Round 5 Race Report

Race day: March 2/3, 2023

ROUND 5 MOTOFEST AND SEASON 13 WRAP

It’s a long time between rounds 4 and 5 for the Cup, but so good to get the band back together. Many Cup racers do some track days or oﬀ-road riding to stay dialled in which is great. A few headed oﬀ to the NZSBK Championship which is quite an undertaking and certainly keeps you sharp. We had an impressive 44 riders for Motofest, roughly split evenly between the Hyosungs and Ninjas. A few highlights were getting our 4 Cup women back into the Ninja class, two time Cup Champion and now NZSBK SS300 Champion Jesse Stroud riding the Ninja 400, his big Bro Jacob having a crack on a Ninja also, Tyler King back from injury, Simon Beard back from injury and on a Ninja and Lozza May back for a one oﬀ on Benny’s Hyosung.

Many made the most of the Friday test day to re acquaint themselves with the International Circuit at Hampton Downs, a track we only use once a year. This was a sunny day and a good bedding in for those who hadn’t raced for a while. Saturday was practice, qualy and 1 race. The weather was perfect and some good times were put in although not threatening either of Jesse’s Hyosung or Ninja lap records. Billee made it clear from qualy she meant business in her quest to be the ﬁrst racer to win back to back Ninja Cup titles by putting her MTF Finance Wairau Valley/Carl Cox Motorsport Ninja 400 on pole with a 1:50.384. Next up was the returning Tyler King (TK) 0.404 back and TK headed oﬀ Jacob and Jesse Stroud who ﬁlled the front row.

Oli Pyketts near total domination of the Hyosung Cup continued in qualy taking pole by 0.5 from Elijah Daken, 2019/20 Champion Lozza May and Scotty Findlay in 4th. Good to see young Joe Stroud edging himself closer to the

front with a P7 behind John Williams and James Murdie with Esmond Williams in P8.

*Bill’s leads the field on the run to turn 2. ASP snap*

Race 1 was a grid start of 6 laps. Being a combined class race traﬃc was always going to play a part late in the race

as the front few Ninjas caught the Hyosung’s. Jesse, Tyler and Billee got straight down to their work with Jesse and Tyler swapping the lead several times until gravity took over for TK, fortunately with no injury. Bill’s gave chase and manged her way through the traﬃc on her way to setting the fastest lap (1:48.827), just 0.071 oﬀ Jesses lap record but was not quite enough as Jesse took P1 by 0.117. A super consistent Mike Robinson took the last podium albeit 27 seconds back from Bills and Jesse followed by Tim Gray. Blain Pairama battled his sponsor hard for 5th beating Nathan Finlay over the stripe by 0.024. Megan Kemp rode really well to 9th and continues to build her speed amongst the guys. Andy Ansell won the Andys Cup race over Andy Boldero in this one.

Elijah Daken got close but Oli Pyketts domination of the Hyosung Cup this season continued. A winning margin of 5 seconds is not what we are used to in this class but Oli is making no mistakes on his was to yet another top step.

James Murdie ﬁlled P3 by 0.4 over a returning Lozza May. The Williams boys John and Esmond were P5 and 6 and the ever improving Joe Stroud in P7. Good to have Ben Mayo back also and a P9 was a good ride considering his time away. So good to have so many father/son Teams in the Cup. Awesome quality time together Graeme and Alex Le Comte, Nathan and Cadel Finlay, Troy and Riley Fowles, Robert and Ben Mayo. Then there’s the bro/sister Team of Nick and Heidi Trigger.

*Mike McKain chased by Nick trigger and Co. ASP snap.*

"Sunday dawned wet, wild and windy. The wind dropped soon enough but the rain kept falling and we were up for a wet scrub and Le Mans start race. With the Ninjas allowed full race wets this season the Hyosungs were going to be caught quickly as they had to manage the conditions on very good road tyres. Tyler’s Holeshot was impressive and streaked into turn one with Jesse and Billee giving chase for what was a great battle. Tyler and Jesse swapped the lead with some super skilled wet weather racing. Bills had less luck getting through lapped traﬃc but came home in P3 with Tyler just grabbing the top spot over Jesse by 0.138. Our second woman racer in the top 5 was Megan. What a ride for P5! Andy Ansell showed he doesn’t mind slippery condition for P6 ahead of Mike Robinson and Nathan Finlay.

Oli was the only Hyosung to ﬁnish on the same lap as the winning Ninjas. His fastest lap a scorching 7 seconds faster than the next fastest. Clearly he also made the best of the wet conditions with a good tyre set up and silky smooth riding. Esmond a renowned wet weather rider came home P2 from James Murdie, Scotty Findlay and a charging Troy Fowles. Joe Stroud another excellent ride to P6 showing he is capable in all conditions.

Unfortunately the size of the entire grid was substantially reduced due to not having a good wet weather tyre option and spare wheels."

*Newly crowned Ninja Cup Champion Billee leads Tyler and Jesse into turn 2.*

"After a nearly 2 hour delay due to the persistent downpours and pooling water the oﬃcials well led by Chris Costello got us underway for our last race of the season on a 90% dry track. I have to thank Chris especially as he was under pressure from some MNZ oﬃcials to drop our class in favour of another which had 4 entry’s. Thanks for your support Chris!

Jesse took no prisoners in the last race of the season. He was gone! Billee knew she just had to ﬁnish ahead of Mike to grab her second Ninja Cup title and that’s what she did for P2 by 0.1 over a very good eﬀort from the consistently fast number 72. Tyler came through from a back of the grid start for 4th. Great to have Sean White back in the top 5 after ﬁghting with Tim Gray and Tyler. The Andrews result again went the way of Cup Cop Andy Ansell, a fantastic weekend by our Sprit of the Cup award winner.

14 wins from 16 starts. Oli Pykett was not going to end this amazing season with anything but a win, and that he did. Elijah secured P2 and awesome to have Scotty Findlay back on the podium in P3 from James, Esmond and Mike McKain in P6. Dad Fowles beat Son Fowles home by 0.3 for the best family ﬁnish, so good!

That wrapped up our 13th season of Cup racing. Every round raced at Hampton Downs but fortunately we also used all 3 available track layouts over the season to keep things interesting. The club circuit round was great fun with close action packed racing. We raced in all weathers, the atmosphere in our pit and after race BBQ’s and prizegiving was at it usual level of friendly comradery, our grids were packed, the attitude of our racers awesome, the support for fellow Cup racers fantastic and our sponsors super supportive of what we are doing and achieving in a sport which at times can be extremely challenging to deal with.

I want to thank everyone who has made our Cup what it is. Every rider, support person, sponsor, oﬃcial, ﬂaggy, AMCC as a group and many more. Tracy has been so supportive and helpful on race days which has certainly enabled me to focus on other tasks, thanks Mark for taking on the his BBQ at Motofest, Zak for his help running 2 bikes this season, just an awesome family!

Finally thank you Carl Cox. To catch up again with Coxy at his show in February after such a long time was special and his enthusiasm for what we do makes it all worthwhile."