NZ Wins Barry Sheene Trans Tasman Challenge

NZ Wins Barry Sheene Trans Tasman Challenge

The New Zealand team won the recent Barry Sheene Trans-Tasman Challenge at Hampton Downs, 469 to 436 points, in a return leg that was a bit more one-sided than first thought.

Some machine failures cost the Australians some key team riders and gave the local team the overall edge.

‘Mr Superbike’ Robbie Phillis was in top form winning all his races including the MNZ NZ Pre 82 Senior Grand Prix on his Katana 1000 Suzuki with team-mate Scott Webster on the Moto Martin Suzuki runner-up and local Steve Bridge on the Ducati TT2 in third.

Two-times Isle of Man winner Cam Donald (Australia) made a clean sweep of his races over the weekend including the MNZ Pre ’63 NZ TT on the McIntosh Manx Norton. He was pushed very close in the TT by runner up Nick Cole on the Lodge ES2 Norton 500 and the talk of a jump start and why the officials didn’t give Cam a 20sec penalty, will be around for years to come. Chris Swallow made podium third on the BSA Gold Star 500 while in the earlier races Hayden Fitzgerald, Dave & Nick Cole, plus David Hall had all picked up podiums.

The Pre ’72 class saw Glen Hinton Maxton TR3 350 (Australia) the top Junior rider with Terry Martin on the Rob North Triumph Trident 870 top Senior contender and Terry Galway on the 850 Norton Commando chasing hard. Trevor Discombe Yamaha TZ350 took second in the MNZ Pre ’82 Junior Grand Prix with Chris Bridge on the Ducati TT2 winning with Geoff Mahon from Invercargill on the Yamaha XJ550 in third.

Mike Pero TZ350 came in fourth, his first meeting on a TZ350 in thirty years. In the MNZ Senior pre ’89 Grand Prix Glen Williams Bimota lead home Dave Cole Ducati Corsa from Nick Cole Kawasaki ZXR. In the sidecar races the New Zealand riders dominated most of the results but more Australians teams are expected next year and will bring much stronger competition to the event.

With 299 competitors and 38 Australians, this event was New Zealand’s largest International road race meeting, surpassing the Marlboro Series of the 1970’s.

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