Round 5 Race Report- THE FINAL SHOWDOWN

Race day: MARCH 11/12, 2023

Taupo Motorsport Park has always been a favourite for the Cup. A great race track for smaller bikes, excellent facilities and a weekend away. That said we do battle to get our usual BIG grid there. We were a support class for the NZSBK Round 6 and had 3 races on the program and a test day on the Friday. The test day was pretty much rained off and we got around 8 dry laps. Not much point in wet laps as the weekend forecast was excellent.

We had 29 entries made up of 20 Hyosungs and 9 Ninja 400’s. Unfortunately we had lost 4 of the family from accidents at Motofest, although it was great to see Tam, Megs and Vaughan come down to support us. Simon is still recovering from his concussion, and we hope to catch up with him soon.

Taupo has always been a double points round, our joker in the round pack. This being the case and 458 points on offer (60 for the WIL Sport Womens Cup) many riders could still with each of the 3 Cup titles.

Qualifying

Hyosung Cup. Saturday dawned sunny and warmish, although track temps were down a bit. Benny Cook is the current lap record holder at Taupō and wasted no time in setting the benchmark lap of 1:56.908 some 202 seconds ahead of Oli Pykett and Esmond and an excellent front row start for Rory Barkla. Quickest woman was Kendal on row 2 with a 2:01.968. It was great to have Too tall Trent back in the band also, slotting into a very respectable 14th after missing a few rounds. Tim Wigram is a first time Cup entry sitting in grid 18.

Ninja Cup. Tyler King was on it pretty quickly and posted the pole time of 1:44.092 closley followed by Billee at 1:44.284 with Alex and Nathan Finlay rounding out the front row. The other 5 Ninjas were close with Row 2 headed up by Justin “no seat” Reid, setting the scene for some close battles.

*Benny Cook leads the Hyosung pack – ASP snap*

Race 1

This was an 8 lap grid start on a warming track and although Ben cleared off the chasing pack of Hyosung’s had a great race. Scotty Findlay, Oli and Blain Pairama were scrapping for 2nd and finished in that order. Kendal had an awesome but lonely ride home in 5th, Hadleigh, Esmond and Shaun Parker were next over the stripe with John Williams 9th and Rory Barkla came in 10th. It was good to see everyone come back to the pist on their own wheels, no flags or trailers required.

The Ninja Cup class was an intense fight between Tyler and Billee. Billee came into this round trailing Alex by 28 points and needed to hit her markers to outscore the Hyosung Cup Champion. The lead was exchanged 4 times between these two young guns and Tyler with a late braking move at the end of the straight nicked the win by 0.105 from Billee with Alex home 3rd. I Hour winner Nathan Finlay was 4th

*Kendal leads Hadleigh and Esmond – ASP Snap*

*Tyler pips Billee – Mad Love Media snap*

Race 2

Sunday morning was our 6 lap Le Mans start race, a slightly cold track and we had 2 warm up laps before lining up. Alex gets the start on his Passmasters NZ Ninja 400. He is on a mission and charges hard leading on lap 1. Billee gets away in 5th into turn 1 with work to do to catch Tyler and Alex. A great battle ensued between these 3 but it was Tyler who prevailed at the flag by 0.015 from Billee and only 0.8 back to Alex, an awesome race to watch form 3 very talented riders. Nathan had a lonely 4th place ride but only 0.1 separated Justin and Sean for 5th in that order.

The Hyosung race was a classic also with Oli really taking to the Taupo specialist Ben and this was his first time here. Ben took the win but only by 0.317. Kendal rode one of her best race of the season to podium in 3rd 6.3 back with Hadleigh, Blain Esmond and Scotty rounding out the top 7. We did lose Riley Fowles on lap 2, no injury.

*Intense battle for the Ninja Cup podium – MJIs Snap*

Race 3

Alex and Billee are now tied on points in the Ninja Cup. This is race 17 of 17 for the season. Its on! The track is warm, nerves are obvious, palms are the sweaty kind and that’s only me! Hahahaha. The Cup Spirit was also on show with Alex and Billee fist bumping and wishing each other a good race before heading out for the final showdown. Again Alex did not hold back and punched his way to the lead with Bill’s and Tyler chasing. Billee waited till she had good heat in her Bridgestones and unleashed on lap 2 and pulling a good lead which was not challenged. Just to seal it all Bill’s set a new lap record on lap 10. The last lap of the last race of the season. Tyler slipped past Alex also on lap 2 but couldn’t reel in the new Ninja Cup Champion. Alex was a solid 3rd with Nathan again in 4th from Sean, Justin, Blair and the Andrews (Boldero over Ansell).

Oli again challenged Benny and briefly took the lead on lap 4 but Ben pulled one of his Taupo specialty passes to regain the lead and solidify his perfect points scoring weekend and nail down the Hyosung Cup title. Scotty Findlay was the 3rd one on the podium followed by a great battle group of Blain, Hadleigh, Kendal and Esmond. Unfortunately Trent and Bretty Butler were non starters in the last race of the season.

*Cup history made – Billee is the first Woman Ninja Cup Champion – Mad Love Media snap.*

Fast facts

Jesse breaks his own Hyosung lap record on the Hampton International circuit.
Billee breaks Zaks Taupo lap record on the MTF Finance Ninja 400
Billee wins 5 races on her way to the title
Tyler King starts 14 and wins 4 Ninja Cup races
Alex wins 3 Ninja races
Kendal wins 12 races
Benny Cook scores maximum available points at Taupo

*Hyosung Cup Champion Benny Cook gets a hug from John Williams – ASP snap*

*Kendal is our 2023 WIL Sport Womens Cup Champion – Mad Love Media snap*

*Billee “Bill’s Thrills” Fuller – Carl Cox Motorsport Ninja Cup Champion – Mad Love Media snap*

Winners

Kendal goes 3 in a row as the WIL Sport Women’s Champion with some sublime rides and a comeback form a non scoring round.

Benny Cook takes out the Hyosung Cup. No one has been racing in the Cup longer than Ben. He has always been a very fair and fast racer but this season took out 7 wins to rise above a very fast pack of Hyosungs.

That’s a wrap for our 12th season Cup Fans. An amazing season of dramas and historical moments. A record number of registered competitors, our first ever woman outright round winner when Bills took out the Motofest weekend in the Ninja Cup and backs up a week later to win the Carl Cox Motorsport Ninja Cup. Amazing and to be honest quite overwhelming for me.

Again, a massive thank you to all who made this such a memorable season. Our sponsors, the volunteers, the officials but most of all you Cup Racers and your crews. Such cool people to be amongst.

Bye for now. Ken