Moir Dominates Suzuki Series Round One

To say that Bay of Plenty’s Scotty Moir won the opening round of the 2017 Suzuki Tri-Series would be telling only half the story.

The 33-year-old, a bike parts manager at Taupo’s Pro Moto motorcycle shop, arrived at his local Bruce McLaren Motorsports Park with little inkling that he could so comprehensively rule the premier Formula One class, but that’s exactly what he did – taking pole position, after qualifying fastest among the elite of New Zealand’s superbike stars, and then winning both F1 races on Sunday, emerging as the man to beat in the popular three-round pre-nationals competition this year.

He took a start-to-finish win in the first of two eight-lap F1 races on Sunday, leaving father and son Honda pair Tony and Mitchell Rees to scrap among themselves for the runner-up position, with 50-year-old defending Suzuki Series champion Tony Rees eventually claiming the No.2 spot, finishing 2.1 seconds behind Moir, while Mitchell Rees settled for third and Wellington's Sloan Frost (Suzuki) and Christchurch's Alastair Hoogenboezem (BMW) rounded out the top five.

This sent a loud a warning signal to Moir's rivals that he and his new Suzuki GSX-R1000A will be a potent force this summer.

The second F1 race later that afternoon was a fractured affair, with a massive first-turn pile-up claiming half the field, Moir and Tony Rees included.

After the carnage was cleared, a re-start was ordered and, for that race, both Moir and Tony Rees lined up on back-up machines, Rees on his No.2 bike and Moir grateful to be able to borrow the second bike belonging to Suzuki team-mate Frost.

Mitchell Rees led the way and Moir, even though he was on the borrowed Frost bike, was soon nipping at Rees' rear wheel.

These two cleared out from the rest of the field and young Rees led until halfway through the dramatic final lap, when Moir was finally able to pounce and snatch the advantage, taking the win by a bike length from Mitchell Rees, with Suzuki pair Daniel Mettam (Glen Eden) and Frost and then Yamaha's Hayden Fitzgerald (New Plymouth) rounding out the top five.

Moir's riding was flawless all weekend, but his performance in winning race two was particularly impressive, picking himself up from a scary crash and then throwing his leg over an unfamiliar bike and taking that to victory.

"I was just riding my own business when I was struck from behind and the next thing I knew I'd been flung through the air," Moir said, explaining the multi-rider crash at the start of race two.

"It took me a lap or so to get used to Sloan's spare bike, but I got faster and faster after that. The bike was stock standard but was actually so easy to ride. I was thinking I'd just go out and try to salvage as many points as I could. I didn't believe I could win on a borrowed bike.

"By the end of the race I was doing lap times as fast as the one I'd set toqualify fastest and this bike wasn't even set up for me."

Moir has 51 points, thanks to his back-to-back wins and the bonus point for topping qualification, and leads Mitchell Rees by nine points in the F1 standings, with Frost third, just six points further back.

The series now heads to Manfeild for round two this coming Sunday, with the public streets of Whanganui, the famous Cemetery Circuit, awaiting riders for the final showdown on Boxing Day.

The newly-created GIXXER Cup class, set aside for riders aged between 14 and 21 and all on identical Suzuki GSX150F bikes, got off to a storming start.

Hamilton's Jesse Stroud, the 15-year-old son of nine-time former national superbike champion Andrew Stroud, scored back-to-back wins on Sunday.

He leads the class by 10 points from the "West Coast Warrior", 14-year-old Greymouth rider Clark Fountain, with Paeroa's Blake Ross, Taupiri's Zak Fuller and Whanganui's Ollie Dennison completing the top five.

As well as being an integral part of the three-round Suzuki Series, the GIXXER Cup grade of competition will also be a feature of the four-round 2018 New Zealand Superbike Championships, beginning at Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Christchurch, on January 6-7, with rounds to follow at Timaru, Hampton Downs and Taupo.

Riders will count six of seven rounds from these two separate competitions, discarding points from their one worst round, to determine the inaugural GIXXER Cup champion for 2017-18.

Words and photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com