The opening round of the Suzuki-Auckland Motorcycle Club Series was greeted with changeable Spring conditions, dominated by a stiff breeze. There was little moisture, but the wind blew all day, and only abated during the final couple of races, making for challenging conditions for competitors and event volunteers alike. It wasn’ t just the weather blowing people away at Hampton Downs, as the large number of off-season rider movements generated a wave of interest across many classes, and opened opportunities for some entertaining battles to come. In Senior, Dave Sharp( CBR1000RR-R) and Luca Durning( S1000RR) set the pace in Formula Auckland. And there was a lot of interest in the SuperSport 600 class as D6M debuted a trio of new RC8 KTM’ s for Logan Rowell, Hamish Simpson and Cameron Leslie. It was Jesse Stroud( ZX6) and Haydn Fordyce( R6) who dominated the day, with Tyler King( MV) and Mark Halls( R6) also in the mix, this will be a class to watch this season. It was great to see class regular, Ian Reed, all the way from Wellington on his beautiful S1000RR- leaving with the points lead in Formula Auckland B. The Intermediate had a huge field, fuelled by the great work the ProTwin 650 class is doing and its North Island Cup Series across the VMCC
and AMCC Series. Also in the Intermediate field were the Super Twins, Superlite, and F3 including the 800cc four-stroke twins. With some Post Classic flavour in there as well, there was plenty of action for everyone. Tyler King( YZF-R7), Azlan Blackwell( SV650) and Cameron Leslie( YZF-R7) shared the spoils in ProTwin 650, but with 20 + ProTwins on track, there were battles everywhere. Zak Fuller had a productive debut on the CBR650 Honda in Super Twin, and it was great to see Ray Clee doing double-duty, running both a GSX-R1000 and a GSX-8R. In Junior, Nixon Frost( Yamaha R3) commanded SS300, while Alyssa Boyd( Hyosung) holds a narrow 2 point advantage over Nick Trigger( Hyosung) in ProLite 250, with Samuel Chave( R15) leading SS150. Phillip Law and Angus Ravenwood on their BMW powered outfit had the measure of the sidecar field, after spending most of the day battling Barry Smith and Vaughan Maine( LCR Kawasaki). Year 15 of the Carl Cox Motorsport Cup kickedoff under the tutelage of Ken Dobson, with the field now weighted in favour of the Ninjas by a small margin. Tim Gray came away the early Ninja Cup points leader, after four entertaining battles and Joe Stroud lost his points from Race Four following a medical check infringement
26 KIWI RIDER