Road racing season starting for summer
Summer is here, Christmas is coming and the nation’s best motorcycle road race tracks are beckoning.
It is just a few days now until the 2019 Suzuki International Series begins.
The 12th annual, threeround Suzuki International Series kicks off at Taupo¯ this coming weekend with world-class entries throughout all the categories.
Taupo¯ ’s Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park hosts the opening round this Saturday and Sunday, December 7 and 8, setting into motion three consecutive weekends of blistering motorbike action, the series again proving to be a magnet for international stars.
Manfeild follows a week later, on December 14 and 15, and the action wraps up on the streets of Whanganui’s Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day.
Taupo¯ ’s Scott Moir has his fingers crossed that he can make it three wins in a row in the premier Formula One Superbikes class.
In addition to Suzuki ace Moir’s traditional Kiwi rivals in the class — riders such as Glen Eden’s current national superbike champion Daniel Mettam, Wellington’s two-time former national superbike champion Sloan Frost, Whakata¯ ne brothers Mitch and Damon Rees, Al Hoogenboezem from Christchurch, and Wainuiomata’s Shane Richardson, who has just returned from a successful season of racing in the United Kingdom — there are also several overseas visitors who could shatter Moir’s dreams of a threepeat.
Top riders are arriving from the United Kingdom, France and Australia, with Isle of Man and British Superbike Championship winners among them.
British rider Richard Cooper and Ireland’s Lee Johnston are two international headliners.
Cooper is the British Superbike Championships (BSB) Superstock Champion for 2019.
Johnston is the 2019 Isle of Man TT winner, winning the Scarborough Gold Cup and runner-up in the Ulster GP.
Moir remains defiantly confident.
“I certainly believe I can win the series again,” he said.
“Surely the competition couldn’t get much harder than it was for me racing against (UK rider) Peter
Hickman last year.
“I’ve raced before against Lee Johnston, and I beat him on that occasion, but I don’t know about Richard Cooper, except that he’ll be fast.
“I know these New Zealand tracks well, though, so that should give me an advantage over the internationals.”
Wellington’s Glen Skachill returns to racing after years away and he will also add spark to the F1 class on his BMW bike, while reigning national 600 Supersport champion Avalon Biddle will again race at Taupo¯ and Manfeild and make her debut on the streets of Whanganui.
Rangiora-based Kiwi international Biddle will race her Kawasaki ZX6R in the F2 (600cc) class.
The Suzuki International Series also offers races for Formula Three, Classics (pre-89), sports bikes, super motard bikes and sidecars.
The crowd-favourite GIXXER Cup class, for riders on identical 150cc Suzuki GSX150F model bikes, is in the programme again this year with the rider age-limit restriction lifted, meaning individuals such as Moir, Frost and Mettam will give talented youngsters such as Jesse Stroud (Hamilton) and Caleb Gilmore (Whanganui) something to really think about.