After a wet race day at Hampton Downs, below is Avalon Biddle’s race report for Round Four!
The penultimate round of the NZ superbike championships was shaping up to be a big one with a full grid of supersport bikes, including many of the country’s top riders entered for this particular round. Repsol Suzuki riders John and Avalon were more than ready to take them on with the usual crew of mechanics and supporters were there to help them out. Our massive pit garage, thanks to Repsol, was awesome especially with the mixed conditions over the weekend.
Practise and qualifying on Friday and Saturday went well in dry and hot weather. John put in a scorcher of a qualifying lap of a 1.05.9 to just miss out on pole by 0.10. This left him in second position and the second person ever to do a 1.05 around this circuit. ‘AvGas’ was back in form with a fantastic session qualifying in 6th position.
The much awaited rain came on Sunday which was a great for everyone in Auckland except motorcycle racers. The conditions were treacherous for race one with heavy rain making visibility a big issue for overtaking safely. John and Avalon both rode sensibly and finished 5th and 6th respectively.
The second race the track began to dry out which made visibility a lot better but wasn’t great for the wet weather tires that are made for a totally wet track. Both riders’ decided not to take any risks, especially John who has a championship title on the line, and finished in 9th and 10th place.
John leads the championship by 16 points going into the final round this weekend, with Avalon in 10th. Fingers crossed for a great weekend to come and a NZ title for the team!
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