Motorsport: Confident 'Rocket Rex' display

Taupo's Rex Mincher (Yamaha R6), is enjoying the best summer of his racing career. Photo / Andy McGechan

It's all starting to click for Taupo motorcycle road-racer Rex Mincher and, even though he's one of the oldest competitors in the Formula Two 600cc Supers class, he's been turning heads this summer.

The 52-year-old father-of-one has only been racing since 2010, but his progress since then has tracked a steady upward trajectory and this is despite the fact he's also on an old bike, the same Yamaha R6 he bought new in 2009.

"Why buy a new bike? This one's brilliant and there's nothing wrong with it," said company director Mincher, who is currently running seventh in the F2 class after two of three rounds of the Suzuki Series.

The third and final round is this weekend, Boxing Day to be precise, when the streets of Whanganui are closed off to hold the famous Cemetery Circuit races.

"The bike is handling so good. I bought it brand new from Pro Moto Yamaha in Taupo in 2009 and then went for a ride on the road. It was the first bike I'd ridden in about 25 years and I did about 75 kilometres and said 'wow, bikes really have changed. They can go around corners now'," he laughed.

He then took it to the race track for the first time and the rest, they say, is history, because now he's a dedicated and determined racer and this season has had "a podium finish in sight".

"My eyes lit up a bit when I was racing at Manfeild (round two of the Suzuki Series just over a week ago) because I could actually see me earning my first podium finish. Then I crashed. That's racing I suppose."

It's likely that Mincher's improvement over the past season could even result in his friends renaming him "Rocket Rex"and he credits his recent success with his "watching the international visitors here very closely to see what I can learn. I was focusing pretty intently on Switzerland's Roman Stamm and I think I picked up quite a bit from watching him".

The coming 2016 nationals - the four-round series starting at Ruapuna on January 10 - are his next big challenge after Boxing Day and he'll tackle that series with new-found confidence.