Trans-Tasman Showdown

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Trans-Tasman Showdown

This coming weekend March 10/11 sees the fifth and final round of the SsangYong New Zealand Superbike Road Race Championships at Pukekohe Park, just South of Auckland.

The event will decide which side of the Tasman, the Championship trophies will live for the rest of 2007.

Hamilton’s Andrew Stroud (Suzuki) leads Queenslander Robbie Bugden (Suzuki) by just six points in the Superbike class, with Feilding’s Craig Shirriffs (Suzuki) a further 26 points adrift. The Yamaha pairing of Australian’s Scott Charlton and Chris Seaton hold the minor standings.

The Superbike championship has been a SEESAW affair this season, with Bugden and Stroud swapping the lead at each round. With Yamaha’s Aussie "Young Guns" coming on song as the season closes and just 6 points in it, the racing at Pukekohe this weekend is set to be World class, with New Zealand’s best set to repel the young Australian invasion.

In the 600 Sports Production class the racing is just as hot and is again a Trans-Tasman battle, this time between Pukekohe’s rising star Sam Smith on his Yamaha, Feilding’s Craig Shirriffs on his Suzuki and the young Australians Charlton and Seaton on their Yamahas.

Like the Superbikes, the 600 class points have also been a SEESAW affair with Smith taking round one glory at Invercargill, only to see defending champion Shirriffs on fire at Timaru to take the two wins there. Meanwhile Charlton and Seaton were hard on their heels.

Smith took the Grand Prix title and a 12.5 points lead away from round three and consolidated that with two wins at round four, giving him a 32-point lead over Charlton with reigning champion Shirriffs a further 9.5 points adrift for this fifth and final round.

The Formula Three battle continue between the four-cylinder Kawasaki of Oamaru’s Andy Bolwell, the V-Twin Suzuki of New Plymouth’s Terry Fitzgerald and the single-cylinder Yamaha of Foxton’s Jason Easton.

Bolwell has an 18-point lead over Easton with reigning champion Fitzgerald a further 24-points adrift in third.

The recently married Easton is so determined to win, he has forgone his honeymoon to come racing.

The 125ccGrand Prix class is the closest of all, with just 2-points separating Christchurch’s Cameron Horgan and Clive’s Adam Chambers both on Hondas. However the rider to which in this class will be yet another Australian Jackson Leigh-Smith who only turned fifteen at round one in Invercargill in January, He has picked up six wins from his nine starts, as he missed round three due to commitments in Australia.

This year’s sidecars have been nothing short of fantastic. They may have only done four rounds but the have field no less than eighteen machines at each round.

Taupo’s Andy Scrivener and Steve Bryan dominated the early rounds. But Wanganui’s Stephen Bron and Dion Weedon have now come to grips with their recently purchased ex Stacy Sellar LCR (winner of last year’s championship) and took three wins at the Manfeild round so this weekend, should see fireworks a plenty.

With the New Zealand Tourist Trophies up for grabs as well as the Championships, Pukekohe Park will be the place to be this weekend

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