Motor Sport
The Yamaha Motor New Zealand road racing teams aced their first 2020/2021 season’s competitive outings, with three of the four riders topping their classes at the Suzuki International Series yesterday.
It’s been a long time between laps for the Yamaha Racing Team’s (YRT) Alastair Hoogenboezem (YZF-R1) and the Yamaha Racing Development Team’s (YRDT) Rogan Chandler, Harry Parker and Invercargill’s Cormac Buchanan, yet they all scored race wins over the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park-hosted event in Taupo.
The current New Zealand Superbike (NZSBK) champion, Hoogenboezem showed that he will continue to be a force to be reckoned with, winning both F1 Superbike races on his YZF-R1.
He described it as “an amazing weekend” and soaked up that impossible to beat feeling that comes with “being back at a race track, catching up with the road race family and racing again.”
For Wellington’s Rogan Chandler his F2 Supersport 600 class victory looked unlikely before he hit the track on Sunday morning, as he was unable to ride his race-spec Yamaha YZF-R6 and had to settle for his spare bike. It didn’t stop him from winning his first race and finishing a close second in the next race to take a 6-point lead.
Timaru rider Harry Parker chalked up a second and third placing in SuperSport 300.
For Invercargill’s Cormac Buchanan the opening round delivered all the highs and the lows associated with racing.
He soared from pole in qualifying to a crushing DNF in race one, then back up again to victory in the second race.
“I was gutted to crash in the first race. I had a good lead and just went into turn one too hot and lost the front. A lesson in patience! Race two was a chance to redeem myself and I led from go to woah which felt unreal,” the 14-year-old Buchanan says.
Yamaha’s Motorsport Manager Josh Coppins was more than pleasantly surprised by how what was meant to only be a chance to trial the 2021 Yamahas, panned out for his riders.
“It was a wonderful weekend for us and I’m really happy with the effort from the crew and the boys in all classes. It couldn’t have really gone too much better,” he says.
“We’re focused on the nationals and although this was just a testing event to get our set-ups sorted, I knew we’d be there or thereabouts. To get three class wins was very cool and for Alastair to break a lap record was brilliant!”
“We will keep our fingers on the pulse; keep working hard and ticking the boxes and I’m sure we’ll have another great season,” Coppins concludes.
Round two will be staged at Manfield in Fielding this weekend.