was extremely tight as he fought off a stern challenge from Suzuki ’ s multi-time former New Zealand Superbike champion Sloan ‘ Choppa ’ Frost , from Lower Hutt . The Adventure Bikes class , included in the Suzuki International Series for the first time this season , was bristling with talent , with multitime former national Formula Three road-race champion Rodney O ’ Connor ( GasGas ) also providing fireworks near the front of the field . Dibben was on an 800cc Suzuki V Strom bike , while Frost had a 1050cc version of the same bike , with O ’ Connor riding a GasGas 700 Enduro . The racing was incredibly tight , with Dibben winning round one in Taupo by four points over Frost , then Frost responding to better Dibben by three points at Manfeild ’ s round two and they were virtually equal at the final round of the series at Whanganui . It was gripping stuff and it came down to the wire for the class win , with Dibben beaten by Frost in the first of two races at Whanganui , giving the Wellington man a narrow two-point advantage as they started together on the front row for the eighth and final race of the series on the Thursday afternoon . In the end , Dibben edged out Frost for the
win in that deciding final showdown and he therefore took the class win by a solitary point from Frost , another Suzuki 1-2 result for the series ’ main sponsors to cherish . Suzuki had another big win to celebrate too as Cambridge 19-year-old Morgan McLaren-Wood ( Suzuki GSX-R600 ) kept hold of his lead in the Formula Two / 600cc class and he even extended it to a whopping 36 points over Whanganui ’ s eventual runner-up Luca Durning ( Ducati ) by again totally dominating this class on Boxing Day . The Suzuki man qualified fastest and then won both F2 races on Thursday , before also going out in the all-capacities Robert Holden Memorial feature race and finishing a creditable fourth , the first of the smaller bikes , behind 1000cc superbike riders Mitch Rees , Davey Todd and Mitch ’ s dad Tony Rees .
STAND-OUTS There were plenty of stand-outs in the Suzuki International Series this year , but there was no going past the double-class wins achieved by young Aucklander Tyler King ( the 18-year-old from Silverdale who won both the Formula Three and Supersport 300 classes ) and home-town
Sloan Frost in the newly-introduced adventure class
KIWI RIDER 39