Round 3 Race Report

Race day: Nov 3 2024

ROUND 3

At last, a sunshiny day…all day! How good is it race in conditons that don’t change every 15 minutes? A cold southerly was the only detractor but not too bad. I actually enjoy the pit setup with the tent and somehow more relaxed atmosphere of the Club Circuit. We had 41 Cup entries for Round 4, 20 Hyosung’s and 21 Ninjas. We welcomed a wildcard ride by past Hyosung Champion Alex “Butman” Buston and again appreciate the eﬀorts of our Taranaki based riders to make the journey up along with Ram from Wellington and Jayme from Rotorua. Being the Club circuit our two classes were of course split and had their own races. 20 odd bikes on each grid was ideal for this challenging short circuit.

Qualifying

The Hyosung front row after qualy went Elijah Daken, Jacob Rutherford, Scott Findlay and rounding out the front row was Esmond Williams. 0.8 covered these four. Row 2 was headed by Troy Fowles, Nick Trigger, a returning Hadleigh Thomson and Jamie Killingback in P8. Also good to have Too Tall Trent McDiarmid back in the Cup after missing Round 2.

The Ninja front row was headed by Tyler King from Oli Pykett, Bill’s Fuller and Mike Robinson. 0.5 covering these four. Tim Gray, Lozza May, Simon Beard and Jayme Martin made up row 2. Tylers time of 39.461 was fast considering we don’t race at the Club Circuit open.

Race 1

Race 1 for the Hyosungs was a 3 way battle for Elijah, Scott and Jacob with Elijah winning out by 0.911 over Scott and 1.375 over Jacob. Scotty nailed a best lap of 42.288 but all 3 of these guys were in the 42’s.Esmond and Troy were P4 and 5 and then a big battle group of 6 riders covered by 1.7 seconds. Dan Franzen enjoyed his ﬁght for a very good 7th his best result this season. We did lose Hadleigh, Riley Fowles and Jamie to the weeds but all were ok.

The big Ninja battle was for 3rd with Billee and Simon Beard scrapping it out with Bill’s gettng the nod by 0.06. Tyler was oﬀ and away winning by 5.214, breaking Billee’s lap record by 0.022 in the process and leaving a 38.692 on the table. Oli and Lozza May had a great ﬁght for 5th ﬁnishing in that order. Tim Gray was P7 and all these P2-P7 riders were in the 39’s. Craig Sherriﬀ who was showing good form had an oﬀ but was unhurt.

Race 2

The Hyosung le Mans start race was won at the start when Elijah got the dream getaway and went onto to win by 6.9 seconds from Scotty who was a lonely second and Esmond coming through for a solid P3 from the ever-improving Dan Franzen in P4. Another great midﬁeld ﬁght had Jack Harrison, Corey Pook, Brett Butler, Troy Fowles, Jarrod Thompson and Jamie Killingback covered by just 1.2 seconds, great to watch that battle. Joe Stroud started from pitlane but came through for 13th and the 4th fastest lap on his X4R.

Tyler bolted, end of storey. Oli gave chase as did Mike and Bill’s, all three running low 39’s but Tyler posted a 38.908 to take the win by 3.45 from Oli, Mike and Bill’s. There was more congestion at high speed in the mid pack with some great rides by Jayme Martin and Brit Somerville. Alex LeComte and Callum Mason did find the weeds but both ok.

Race 3

A freaky accident happened before the ﬁrst corner of lap one in the Hyosung Cup race 3. Jacob Rutherford and Elijah clashed clip-ons on the run to turn 1 which end with Jacob on his butt, his GT250R stayed on its wheels for 50 meters before lying on its side and sliding across the track in front of the mid corner pack, missing everyone and coming to rest on the outside of turn 1! Wow, that was lucky. Elijah brushed this aside like a true pro and went onto a commanding win of 5.4 seconds over Scotty, Esmond, Nick Trigger and Troy. A SUPER ﬁght was going on behind them between Jamie Killingback, Jack Harrison, Corey Pook and Jarod Thompson. Awesome racing.

It was the same four fighting at the front of the Ninja Cup with Tyler again winning over Mike, Oli and Billee. Simon, Lozza and Tim Gray had a great scrap for 5th. Britten, Jayme Alex and Andy Ansell were a battle group for 8th ﬁnishing in that order. Callum unfortunately had some mechanical issues plaguing his day which resulted in another DNF, rider

Race 4

Watching Elijah and Scotty round the last turn onto the ﬁnish straight was a teat. These boys were committed. Elijah led every lap until he unloaded on lap ﬁve ﬁnding the weeds, rider ok. Scotty went onto win with a great best lap of 42.210. Jacob was back and came home a very good second ahead of Esmond and Cup Cop (2) Nick in a solid 4th, just pipping Jamie and Jack. The tag Team of Bre􀀃 Butler and Hadleigh was in form with Bretto gettng the bragging rights this time in a ﬁne 9th place. The race was red ﬂagged on lap 6 when Amy Trigger unfortunately went down at turn 2. It took a while to make her comfortable enough to get in the ambulance and oﬀ to the medical room for some pain relief for a fractured collarbone. She’s was to have surgery on that this week after the swelling had settled down. The Cup send our very best wishes to Amy and hope she is back soon.

The Ninja race was on repeat mode. Tyler, Mike, Billee and Oli dominating those ﬁrst four spots. The ﬁrst 3 riders in the 38’s!! Alex Butman Butson was gettng his racing eye back focused with a ﬁne 8th place just heading oﬀ the fast improving Jayme Martin. Lozza bit the dust on lap 1, distracted by what he was going to spend all his prizemoney on. Lozza being Lozza just brushed it oﬀ and consoled himself with a cold beer at prizegiving.

Results

The day ended after 4 rounds which took the pressure oﬀ us with the Cup BBQ and prizegiving. Always a challenge to have our social time when the circuit people want to go home. Thank you to all competitors for again bring a good attitude, to the officials and flaggys for running the day and picking some of us up and to the medical people who looked after our Amy.