Supersport 300 start
all those remarkable achievements, the man from Whakatane also qualified fastest at all four rounds and claimed lap records at Timaru( although not‘ officially’ because it was only in qualifying and not during a race), Hampton Downs and Taupo along the way. It was a hectic, drama-filled series and it could also have so easily ended up with his 57-year-old father Tony Rees( Honda) joining him on the podium, an incredible son and father 1-2 result for the championship, until bad luck intervened and a rare crash sent Tony Rees skidding down the track on day one at Taupo. Tony Rees withdrew from the rest of the event after that, explaining he had been unwell all week anyway
Lewis and Lewis with a virus. Instead, it was Christchurch’ s Alastair Hoogenboezem( Yamaha) who finished the series runner-up to Mitch Rees, with superbikes class rookie Rogan Chandler( BMW), from Upper Hutt, claiming third overall and, even though absent for the final two superbike races on Sunday, Tony Rees still earned fourth overall. In all, Mitch Rees won 11 of the 12 superbike races over the four rounds and he’ d actually done enough after winning Saturday’ s sole superbike race at Taupo to earn the title with Sunday’ s two races still to come. His only“ failure” in the series was in race one at round two at Timaru when a wrong tyre choice caused problems and he opted to back off his pace and“ not risk in one race any chance of maybe eventually taking the title” later on. He was satisfied to finish runner-up to Christchurch’ s Dale Finch( Yamaha) in that one race.“ I knew that I just had to play it safe and just pocket some good points,” Mitch Rees explained.“ The title win was comfortable in the end. I had won the title in 2023 with an entire round to spare, but it was a six-round series that year.“ It was a much shorter series this year, so to still win the title with two races to spare is pretty cool too.“ I guess you could say I’ m at the peak of my powers at the moment, but I do still think I can
KIWI RIDER 41