contest reduced from five to three rounds ). Fast forward to 2021 and it was another pandemic-shorted affair ( on this occasion reduced from four rounds to three – Christchurch , Timaru and Taupo – but this time Damon Rees was staying at home to race the full series . Damon Rees looked to be on form for a repeat of his dominance of 2020 and , with four wins from six starts , he enjoyed a healthy 16.5-point lead over his sibling rival Mitch , the two-round South Island phase complete and the riders arriving at Taupo with just three races still left to run . But , while he may have been facing a decent points deficit , Mitch Rees was lurking with intent . And after the first two of three superbike races at Taupo and with just one more clash to come , the two Rees boys were still the top dogs , but now they ’ d swapped positions and it was suddenly Mitch in charge , 10.5 points ahead of Damon . In the end , Mitch ’ s 1-1-2 results over the
weekend were enough to earn him the coveted title , taking the title by 14.5 points from Damon , who suffered brake problems in race two at Taupo , when he was forced to nurse his bike to an unaccustomed eighth placing , although Damon ’ s 3-8-3 score-card for the weekend was still enough to see him seal the runner-up spot overall . Defending champion Hoogenboezem came on strong at Taupo and climbed from fourth to third in the standings , his 2-2-1 score-card at Taupo displacing his team-mate from Rangiora , Jake Lewis , and earning him the final podium position in the Superbike class . Everything really just fell into place for Mitch Rees at his “ happy place ”. “ It was a fantastic weekend ,” said Mitch Rees afterwards . “ Got pole and won the first two races . I knew what the mathematics were , although I obviously would have liked to win every race . To be fair , I was a bit lucky too because Damo had a really bad weekend .” It ’ s interesting to note that Mitch Rees had also won the weekend at Taupo overall the last
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