Motorsport: Lap record adds lustre to win

Whakatane's Tony Rees (Honda CBR1000RR, No11) takes the chequered flag to once more be crowned King of Paeroa. On the back page is Taupo's Scotty Moir about to take a corner. Photo / Andy McGechan/Bikesportnz.com

Bay of Plenty's Tony Rees has done it again.

The Whakatane man first won the premier title at the Honda Battle of the Streets event at Paeroa more than 20 years ago, and, at age 48, he celebrated his ninth big win there on Sunday.

He also won the title in 2014 but didn't get a shot last year because rain forced the organisers to abandon the day.

Nine victories at the popular event makes Rees the most dominant rider the race has seen. To add icing to the cake, Rees also broke the lap record for Paeroa on Sunday, racing around the fabled hacksaw-shaped circuit in 44.427 seconds.

He took his Honda CBR1000RR to win the first of two Formula One races and then backed that up with a start-to-finish win in the 10-lap King of the Streets feature race as well.

He came unstuck in the second of two Formula One races, forced to withdraw when arm cramps became too painful to bear, handing the outright class win instead to Taupo's Scotty Moir (Suzuki GSX-R1000), who managed a 3-1 scorecard. But Rees was still the hero of the day in winning the all-important feature race. "I was getting cramp in my hands before the start of the second Formula One race," Rees said. "My hands simply locked up.

"I didn't get a great night's sleep last night and maybe my diet hasn't been the best, contributing to the cramps, but hats off to Scotty [Moir], who rode brilliantly today.

"I nearly crashed three times in that second F1 race and, in the end, I decided it wasn't worth dying for.

"I've never had that happen before. The bike would have won today, but the rider couldn't.

"It would have been nice to get three wins from three starts, but I'll settle for two and one of those wins being in the feature race was good, too.

"I think I had the measure of Scotty and my lap time of 44.5 seconds was the fastest I've ever been around here."

Rees now looks ahead to the fourth and final round of the New Zealand Superbike Championships, at Hampton Downs, near Meremere, on March 5-6.