WORDS: Andy McGechan
PHOTOS: Nick Edards
DAMON REES FOLLOWS IN
FATHER’S WHEEL TRACKS
Not since Whakatane’s Tony Rees in
the year 2000 has a Kiwi rider won
an event in the Australian Superbike
Championships. And the latest man
to do it is none other than Rees’ youngest
son, Damon Rees.
The 23-year-old Damon Rees took his Carl
Cox-supported Honda CBR600R to a pair
of third placings at the seventh and final
round of the Australian series at Phillip
Island, near Melbourne, over the weekend
of October 20.
It was enough for the 2017 New Zealand
600cc supersport champion to clinch the
Supersport 600cc class win in Australia at
the weekend by a solitary point and also
earned the Kiwi rising star fourth overall
for the Australian national series.
The track temperature for the day’s
second 600cc race was a scorching
45-degrees Celsius, more than 10 degrees
warmer than it had been for race one
earlier in the day and this meant the track
conditions were much slipperier and grip
was much harder to find than on a cooler
track surface.
But Rees still quickly found himself among
the leading trio of riders. Tom Toparis,
from Goulburn, in New South Wales, was
out in front, while Rees and Newcastle’s
Max Croker battled hard for the runner-up
spot.
Rees made a determined effort over the
final few laps to get on terms with Croker
and made his move on the last lap. Rees
made his first thrust at Hayshed corner,
the Kiwi then sat on the tail of Croker at
MG Hairpin but couldn’t quite get there on
the run to the line and Croker managed to
hang on to that second position.