"We won...that's what counts"

Beating the Aussies on their home turf in any sporting contest is always a thrill for any red-blooded Kiwi.
So while Greytown motorcyclist Doug Fairbrother, 60, can proudly reflect on his share of successes during a busy career on the international circuit which included competing in the Isle of Man, Italy, Holland, Wales and Ireland, he still took special pleasure from results achieved at the Barry Sheene Memorial Meet in Sydney on April 1 and 2.
There Fairbrother competed in the pre-1989 class on the Ducati 857, which he first purchased from a factory in Italy in 1988 and was part of a New Zealand team which, in a transtasman points contest, won them the Barry Sheene Trophy in the process. New Zealand managed 132 points and Australia 131.
"Quite honestly I'm not sure how the points were tallied up but we won and that's what counts," Fairbrother said.
His own individual efforts also pleased Fairbrother with his best placings in a class which saw more than 40 riders from all parts of the globe doing battle being a fifth and seventh.
"The bike went terrific, it didn't miss a beat," he said, adding that the technical nature of the course with its many blind corners fully tested the physical powers of the riders. "It was pretty exhausting, I was quite knackered at the end of it all."