The Star Insure MotoFest at Hampton Downs this weekend doubles as the sixth and final round in this season’s New Zealand Superbike Championships. Photo / Andy McGechan
The Star Insure MotoFest at Hampton Downs this weekend doubles as the sixth and final round in this season’s New Zealand Superbike Championships. Photo / Andy McGechan
The event will be the fifth edition of the popular motorcycling festival, which also doubles as the sixth and final round in this season’s New Zealand Superbike Championships (NZSBK).
Incorporated into the NZSBK section of the weekend’s programme will be a memorial race for Damon Rees, the final race for the Supersport 600 class of the weekend/championship being dedicated to the late racer.
Damon’s older brother Mitch Rees said he was pleased the salute to his late brother could occur at Hampton Downs.
“Hampton Downs and the Motorcycling New Zealand road-racing commission wanted to do this memorial for Damo. The Supersport 600 championship is the class that he won back in 2017, before heading overseas to race, and, significantly, it was sealed by him in the last race of the championship at Hampton Downs that year.
“We wanted to pay homage to his winning that championship title and how he achieved that. So the last race for the Supersport 600 class this year will be the Damon Rees Memorial. That will continue on in future years too at Hampton Downs.
“We were really close as brothers growing up and as sibling rivals on the race track and it has left a big hole in my heart that he has now gone.
“He was a hero to a lot of people. We as a family obviously pay tribute to him, but it’s cool too that a lot of other people want to remember him and celebrate the joy and friendship he brought to the sport. We all want his memory to live on.”
Damon Rees in 2017 after being crowned New Zealand’s 600cc supersport champion. Photo / Andy McGechan
Mitch is the defending national 1000 Superbike champion and currently leads the 2023-24 series.
The key to the weekend’s racing will be watching to see if Mitch Rees can defend his title as Australian visitor Ant West comes on strong.
West, a former Supersport World Championship, MotoGP and Moto2 racer in Europe, missed the first round of this 2023-24 series in Taupō back in December, but has won races at every round since then.
Rees currently leads the points standings, but only five of six rounds are to be counted, with every rider to discard their worst round result, and that means West will drop a big fat zero from his tally when he deletes his non-score from the Taupō event, while Rees will have to drop 40 or more points from his.
This will tighten things up considerably in the thrilling chase for glory in this premier class.
Their father, Tony Rees, is in the same class.
The final round of any sporting series is always the most important because that’s when the coveted silverware eventually gets handed out.
That will naturally be the case too when the sixth and final round of the PTS Logistics-sponsored 2023-24 New Zealand Superbike Championships wrap up at Hampton Downs, in North Waikato, this coming Saturday and Sunday (March 2-3).
The undulating circuit, just north of Huntly, is also the venue for the annual Star Insure MotoFest motorcycling festival this weekend, one event dovetailing into the other to offer competitors, bike fans and supporters alike real value for money and it also virtually guarantees a bumper-sized crowd at Hampton Downs.
Invercargill’s Cormac Buchanan (Supersport 600 class), Nelson’s Jonny Lewis (Super Twins class) and Whanganui father and son team Peter and Michael Dowman (Formula Two Sidecars) have already wrapped up the national titles in their respective categories, but the lesser placings have yet to be decided and, besides this, all the other championship classes are still on a knife edge.
For the 42-year-old Lewis, his Super Twin title win is his first national crown after 12 years of trying. He owns his own building company, “with a staff of about 20 old roosters who keep me busy”, so his New Zealand championship win was certainly reason to celebrate.
Taupiri’s Billee Fuller won the day in the Supersport 300 class at round five in Invercargill two weeks ago, her impressive 1-2-2 results edging out Hamilton’s Jesse Stroud and Auckland’s Hamish Simpson, but Stroud and Simpson were expected to try and answer her back at Hampton Downs.
Motorcycling New Zealand road-race commissioner Andy Skelton said there was still “lots to play for” at Hampton Downs this weekend.
“There should be some exciting racing and it will be the culmination of what has been a great series,” he said.
The spectacle of the support classes offered by MotoFest, with motorcycling legends on hand and classic bikes adding to the eye candy, will make this weekend very special indeed.
“We already have the 2025 NZSBK season sorted out and an announcement will be made at MotoFest at the weekend.”
This season’s main sponsor has been PTS Logistics, who transported airbags to Ruapuna, Timaru and Teretonga, while other partners for the championship have been Coregas (nationwide industrial gas supplier) and Race Supplies (Motorcycle race parts supplier), with Moto Movers and BRM Dyno also supporting the Pro Twins/Super Twins class and Bartercard is offering prizes for all the dedicated marshals and ‘flaggies’ in the series.
