The streets of Wanganui belonged to Bay of Plenty motorcycle ace Tony Rees on Boxing Day.

The Honda man from Whakatane was sensational at the scorching-hot third and final round of the annual Suzuki Series, the traditional post-Christmas race day staged on the feared and respected Cemetery Circuit.

The 47-year-old Rees took his Honda CBR1000RR to set the fastest lap in qualifying — 50.04 seconds, with a speed of 115.683kmph — and then snatched victory in the day’s opening Formula One/Superbike race, setting the tone for what was to become a glorious day for the rider of the distinctive red bike.

Although Rees was narrowly beaten to the finish line by Taupo’s Scott Moir (Suzuki GSX-R1000) in the day’s second F1 race, the best was still to come from Rees with the event’s signature race, the Robert Holden Memorial Feature Race, the “jewel in the crown” for any self-respecting sportsman, coming up on the programme.

No stranger to winning in a street environment, Rees then gave a master class to his much younger rivals in the “cream of all classes” Robert Holden race, albeit eventually claiming victory by less than a second ahead of Wanganui’s Jayden Carrick (Suzuki GSX-R1000) and New Plymouth’s Hayden Fitzgerald (Suzuki GSX-R1000).

The win made it the fourth time that Rees has won this iconic race, his first Robert Holden race victory coming 24 years earlier, in 1990, and the last time he won the race was 13 years ago, in 2001.

Meanwhile, visiting Austrian rider Horst Saiger (Kawasaki ZX-10R) wrapped up the series overall in the F1 class with conservative third and fifth placings in his two F1 outings and he finished fifth in the stand-alone Robert Holden race.

But that too was remarkable because it was Saiger’s first race trip to New Zealand and he had not previously seen any of the Kiwi circuits until a few days prior to racing on them.

Other class winners for the series were:

Manukau’s Toby Summers (F2 600cc class); Taumarunui’s Leigh Tidman (F3 Sport bikes); Feilding’s John Oliver (Bears – non-Japanese bikes); Tauranga’s Duncan Hart (Super Moto); Marton’s Jason Hulme (Junior Pre 89 Post Classics); Te Awanga’s Eddie Kattenberg (Senior Pre 89 Post Classics); Waikato’s Aaron Lovell and Tracey Bryan (F1 sidecars).

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

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