The mad Christmas rush was over by December 25... but was it really? For racers and road-racing fans alike, Boxing Day was the third and final round of the series, a renowned post-Christmas competition that always brings out the best in elite motorcycle racers from all around the world. A total of 16 overseas riders travelled to our shores to race the series this season, mostly from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, but it was actually the locals who shone out the most. The 2025 edition of the Suzuki International Series kicked off at the Taupo International Motorsport Park over the first weekend in December and round two was staged at Manfeild, in Feilding, just a week later. The grand finale on the fabled Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day, a massive annual festival of speed that is always a popular last fling before New Year celebrations begin, certainly delighted the large crowd that showed up on the Friday. This year’ s 74th edition of the famous Cemetery Circuit race meeting was, as always, a spectacular affair, particularly when light rain began to fall early on Boxing Day afternoon, the riders forced
to make critical tyre choices, further adding to the gamble of high-speed racing. But, when it all wrapped up late on a damp Boxing Day afternoon, it was class winners such as Whakatane’ s Mitch Rees, Auckland’ s Cameron Leslie, Silverdale’ s Tyler King, Paraparaumu’ s Richard Markham-Barrett, Whanganui’ s Jeff Croot, Auckland’ s Paul Pavletich, Hawera’ s Martin Gray, Upper Hutt’ s Keiran Mair, Te Awanga’ s Eddie Kattenberg, Whanganui’ s Richie Dibben, sidecar pairs Barry Smith / Louise Blythe and Tracey Bryan / Jo Franzen and Christchurch’ s Harriet Grace who had the biggest grins on their faces.
REES DOES THE TRIPLE... AGAIN Mitch Rees cracked the“ triple” once again this season, winning the premier Formula one / Superbike class overall for the series, then the New Zealand F1 TT title for winning race two at Whanganui, and then also snatching the coveted Robert Holden Memorial feature race trophy late on Boxing Day. Qualifying his Superbike fastest, Rees then won both F1 races at Whanganui before putting icing on the cake by also winning the Robert Holden Memorial( RHM) feature race.
KIWI RIDER 25