Race report from Restorace supported Repsol Suzuki team, as written by Avalon Biddle:
Round one of the NZSBK championship was held at Ruapuna Raceway over the weekend. Being the team’s home race and the first round of the New Zealand Championship series, the expectations were high and a big crew of helpers were ready for the weekend.
The team tested both Thursday and Friday. The extra track time proved useful before qualifying Saturday afternoon when John put the gsxr600 in pole position and was 5th on the superbike. Avalon did her personal best lap time around this track and was in 7th. Saturday afternoon also saw the whole team enthused as Amy Ross finish a fantastic and hard-fought 2nd on her Suzuki RG150 in the streetstock class. She went on to claim 3rd overall for the weekend.
Race day Sunday got off with a big bang as the Repsol Suzuki’s came around in 1st and 2nd positions for the first lap of the race. Avalon managed to hold on to 3rd for a while but ended up 6th after a great battle, while John sat in 2nd and went around the outside for the lead at turn one to take the lead on the last lap and the win. You couldn’t ask for better start to the season. The second 600 race saw John finish 2nd and Avalon in 7th.
John had a great fight in the feature superbike class, fighting hard to hold off hard chargers guys behind him and finish 6th. Unfortunately he got pushed off track on the first lap on the NZ grand Prix and had to salvage an 8th place finish.
The team extends a huge thank you to all those people who made it out to the track to help and all those helping behind the scenes. The bikes will be back on track this weekend at Levels Raceway Timaru for the second round. Stay tuned for the next update!
Overall NZ championship points:
600cc Superpsort – John Ross – 1=
600cc Supersport – Avalon Biddle – 6th
Superbikes – John Ross – 6th
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