Event Reports » 2010 » Suzuki International Tri-Series - Round 1
For our pen-ultimate event Moto Academy NZ headed up to Hampton Downs raceway in the north Waikato district for the first round of the 2010 Suzuki International Tri-Series. This series is a privately promoted three round race series that has this year attracted riders from NZ, Australia, Canada and Italy. The events are going from strength to strength, so we hope that 2011 will bring bigger and better things with more riders being attracted to NZ.
For Moto Academy NZ Ben was unable to get time off work and Glen was still taking a conservative approach to his head injury and decided to be the pit-girl for the team. So James and Kyle would ride in the Formula 3 class, while Steve would have a go on his RS250 during the trackday on Friday 11 Dec. While James had spent a few laps racing and practicing at Hampton Downs, Kyle had never been there previously, so we were all interested to see how he would go.
Friday practice went well with good weather, if a bit windy and no real hold ups. Later in the day the gearbox output shaft bearing collapsed in James' engine. So he jumped on the spare bike and Steve swapped out the spare engine for him to use for the raceday. It was clear that Kyle was having no problems getting to grips with the track and was laying down some decent lap times and James was taking his usual very deliberate and measured approach also putting in good laptimes and having fun riding around some of the bigger bikes.
Raceday on Saturday dawned overcast, but clearing, so another warm sunny day was being offered.
The boys got ready and headed out for qualifying for Formula 3 which went well. Kyle qualified in 6th place behind top level riders such as Terry Fitzgerald, Geoff Booth and Avalon Biddle. James also qualified well in 12th position (in a field of about 30), so we were all very happy about these results.
So we all prepared for the two races for the day and also went and watched some of the racing. The Formula 1 and Formula 2 classes were almost a whos who of NZ and Australian racing with Andrew Stroud, Craig Shirrifs, Robbie Bugden and Dan Stauffer all going fast in the F1 class. The SuperMoto class included Davide Gozzini who is leading the World Championship and Andrea Occini who is a world championship race winner. So hprefully we will be able to attract some top level 125GP riders to come next summer.
The Formula 3 races came around soon enough. Kyle made a great start, managing to keep up with the big 650cc bikes and then settle down to pick off a few one at a time. He ended up having a great battle with his mate Deano from Lower Hutt, managing to get in front of him on the drag up the hill to the finish line, but the extra tow of the SV650 was just enough for Deano to come out ahead, by about 10th of a second, so that Kyle came home in 8th place.
James had a slow start, for whatever reason, and struggled to make headway past his qualifying position. However, he found some good riders, such as former World Supebike rider Eddie Kattenburg, to race withand learned plenty about racing and passing and came home in 16th place.
Race 2 went in a very similar way with Kyle getting away well and racing strongly for the whole race. He came home in 7th position this time round, and ran about 1 second a lap faster than the first race and qualifying. Again he had a great race with Deano but again, the tow of the 650 up the hill allowed Deano to come home 0.3sec ahead of Kyle. James had a slow start in this race also and got caught up with a bunch of riders who were slower than his pace, but was unable to get out of the group, so he came home in 17th place, about 1 sec a lap slower than Race 1.
Overall the event went really well. The broken gearbox bearing luckily caused no further damage, but the spare engine in James' bike was not tuned as well as the main engine so he was unable to run as fast as he wanted to. But overall the riders had a great time and learned plenty about racing at Hampton Downs and in groups of slower and faster riders.
We really hope that we might be able to attract some overseas riders to compete in the Tri-Series in 2011 and further boost the international flavour.