Tyre fitters pumped for Aussie battle (+video)

Jodea Sutton (left) and Ricci Donnelly preparing for the transtasman Bridgestone tyre fitting competition in Sydney this weekend. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua can proudly boast of having four of the best tyre-fitters in the country, and this weekend they're taking on the Aussies.

The four Rotorua Bridgestone staff will represent New Zealand in Sydney at the company's transtasman tyre-fitting competition.

In the national competition Jodea Sutton and Ricci Donnelly took out the top title in the truck category, and Jason Weller and Scott Wright won the car category.

Each team member took home more than $5000, and will compete against the best tyre-fitters from Australia on Saturday.

Mr Donnelly said he was not overly concerned about the speed and skill of his Australian competitors.

"I've worked with Australians for a couple of years so I know what they are like ... smoko every hour."

Mr Weller was also confident and expected his team would win the car tyre-fitting competition.

"The winning is in the training, and we do a lot of training, we do it every day. It's all about speed, efficiency and doing it the Bridgestone way," he said.

He said while the Australians' best times were similar; there could be slightly different rules in the Australian competition which could affect things.

Mr Sutton said communication with your teammate was crucial.

"You've got to talk to each other while you are doing it. The other teams missed heaps of things because they didn't talk.

"We'll just yell out what we are doing as we go," he said.

Mr Donnelly said a natural flow with your teammate helped.

"We both know what we're doing in the competition, we have our own set of roles, sometimes we change it up, there's no questions," he said.