The heat is still on in this year’s national motorcycle road-racing series and the temperature is not likely to cool until after the final round in Auckland next month, with all but one class still wide open after a blistering day under the Manawatu sun at the weekend.
Palmerston North’s Glen Williams (Suzuki) celebrated a successful defence of his formula three title at the weekend’s fourth round of five in this year’s New Zealand Superbike Championships, wrapping up the crown with a round to spare and in front of friends and family at his home circuit of Manfeild on Sunday, but all the other classes are still raging infernos.
The premier superbike class was a three-way battle from start to finish in both outings at Manfeild on Sunday but it was two-time former champion Robbie Bugden (Suzuki) who eventually won the day, the man from Brisbane finishing 2-1 in the two 15-lap races.
While defending champion Bugden may have stretched his series lead out to 19 points over fellow Suzuki man Andrew Stroud, there really was nothing to separate him from Stroud or Australian Yamaha rider Gareth Jones on the racetrack.
“I was starting to get a little concerned about the championship after Andrew beat me in the first race today,” said the 28-year-old Bugden afterwards. “I knew that if he beat me again in the second race, then he’d go a long way towards squaring up the points.
“I knew I had to finish in front of Andrew … that’s all that was going through my mind in that second race. To tell the truth, I took more risks in that race than I’d have liked.”
For seven-time former champion Stroud, a shrug of the shoulders perhaps said it all.
“I got past Robbie in the hairpin on the last lap and he was leaning on top of me. We were hooked up and both on the power coming out of the corner. It was pretty scary. Neither of us was going to back off.
“But then I ran slightly wide in the next corner, he re-took the lead and that was that,” said Stroud, who suffered further disappointment when he ended up third in that race after Jones also nipped past him as the trio crossed the line.
There was less than a second between the trio when the chequered flag fell.
With 50 points still on offer at the Pukekohe finale on March 8, it’s still anybody’s title.
Meanwhile, in the 600cc sports production class, Christchurch Suzuki rider Jimmy Smith is still mathematically in reach of taking the title.
The hard-charging Smith is 40 points behind dual-class man Jones with fellow Canterbury Suzuki man Dennis Charlett third in the standings.
Tauranga’s Sam Love (Suzuki SV650) was unbeaten in his three Pro Twins class races at the weekend and he is now 53 points ahead of fellow Suzuki man Geoff Booth, but Love also knows that, with 75 points still on offer in this class, he is not the champion yet.
For 44-year-old Williams, wrapping up the F3 title early was like a “huge weight has been taken off” his shoulders.
“It’s been said that defending a title is harder than winning it in the first place and now I understand that feeling. But now the pressure is off and I can race the final round feeling a lot more relaxed.”
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