Motorsport: Street-racer makes his comeback a winner

Aucklander Lance Lowe goes sprawling after tangling with Tony Rees of Whakatane during yesterday's Paeroa races. Picture / Amos Chapple

Paeroa's 14th annual Battle of the Streets resulted in a fairytale ending for Jared Love.

Five years ago, the Hamilton rider was airlifted from the town after crashing in practice.

With brain damage and a punctured lung, he was given only a 15 per cent chance of living.

Yesterday, he returned to the scene determined to write a new chapter in his race history.

He finished with a first in the Formula One race that honours a racer who wasn't so lucky, taking the Robert Holden Memorial from international superbike rider Andrew Stroud and four-times Robert Holden winner Tony Rees.

"I'm back," he laughed. "That's the best field I've ever raced against and to win, that's the signal.

"There is a reason for me to be here, I nearly didn't make it after that crash and it's been a long road back.

"But I'm loving it. Honda have given me some opportunities - I want to go as far as I can overseas now," he said.

The 28-year-old took his CBR1000 to second behind an unstoppable Stroud in the first Formula One race.

The Aucklander cleared out and held a four-second lead for most of the race.

Brian Bernard was third and Rees fourth.

The Robert Holden finished Love-Stroud-Rees, and in the second F1 race the order was Stroud-Rees-Love.

Rees had not accumulated points because he missed the first Battle of the Streets meeting at Wanganui, and therefore had to start on line two of the grid.

He was boxed in badly in his first two races, but when he did get in the clear, his Yamaha R1 matched Stroud's GSXR Brother Suzuki for speed.

The will they all had to win was demonstrated with some exchanges of plastic around the tighter corners of the 1.2km "hacksaw" circuit.

Stroud said he hit 265 km/h down Paeroa's main street.

"It's exciting all right - the back starts sliding out on the kink in the main straight at about that speed, especially when the tar starts melting, you can't quite open it right up."

He has signed with Suzuki for two more years of racing.

The big disappointment was a blown gearbox for expat Bruce Anstey.

The England-based Isle of Man champion competed for only two laps of the first F1 race before having problems with the selectors in his Irish-built GSXR1000.

It was a repeat of a problem that plagued him at Wanganui on Boxing Day.

His team will strip out the race gear and seek standard production parts to repair the box this week so Anstey can ride at Manfeild this weekend.

Veteran Ginger Molloy won both junior post-classics racers but he was not the oldest rider, that honour going to a 72-year-old.

The youngest was 15 - racing tutor Brian Bernard had permission to run three teenagers who do not have road licences.

The sidecar competition went to Phillip Law from Gisborne in his Honda CBR1100, but crowd honours went to Bruce Williamson from Wanganui and swinger Carl Venimore on a 1960s 650cc Triumph T110.

The bike is unmodified since it won the New Zealand sidecar title for Shorty DeMalmanche and Graham Binyon in 1972.

Williamson has never won a race on it in the 30 years he's owned it and yesterday was no exception, with two tail-end lasts.

"That's not why we're here. It's a part of New Zealand motorsport history that bike - we couldn't muck around with it."

Williamson, who won't give his age but reckons he started counting backwards when he got to 50, had not competed at Paeroa before but enjoyed it and intends going back.

His regular swinger, Paul Blinkhorne was concussed in a masters rugby tournament a week before the event and Venimore stepped in at the last minute, never having held a sidecar down before.

He spent $1500 on leathers and a helmet on Friday, and reckons he wasn't worried.

"I've known Bruce for 30 years so I trusted him. And it was all over too fast to worry about anything."

It was the first year that no rider was taken to hospital.

Bumps and bruises were the only result of five crashes during the 18-race meet.

Police made no arrests but traffic patrols were busy afterwards.