Damon’s got will to win in his DNA

Not since Whakatane’s Tony Rees, in the year 2000, has a Kiwi rider won a round in the Australian Superbike Championships.

And the latest man to do it is none other than Rees’ youngest son, Damon.

The 23-year-old, riding his Carl Coxsupported Honda CBR600R, secured a pair of third placings at the seventh and final round of the Australian series at Phillip Island, near Melbourne, last weekend.

It was enough for the 2017 New Zealand 600cc Supersport champion to clinch the Supersport 600cc class win by a solitary point, which also allowed the Kiwi to take the fourth overall spot for the Australian national series.

The track temperature for the day’s second 600cc race was a scorching 45C — more than 10 degrees warmer than it had been for race one earlier in the day — which meant the track conditions were more slippery and grip was much harder to find than on the cooler track surface.

But Rees still quickly found himself among the leading trio of riders.

Tom Toparis, from Goulburn in New South Wales, was out in front, while Rees and Newcastle’s Max Croker battled hard for the runner-up spot.

Rees made a determined effort over the final few laps to get on terms with Croker and made his move on the last lap.

He made his first thrust at Hayshed Corner, then sat on the tail of Croker at MG Hairpin but couldn’t quite get there on the run to the line and Croker managed to hang on to that second position.

“I’m pretty pleased with that,” Rees says.

“I started off the season with a stock engine and was three seconds a lap off the pace of the leading guys.

“But I progressed through the season and at the end I was going 1.8s a lap quicker at Phillip Island than I was at the start of the year. That’s amazing progress.

“I was always there or thereabouts for a podium finish, but a DNF when I crashed at the previous round at Winton cost me dearly . . . certainly cost me a podium finish for the championship. “But that’s racing, I suppose. “Even so, I finished the year in Australia strong and I’m happy with that.”

Rees said he was now looking forward to racing both a Honda CBR600R and a Honda CBR1000SP1 in the upcoming Suzuki Series pre-nationals competition in New Zealand, contesting both the Formula Two (600cc) and Formula One classes.

He will then tackle the four-round New Zealand Superbike Championships, starting in Christchurch on January 5-6, racing in the Superbike class only.