The Supermoto class was a crowd favourite on the public streets of Whanganui on Boxing Day, with UK rider Davey Todd (Suzuki RM-Z450 letter D) and local Whanganui hero Richie Dibben (Suzuki RM-Z450 No.1) close through every twist and turn. Photo / Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
The Supermoto class was a crowd favourite on the public streets of Whanganui on Boxing Day, with UK rider Davey Todd (Suzuki RM-Z450 letter D) and local Whanganui hero Richie Dibben (Suzuki RM-Z450 No.1) close through every twist and turn. Photo / Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
The 2024 Suzuki International Series wrapped up in style on Whanganui’s world-famous Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day.
With drizzle wetting the public street circuit early on Thursday morning, fears were held that this may dampen not only the twisty tarmac, but also the enthusiasm of the riders and spectators.
But this was not the case and, particularly as the circuit dried out brilliantly just before the first official races, the riders responded by producing some of the closest racing in the event’s history, with record-setting times recorded in many of the classes, and the crowds showed up anyway in large numbers for the post-Christmas blow-out.
The Cemetery Circuit street motorcycle racing event was the much-anticipated finale of the three-round annual Suzuki International Series and it was not hard to see why the annual motorcycling spectacle each December has a huge following, both domestically and internationally.
The first two rounds were staged on purpose-built race tracks, in Taupō and Manfeild respectively, in the two weekends preceding Boxing Day and riders had set themselves up for a thrilling final showdown at Whanganui.
The public street course at Whanganui is unique in world road-racing circles, affectionately regarded as the “Isle of Man of the Southern Hemisphere”, taking the speeding riders past headstones in the inner-city graveyard, not to mention the competitors zooming close to road-side curbs, across white-painted lines, over railway lines and near to traffic islands.
It takes your breath away just to think about it, although serious safety measures were in place.
It was memorable again this year as Bay of Plenty father-and-son duo Tony and Mitch Rees led the way in the premier Formula One/Superbike class, the two men shading a couple of 2024 Isle of Man title winners from the UK, Davey Todd and Peter Hickman, as the competitors arrived in Whanganui on Boxing Day morning.
Whakatane’s Mitch Rees (bike No.92) cracked the double once again, winning both the premier Formula one/Superbike class overall and taking the Robert Holden Memorial feature race win as well. He is congratulated here by visiting UK rider Davey Todd. Photo / Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
And, after a long day of intense action, featuring racing in 14 bike classes, that’s how the F1 class did end up, Rees junior No.1 and Rees senior No.2, followed by international stars Todd and Hickman.
This meant the just-turned 32-year-old Mitch Rees had made it four F1 title wins in a row in this popular Christmas-time series.
Mitch Rees previously won the Formula One class overall in the Suzuki International Series in 2020, 2022 and 2023 (the series was not run in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic).
It also meant he had added the Robert Holden Memorial feature race win to the ones he had celebrated in 2022 and last year too, now making it three wins in a row for this prestigious trophy.
The Robert Holden Memorial trophy probably holds a special place in the Rees family home, with Mitch Rees’ late younger brother Damon Rees having also won it in 2020 and it has been won their father Tony Rees on seven occasions (between 1990 and 2016), the now 57-year-old showing that age truly is just a number.
Hickman won this trophy also on his previous visit to New Zealand in 2018.
There were plenty of stand-outs in the Suzuki International Series this year, but there was no going past the double-class wins achieved by young Aucklander Tyler King (the 18-year-old from Silverdale who won both the Formula Three and Supersport 300 classes) and home-town hero Richie Dibben (the Whanganui 35-year-old who won both the Supermoto class, for modified dirt bikes, and the inaugural Adventure Bikes class as well).
“It has been a fantastic series again this year, with great racing throughout the classes,” said Suzuki International Series organiser Allan “Flea” Willacy.
“The competition has been good and we have seen some great crowds. The overseas competitors did not let us down and they really put on a great show.”
Meanwhile, German rider Wolfi Schuster and Frenchman Timothee Monot also added to the international flavour of racing this year, both of these riders entered in the Formula Two/600cc class, although Monot was at Whanganui only.
Stuttgart’s Schuster finished a creditable third overall in the F2 class at Whanganui, behind Cambridge’s Morgan McLaren-Wood and Wanāka’s Seth Devereux, while Brittany resident Montot claimed 11th overall in the class on Boxing Day.
Class winners in the 2024 Suzuki International Series, which wrapped up in Whanganui on Boxing Day, are Whakatane’s Mitch Rees (Formula One/superbikes class); Cambridge’s Morgan McLaren-Wood (Formula Two/Supersport 600); Auckland’s Tyler King (in both the Formula Three and Supersport 300 classes); Wellington’s Malcolm Beilski (Formula Sport, Senior); Whanganui’s Jeff Croot (Formula Sport, junior); Glen Eden’s Daniel Mettam (Post Classics, Pre 95, Senior); Tauranga’s Darrick Kattenberg (Post Classics, Pre 95, Junior); Hastings’ Gian Louie (Post Classics, Pre 89, Senior); Lower Hutt’s Dean Bentley (Post Classics, Pre 89, Junior); Panmure’s Adam Unsworth and Whanganui’s Bryce Rose (F1 sidecars); Whanganui’s Tracey Bryan and Auckland’s Kendal Dunlop (F2 sidecars); Whanganui’s Richie Dibben (in both the Supermoto and Adventure Bike classes).
Robert Holden Memorial feature race top five: 1. Mitch Rees, 2. Davey Todd, 3. Tony Rees, 4. Morgan McLaren-Wood, 5. Wellington’s Rogan Chandler.
