AMCC RND 1 RACE REPORT
Where do I begin? What an epic start to our tenth season of Cup competition! So much great racing, from our most experienced Cup campaigners to our complete newcomers. I continue to be impressed by the great attitude and spirit that everyone brings to the Cup. It certainly is unique in motorsport and just adds to the pleasure of being involved. Thanks to you all.
38 keen Cup Racers ready for action
On arrival at 7:00am the track gates were locked and huge queue quickly grew as nearly 100 competitors very keen to get out racing waited patiently for the circuit to open up. The Covid attendance register was the next thing to get through and this appeared to run smoothly with only riders, one support person and essential officials and medics allowed on the site. The Cup had 38 of the 94 competitors at this event which was a fantastic turnout and we were only 3 riders down on our total registered for the season. The weather gods were not playing nicely though with light rain falling which was a surprise to all as not forecast. With all competitors split between 2 zones we were all set up and ready for a damp track qualy.
Slippery is a word that comes to mind as the conditions tested the grip of tyres that cover all conditions for Cup racers. Joshy Augustine was not afraid though and ripped a 1:30.874 to put his GT250R on pole in the Hyosung Cup. Benny Cook also had his race face on and parked his GT250R second on the grid and the remainder of the front row was complete newcomer to racing Cameron Leslie and a very determined Turiana Banks. Impressive times also set by Cup newcomers Tarbon Walker and Ryan Fletcher for 6th and 10th respectively. Current Cup Champion Lozza May sat happliy in 5th.
A welcome return to the Cup was made by Dan Mettam, past 3 time Cup Champion. This was a guest ride on our KDR Ninja 400 and Dan sure made it obvious you don’t win NZSBK Superbike and SS600 titles without natural talent to ride anything well. Our Ninja grid was slightly depleted with Caleb Gilmour out with a broken wrist and Dave Readings not quite ready to attack the track.It was great to see Chris Smith back on track after some major work on his Ninja 400 during the week. Dan Mettam adapted very quickly to the conditions on the Ninja 400 without any traction aids putting it on pole with a 1:26.309 ahead of Chris, Paiva and Jesse rounding out the front row. Row 2 was Sean White and Cup new comer Matt Hobbs all the way from Taihape. Evan Hansen missed Cup qualy after a fall on his R6 in an earlier session, rider ok.
It’s about now the banter and bullshit stops
By the time our first race lights went out the track was dry and the scene was set for some awesome racing. The Hyosung class sorted itself out into various size battle groups. The lead one was Benny Cook, Cameron Leslie and Josh. You had to be doing 1:23’s to play in this group and they were going at it hard. That was the podium sorted with Lozza may in 4th 1.1 back then Tarbon Walker, Scotty Findlay, and Turiana. Brett Butler was first X4R home in 8th after much fighting with Doyle Matautia. Rounding out the top ten was one of our farmers taking some time away from the herd, Colin Box was that man.
Dan shot to an early lead on his Ninja chased hard by Jesse Stroud on the MTF Finance Barrys Point Road Ninja, eventually hitting the front on lap 4. The tactical racing as these 2 came across the lapped traffic was intriguing, how they dealt with it and how they used it to their advantage. Dan was the wily one on this occasion heading Jesse home by 1.1. Chris Smith put in a solid ride to 3rd after a great battle with Sean White and Paiva Santos. Matt Hobbs came home 6th and Evan DNF’d, rider ok.
Race 2 was the Le Mans start. Things went badly when we lost Turiana, Simon Beard and Cameron Leslie very early on. All ok but for a few bruises. The race was red flagged and restarted as a grid start. This was our bogie race as another red flag brought the race to a stop after 1 lap. Rider ok.
Trent found some new friends when his tent went up in the rain.
Race 3 and the sun was out and the track was warming up which was good news as there wasn’t much grip early on. It took Jesse 3 ½ laps to get by Dan as these two hit the low 1:15’s on their Ninjas. With some confusion over the white flag and end of race Jesse took the win by over 4 seconds as Dan waved to the virtual crowd as he was on his cool down lap, lol. It was a fairly uneventful race for the other Ninjas with Chris, finishing 3rd from Paiva, Sean, Evan and Matt.
Benny’s experience shone through when he took the lead 1 ½ laps in on his Gt250R. Cameron and Tarbon were fighting for second and that was the order. Josh was a solid if lonely 4th and Lozza chased home by Scotty Findlay for 5th. There were some great battles covering 5 bikes further through the field, all learning the crafts of slipstreaming and passing.
We are very fortunate to get 4 races per round this season with the re mix of classes by the AMCC. It was around 4pm when the lights went out for the Cup racers on race 4. Cameron and Benny went at it from the get go again with them swapping the lead many times before Benny conceded to the guy in the vest by 0.4 with Tarbon 0.5 back in 3rd. Lozza was pulling this group in by whacking out some mid 1:23’s and had a solid 4th heading home Josh and Scott. Doyle and Brett Butler had their usual battle for 7th with Doyle winning that. Colin Box and Hadleigh Thomson rounded out the top ten Hyosungs.
Dan didn’t want to mess about in the final race and Jesse had to work hard to finish 0.2 behind in 2nd both smashing out low 1:15’s. Chris again cemented 3rd place whilst Sean and Paiva had a great fight for 4th with Sean getting over the line by 0.047. Evan came home 5th and Matt 6th.
Benny rightfully very happy with his first race win and some ole guy grabbing a selfie with the fast guy. Ash very proud of her man.
Our recipient for the new “Awesome ride of the Day” prize was Amber Erasmus AKA Chaotic Blonde ;-). Amber slotted in a 1:29 lap in race 4 which is extremely good for her experience. First race on the X4R and first race without her novice vest. Its great to have 3 girls competing and Turiana, Amber and Amy Thurston are definitely part of the Cup Gang.
Notable Snippits;
The rides and results from all 11 new Cup racers were very impressive as confirmed by 6 of them in the top 15 for overall points in the Hyosung Cup.
We look forward to having Alex “Ballsout” Butson back at Round 2 after he had some technical troubles with his GT250R.
Special thanks to Shelly Crawbits for her very generous $100 Random prize draw won by John Williams. Shelly and Josh are super supporters of our Cup and this is an amazing gesture on their part.
We hope our injured riders are healing up. Chris had a nasty footpeg through the leg distraction after an off on his GT250R in the Junior class. This guys tough though as he hung in there for prize giving.
Lozza May said he is going to clean sweep all 4 races next round to even up the points.
Turiana’s slide through turn 3 before completely unloading was sensational and apparently MM93 said he couldn’t even have saved that. (nice to know he was watching on Ctas) This was captured brilliantly by Cup Media man Cliff Field of TT Kiwis, thanks again for your dedication Cliff.
Stand by for some action clips and video from Cliff when he finds time for hours of editing from his many bike mounted cameras.
Thats a wrap for Round 1 Cup Fans.
Massive thanks to all our sponsors and the volunteers that put our day on. Just what we all needed I think, especially us Aucklanders. Points totals will follow very soon and be uploaded to ccmscup.co.nz.