Old warrior conquers Battle of the Streets

You can't keep a good man down - the same could probably have been said of Tony Rees' motorcycle, as the Whakatane rider mounted a "back to the future" assault on one of New Zealand's biggest race meetings.

The Bay of Plenty man dusted off his 2005 model Yamaha R1 and entered the Battle of the Streets race meeting at Paeroa.

He stunned onlookers with his pace, putting the bike on pole position.

The 1000cc Yamaha superbike was the same machine he raced to win the New Zealand Superbike Championship in 2005 and, although technology has moved on to include such "goodies" as traction control, the Whakatane rider proved his bike was still capable of winning seven years after its manufacture.

"It was another great day of hot racing action at Paeroa," the 44-year-old said.

"The 2005 Yamaha R1 hadn't been raced since the 2005 Australian Superbikes round at Phillip Island [in Australia], so it was a matter of giving it a service, new tyres and brake pads, and then let's go racing.

"The 2005 model lacked a few of the modern goodies like cross-plane crank, quick-shifter, slipper clutch and traction control, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be fun to ride.

"After a few small suspension changes, after the first practice session, I managed the fastest time in qualifying to put it on pole position.

"After a slow start in race one, I put in some good laps to finish third behind Aussie Dan Stauffer and young Christchurch charger Ryan Hampton."

Rees said race two was the King of the Streets and he had yet another average start.

"This was a bike with a seven-year-old clutch, which wasn't helping the jump off the line. It shuddered a bit."

After 10 hot laps, Rees crossed the finish line in second place, 2.5 seconds behind Stauffer, making it a Yamaha one-two for the day's feature race.

"There was nothing left of the tyres after that one... they were shredded," said Rees.

"Race three was more of the same - average off the start and, after a 10-lap fight with Ryan Hampton and [Hawera's] Hayden Fitzgerald, I had to be content with fourth place.

"All in all, not a bad day racing for a part-time rider on a seven-year-old machine."