Motor Racing: Rees takes battle but McEwen wins war

By Peter Jessup

It was Tony Rees' day at Paeroa yesterday despite high-siding his Suzuki into hay bales when he missed a gear.

That did-not-finish result did not alter a thing, Rees winning three of the five clashes with his arch-rival, Jason McEwen, but McEwen riding off with the Formula One and open production classes in the Battle of the Streets series on the back of consistent performances at Wanganui and Gisborne.

The pair battled for the lead in each of those five races, the former's Suzuki GSXR750 working too well on the tight round-town circuit for McEwen to take any advantage from the extra capacity of his Kawasaki ZX9R900.

"There was lots of traffic out there and not too many places to pass," Rees said. "I never got to the first corner first and every time I knew I had to get past quickly or I wasn't going to get past. If Jason gets out in front with a rider between, he's gone."

With temperatures in the high 20s, the tar on the 1.2km circuit that laps the town got sticky, then slippery, and in places loose chip lay in wait for the unwary.

"The rear wheel was spinning in the wet tar coming out of the corners," Rees said. "But it was so sticky the back didn't slide much. "It's a challenging track -- I like it."

He would, since he has won at Paeroa three years in a row. And the fall, which came when he hit a false neutral between gears while flat-out down the main street in the second of two Formula Paeroa races, was not too bad. He ran out of engine braking and was left too wide on the corner, clipping the bales then flipping off. The bike's front rim was more oval than round afterwards but "you can fix bikes, bones are different," he said.

There were only three falls yesterday and a sidecar smash that speared the swinger head-first into a hay bale, no one injured. It was a good result for a meeting that throws amateurs, older machines, chopped down Harleys and the like on to a circuit that includes roading design faults from bad camber to poorly aligned corners.

Palmerston North's McEwen said he went as hard as he could yesterday but had to settle for second behind Kawerau's Rees in the Robert Holden feature race, the sports production and the one formula Paeroa race he completed.

"I think that's the best I've seen Tony ride -- I couldn't pick him up on the straights. He made it bloody hard work but I have to be happy with two series wins," he said of his Formula One and open production titles.

The timekeepers agreed, marking Rees down at laps in the 46-47s range and finding only 0.03s difference between his times on the shop floor production bike as against the Formula One racer.

Shaun Harris won the series 600 sports production class despite one second-placing and a dnf yesterday, Jarred Love winning both races, but Harris having four wins at the earlier meetings. He also took third in the Holden Memorial.

Yesterday's was the biggest crowd, around 13,000, since the races came to Paeroa in 1992.

It is a well-oiled operation to close the main drag to traffic from early morning then reopen it to the racers, crash barriers in place, about two hours later. Two hours after the last race you would not know it had happened.
It is an earner that organisers reckon turns over $800,000, all profit returned to community groups. The police speed trap that welcomed visitors on the long strights outside the town would also have made a good profit.

CUTTING CORNERS: Jared Love during the 600cc production race in Paeroa yesterday. HERALD PICTURE / BRENDON O'HAGAN