Tauranga racer Sloan Frost raced through to a podium finish in the second race of the Suzuki International Tri-Series opener at Hampton Downs on Saturday.
Frost had done most of his winter series riding on the M1 Motorsport BMW HP2 twin-cylinder machine and experienced some minor problems on returning to the more powerful BMW S1000RR Superbike.
"We had a few minor problems in qualifying, mainly with the brakes, which hurt my confidence a bit," Frost said.
"In qualifying I was having brake problems and I stopped in the pits to have them adjusted. Then when I did my fastest lap, which would have put me on the front row, it was ruled to have been after the chequered flag was shown so I had to start well back in the field."
Race one continued the eventful weekend but race two saw Frost ride to third place.
"My traction control turned itself off in the middle of the first race which gave me a big moment and nearly put me in the armco. That but me back to dead last and I managed to get back up to finish seventh.
"I was swamped at the start of the second race but started to pick off a few and catch up to fourth. Then Craig Shirriffs made a mistake and I was into third.
"That was a pretty good result but I'm a bit disappointed because we are half a second off the pace we had last year."
Frost also raced in the BEARS class on the BMW HP2 and finished third in both races while his Mount Motorcycles teammate Rhys Holmes achieved a first and second placing on a BMW S1000RR sharing the honours with Aucklander Travis Moan, also on a S1000RR.
The Tri-Series continues this weekend at Manfeild before wrapping up with the traditional Wanganui Boxing Day event.
"I've looked at the weather forecast for Manfeild and we are stocking up on wet weather tyres," Frost said.
Australian Robbie Bugden (Suzuki) won both races at Hampton Downs and leads the series with 50 points from defending champ Andrew Stroud (Suzuki) on 42 while Frost is tied with Kumeu's Ray Clee (Suzuki) on 34 points.
Scott in bold debut
Young Te Puke racing driver Michael Scott made an immediate impression on his Formula Ford debut at the opening national championship round raced at Ruapuna near Christchurch at the weekend.
Scott, 17, who in the past month has won twice in the Formula First category, has stepped up to the Formula Ford championship with the Motorsport Solutions team driving a Mygale previously campaigned by Stefan Webling and Martin Short.
After qualifying third on Saturday, Scott completed the three-race weekend with a second placing and two thirds.
The consistent run of podium placings puts him second in the championship race behind Auckland teenager and defending champion Andre Heimgartner.
Scott said his weekend had exceeded his expectations. "I'd been hoping for a top-three so I'm pretty stoked to get a second," he said.
"The racing is quite a bit more intense than Formula First. You going into the corners a lot faster and the Formula Ford has much more grip."
Heimgartner leads the series with three wins and a perfect score of 225 points from Scott on 187 and Christchurch driver Tom Barker on 147.
The second round is at Invercargill's Teretonga Park on January 14-15.
Super Saloon action
Former New Zealand champion Brent Emerson (Mt Maunganui) was again the leading Baypark driver at the second round of the GT Radials SSCAR super saloon car series last Saturday night.
The super saloons were making a rare appearance at Rotorua's Paradise Valley Raceway with a 16-car field split into two groups for the heat races and then coming together for a 20-lap final on the tight track.
Craig Cardwell (Auckland), Matt Smith (Thames), Shane McIntyre (Tauranga) and Grant Flynn (Napier) won the heat races. The most entertaining battle came in the top-six "pole shuffle" with each match-up won from the inside starting position until Cardwell met top qualifier Flynn in the final sprint and made the outside line work in the first corner to take the win.
Cardwell selected the outside starting position for the final and gained an early advantage but on the second start his car broke its driveshaft.
Flynn led all the way and Emerson raced to second place while a close battle for third saw Huntly racer Cody Hata narrowly edge out Tauranga's Kristin Vermeulen, who performed strongly with some smooth driving and backed up her first-round result.
Huntly's Steve Williams and Tauranga racer Trevor Rodgers completed the top-six.
First-round winner Ben Harding (Auckland) dropped out of the final with a flat tyre after a clash with Dean Waddell (Tauranga) and the Rotorua win puts Flynn into the series lead with Emerson in second place. The next round of the series is at Napier's Meeanee Speedway on January 2.
Allen rides a winner
Three Tauranga drag racers reached finals at the Summer Nationals at Taupo on Sunday to gain valuable NZ Drag Racing Association national series points. Mount Maunganui's Spike Allen (Harley Davidson Destroyer) took out a Competition Bike final win against the Kawasaki of Aucklander Ian Wilkins.
Wilkins' bike had a clear performance advantage but had a difficult launch which saw the rear wheel bouncing off the ground for a split second.
"It was close race but I got him on the start line," Allen said.
His best run at Taupo was 9.7s at 140mph aboard the big vee-twin machine which he continues to develop beyond its original factory specification including a nitrous injection system.
"We've got some more tuning to do on the nitrous oxide," Allen said. "At the moment we're running it in third, fourth and fifth gear but we're going to inject it right on the start line. The nitrous takes it from 170-horsepower to about 240-horsepower and there's lots of time to to be gained."
Tauranga's Ian Metz was having his third outing his big block Chev powered Topolino, altered since adding a supercharger and some lowline body changes. Metz clocked a best of 8.28s at 171mph and reached the Competition final against Gerald Smith.
His time at Taupo was short of the impressive 7.6s run he managed at Meremere earlier in the year but it was achieved at a slightly higher speed.
The Top Alcohol final saw Tauranga's Paul Sattler in his nostalgia front-engine dragster up against the Dodge funny car of Hamilton's Morice McMillin. Sattler's run was an impressive 7.59s at 180.72mph but no match for the modern technology of McMillin's funny car which ran 6.42s - the fastest pass of the day.
The next drag race meeting at Taupo is the Summer Slam event on January 3 with NZDRA national series points again up for grabs.
Drifting to Taupo
Nissan Skyline driver Cole Armstrong (Tauranga) goes into this weekend's third round of the D1NZ Drift Series at Taupo holding a narrow lead in the series. Armstrong was a semifinalist in his newly built four-door R34 Skyline at the opening round at Manfeild in October and then finished runner-up in round two at Pukekohe last month which gives him a 12-point lead over Mazda RX7 driver "Mad Mike" Whiddett in the six-round 2011-12 title chase.
About 60 drivers descend on Taupo for the two-day (Friday-Saturday) third round which features a $5000 Pro Class winner's prize-package.