yamaha 1-2 for the class – Frankfurt rider Kreutz finishing the day runner-up thanks to his 6-1 score-line – and it meant Summers had stretched his series advantage to a comfortable 18 points over Mettam with just the final round to come, on Wanganui’s Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day.

This was the good and the ugly; the bad came in Summers’ bid for dual glory as he also chased for wins in the Super Moto class.

Summers won both Super Moto races at Hampton Downs but Manfeild belonged to defending class champion Richard Dibben, leaving Summers to battle with British visitor Malachi Mitchell-Thomas for the second-place crumbs. Summers found a way past Mitchell-Thomas in the first Super Moto race but then immediately lost traction and hit the tarmac.

Summers reacted quickly to remount and give chase again but he was black-flagged and disqualified from the race because he was obliged to return to the pits after the spill for his machine to be checked.

Summers finished runner-up to Dibben in the second Super Moto race but the damage to his campaign was done and he is now back to fourth in the standings, 14 points behind new series leader Dibben.

“It was a bit of an up and down day,” Summers admitted. “I only took one win today and that sucks. Thomas (Kreutz) was on a mission in race two. I couldn’t match him.

“But I’m pretty happy with where I am at in the F2 class. I’m looking forward to Boxing Day.”

More to follow …