CCMS Cup - Round 1 Race Report
Round 1 – Season 12 – September 18 2022
I don’t know how to start this report. So many emotions from a spectacular day at the race track! Excited, fizzed, blown away, grateful, loved, and overwhelmed are just a few.
Lets start with our biggest ever entry grid – for both Cup classes. 42 Hyosung’s and 16 Kawasaki Ninja 400’s. Missing 7 Hyosung’s and 2 x Ninjas due to health or conflicting events for riders. The weather could not have been better for mid-September. A warming track, no wind and overcast skys. Great to have Cliff back form TT Kiwis and his brilliant videographer skills. A first for the Cup was the separate qualifying and races for the Hyosung’s and Ninjas due to the size of the field. Great for the Hyosung’s to have the track to themselves as their racing certainly deserves centre stage. The Ninjas now race off the back of the Intermediate class which had its challenges and quite an effect on the outcome of those races.
It’s a first for an orange jacket rider to put their bike on pole in any Cup race, but that’s what Oliver Pykett did. Impressive indeed and posting a 1:24.911 was just 0.54 head of a returning Benny Cook and a very impressive front row for Wonder Woman Kendal Dunlop. Another first time Cup rider and youngest competitor Tyler King rounded out the front row. Technical issues took out Josh Augustine and Ninja Cup Champion Caleb Gilmore. 2022 Hyosung Cup runner up Simon Beard slipped off into the weeds, fortunately with no injury.
As expected there were cobwebs to be cleared out for most riders with so little track time in recent months. Justin Reid was the man to find the best pace on the Ninjas to go P1 with a 1:20.299 followed by reigning Hyosung Cup Champion Alex “Buttman” Butson, Sean White and Nathan Finlay rounding out the front row. Great to have Dave Readings and Matt Hobbs back in the Cup and they went P8 and P9 respectively. Our only Ninja Cup woman racer is Billee Fuller was on the MTF Finance Barrys Point Road Ninja. Bill’s went a solid P10 which was a great result after nearly 2 years off racing.
Race 1
Race 1 for the Hyosung’s took a surprise twist when Benny gapped the pack on the first lap as the chasing pack got in each other’s way and eventually settled into a manic race for the last 2 podium spots. In this pack was Caleb, Jacob Stroud, Tyler King, Vaughan Maine and Oliver Pykett with Kendal and Esmond not far away. That was the finishing order of the top 8, but no less intense all through the field. Fastest lap point went to newcomer Tyler King with a 1:24.504 on his immaculate X4R. Our Women’s class went Kendal, Megan Kemp, Tam, Catherine and Becki.
Race 1 for the Ninjas was the Le Mans start. This was exciting as the running race can throw up all sorts of surprises and the composure of the rider to light the fire and get away smoothly is critical. Alex and Justin got away well as did Sean and they settled into a battle at the front. BUT the start of the race went to Bill’s. Her sprint to the bike was stunning and she launched the Ninja 400 into 6th before she crossed the timing strip. From there it was a clinical and mistake free race to the front for her. On the last lap she was on the tail of Alex and Justin braking into turn 6. She tracked them through that very fast turn and then used her power to weight advantage to smoke the guys to the finish line to with by 0.226 from Justin with Alex just 0.190 back. History was made as Billee became the first ever woman to win a Carl Cox Motorsport Ninja Cup race.
Race 2
Benny Cook was out to prove a point in Hyosung race 2, Le Mans start. He bolted from P2 and just didn’t make a mistake. Caleb, Oliver, Tyler and Jacob gave chase but even Caleb’s fastest lap of 1:23.210 wasn’t enough. The pace was faster for sure with the top 6 riders cutting 1:23’s. Kendal and Esmond on their Kiwibike Insurance GT250R’s had a great battle and finished P7 and P8 then a gap to Scotty Findlay who was scrapping with Josh, Rory Barkla Hadleigh and Simon. Another great battle pack was John Williams, Paiva, Megan, Rory Garvey and Nick Trigger for 18th. Our women’s results were the same as race 1 with Kendal taking the honours in a fine 7th.
