We all make choices every day, some good, some bad, some big and, with some, it doesn’t really matter. In sport, some choices can spell win or lose.
Do I have tea or coffee with breakfast? Do I step out onto the road and cross now? Should I buy the green car or the red one? I’m lost, but should I take the path on the left on the path on the right in this dark and gloomy forest, or just stay where I am and await the rescue team to find me?
Okay, not all choices carry a lot of significance in relation to the life we may lead or be allowed to lead. But sometimes it can still simply be a tiny choice that has major consequences.
We’re not comparing the winning or losing of a national title with a life or death situation such as crossing a busy street, but motorcycle road racing can still throw up some pretty big decisions.
Decisions can sometimes be a bit of a gamble, like a throw of the dice, and occasionally your numbers just don’t come up.
Whakatane’s Mitch Rees (and Team Rees) and Brisbane’s Ant West (and his Addicted To Racing team) each had a simple choice to make before the all-important final and deciding race at Hampton Downs a week ago today.
Australian Ant West (letter W) and New Zealand’s Mitch Rees (No.1), never much further apart that this throughout all of the 2023-24 championship series. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Let’s set the scene …
The day had been wet, so much so that racing had already suffered a lengthy delay as organisers had to make their choices too … delay and hope the pooling water soaked away (to allow racing to carry on) or declare the meeting a done deal right then (as a matter of safety)?
How long to delay? Would we run out of daylight and fail to meet the time/noise curfew? Which individual would it favour if not all three races were to be run that weekend? Which rider would benefit if the meeting was abandoned without another race being run?
Thankfully, the racing did progress and Rees won race two in the pouring rain on Sunday … just one race remained to decide the title in this six-round series and the track was starting to dry out ahead of race three, the final showdown between these two prime contenders.
Mitch and his team chose to put wet (designated by manufacturer Pirelli as Rain Tyres) tyres on his bike, while West and his team chose intermediates (designated by Pirelli as Wet Tyres).
Please remember, this is entirely different to the average-but-best-for-most-situations rubber you or I might slap on our road bikes before heading off to work in the morning or away to Taupo for a holiday weekend … this racing rubber is purpose-built, designed to last a certain number of laps, in particular heat or surface conditions, and after that the rubber begins to break down and not be so sticky. 
In addition, the riders here are on finely-tuned 1000cc superbikes, capable of speeds over 300km an hour, hard acceleration and late braking placing more strain on the rubber that you’d ever inflict during a short hop to the corner dairy.
The margins are small, the risks huge and the rewards are whatever value you want to place upon winning a sporting event.
As it transpired, Rees managed to lead early on and looked to be capable of repeating his wins from races one and two that weekend.
But then, somewhere between lap four and five of the eight-lapper, soon after the halfway mark, West zoomed by Rees.
And that was that, with West going on to win the epic battle by a flattering 22.8 seconds as Rees’ overheating rubber started to fail him.
Despite everything, both riders were gracious and magnanimous, with plenty of praise and respect shown to their rival. International star West had forced domestic champion Rees to lift his game and West had been impressed by his younger challenger who had risen to the occasion.
Both are world-class riders and we can all only hope that West returns next season to give Rees (and perhaps a few others too) a second chance to show what they’re made of, to put on another great sporting spectacle for an always-appreciative Kiwi audience.
In the end, Rees won the battle (his 1-1-2 results eclipsing West at Hampton Downs), but West won the war, taking the title from Rees by nine points.
© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
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