Superbike Champs Resume

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Superbike Champs Resume

After a three-week lay off the Castrol New Zealand Superbike Road Race Championships will resume this weekend, February 23/24, at Manfeild Park, Feilding.

Round four of the five round series will this year be run by the Victoria Motorcycle Club of Wellington. The Vic. Club has only run clubman’s style event in recent years, but in the early ‘80s they ran the famous "Two-Wheeler" events on Manfeild Autocourse’s original 3.03Km track, the same circuit as will be used this weekend.

Triple R Racing’s Robbie Bugden (Australia) and Dennis Charlett (Christchurch) will be keen to resume their dominance in Superbikes and 600 Sports Production classes respectively on their Suzukis, however the opposition will be coming to Manfeild, race ready having contest the "Yamaha Battle of the Streets" at Paeroa last weekend.

Yamaha’s young Australian pairing of Gareth Jones and Damian Cudlin were split by Suzuki’s street specialist Feilding’s Craig Shirriffs in the Superbikes, with New Plymouth’s Hayden Fitzgerald fourth on his Honda.

While in the small Formula Two class, American teenagers Dave and Matt Sadowski (Yamaha) came home second and third behind the slightly larger Triumph 675 of Nick Odematt.

Palmerston North’s Glen Williams and New Plymouth’s Terry Fitzgerald will continue the battle in the Formula Three class and as both claim Manfeild to be their home track, the racing should be fascinating.

Sidecars return to the series this round with Taupo’s Andy Scrivener leading their Championship, but with Wanganui’s Steven Bron and Leighton Minnell both coming to grips with their respective LCR, this class will definitely be worth watching.

We will also see the continuation of the battle between the teenagers on the 125cc Grand Prix machines. Christchurch’s Cameron Jones leads but he is being chased hard by Dunedin’s Tim McArthur, not forgetting fourteen year old Nick Cain also from Christchurch, who took two wins and a second at round three in Invercargill. All three are riding Honda RS125s.

The racing seen so far during this 2008 series has been the best we have seen for over a decade. Some of the racing reminded many of the days of World Superbikes at Manfeild and the famous Marlboro Series of the ‘70s.

So come to Manfeild THIS WEEKEND and SEE

Motorcycling Road Racing at it’s BEST

ENDS

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