Ninja Cup race 2 was a split grid off the back of the Intermediate class and had some challenges. The Ninjas were the biggest single class on the grid and our faster riders put times that were top ten overall. The corner speed difference of the fast Cup riders and straight line speed of the bigger capacity bikes made for a messy race for the Ninjas leaving some riders quite frustrated and balked at times. Justin and Alex made the most of this situation and engaged in a great fight for the win with Justin taking top spot by 0.199. A great ride for 3rd by Nathan Finlay from Sean and Billee in 5th. Our Police and Ex. SAS soldiers Dave, Andy and Matt were close company for 6th, 7th and 8th just heading off Tim Greene, Andrew Boldero and Blair Skelton.
Race 3
Hyosung Race 3 was a cracker!! It was no holds bar to bar to bar brawling. X4R’s and GT250R’s, experienced, new riders, all ballistic. Soooo good to watch. The order was Caleb, Benny, Vaughan (first rider into the 1:22’s) Oliver, Jacob and Tyler. Kendal locked in another 7th from Scotty Findlay, Esmond and a great 10th from Simon Beard who was finding his form from last season. Regular Rocket Jesse Stroud was battling on his “Farmbike” for 11th and clearly lacked ponies to run at the front where he would usually be. Our Cup Chicas repeated the order of the first 2 races.
Ninja Cup race 3 was a repeat for Justin and Alex. Justin going P1 by a lesser margin this time of just 0.145. Alex reckons Justin need to eat more pies so the run up the hill is more even. Billee had a great ride and filtered her way through the melee for 3rd by just 0.112 from Sean. The “Andrews” maintained their battle for fastest riders with the same name as they have for several seasons. Andrew B getting that win by 0.8 from Andrew A. Great to see the times coming down for our new Ninja riders Mike Cross, Bryan Kidd, Tom Farrell and Kush Nabh.
Race 4
Things were spiced up for the last Hyosung race when Jesse borrows Nathan Finlay’s bike, at last some horsepower he said. There was much fighting at the front. Caleb, Benny, Jesse, Jacob, Oliver and Tyler really put on a show that was a display of great race craft and slipstreaming skills. 0.738 covered these 6 at the finish line in that order with young Tyler nabbing fastest lap of 1:23.105. Vaughan had a lonely ride to 7th but Scotty, Esmond and Simon scrapped hard for 8th. Kendal came home P11, Megan an excellent P18 with Tam, Catherine and Becki rounding out our WIL Sport Cup Women competitors.
Race 4, Ninja Cup. Alex was determined to reverse the order with Justin and found a better path through the Intermediate class traffic posting the 9th fastest time outright for the race on a stock 400. Not bad for a commuter bike. Justin settled for 2nd spot and Bill’s fought her way through the traffic for a great 3rd pouncing on Nathan on the last lap. Unfortunately we lost Sean on Lap 5 after a close contact incident in the very fast turn 1 while battling for the lead. A nasty ACL injury looks like side-lining Sean for Round 2. The Cup sends all the best for a speedy recovery.
Thank you again to all the AMCC organising committee, flaggy’s and volunteers. Another very smoothly run race meeting. Special thanks to Tracy and Mark for being BBQ Buddies and taking that job off my hands. Also, our Cup wouldn’t be the same without our Super Sponsors.
Carl Cox Motorsport – Kawasaki NZ – MTF Finance Barrys Point Road – Motul NZ – WIL Sport – Kiwibike Insurance – Bridgestone – X-lite – Passmasters NZ - AMCC
Round Winners:
WIL Sport Womens Cup – 1st Kendal Dunlop, 2nd Megan Kemp, 3rd Tam Hickey
Carl Cox Motorsport Hyosung Cup – 1st Caleb Gilmore, 2nd Benny Cook, 3rd Jacob Stroud
Carl Cox Motorsport Ninja Cup – 1st Justin Reid, 2nd Alex Butson, 3rd Billee Fuller
Quote of the day. “Next round needs to be a school day” - Alex “Butman” Butson
That’s a wrap folks but in finishing I have to say a huge thank you for the fuss made of my birthday yesterday. Very humbling that you chipped in for a massive birthday cake (personalised to the Cup by Shelly and Josh), cheesecake, bourbon and the awesome messages on the card. I loved the artwork on Myka’s handcrafted card. You are a bloody awesome bunch of racers that I am proud to call friends.
See you all on October 16.
