Motorsport: Bugden's name on trophy for third time

Aussie Robbie Bugden won the road race championships. Photo / Andy McGechan

Defending New Zealand Superbike champion, Aussie Robbie Bugden, set his store out early in the piece during qualifying at the final round of the New Zealand Road Race Championships at Pukekohe over the weekend.

Bugden put his bike on pole and was four-tenths of a second faster than Gareth Jones and duly set about destroying the field during the two superbike races yesterday.

While Kiwi Andrew Stroud tried to stay in touch over the weekend, Bugden was just too good on the day.

"We've had our ups and downs all year and coming into this round I wanted a real good result," said Bugden. "I couldn't have asked for better and the Suzuki was great.

"It was great to make it three championships in a row, I just put my head down and pushed as hard as I could from start to finish."

Stroud bounced out to an early lead after the first lap, only for the race to be red flagged in rain. On the restart, Stroud got swallowed up and was fourth at the end of the first lap with Bugden well and truly in command. Another Aussie, Gareth Jones, lost his slim chance of winning the championship when his bike developed an oil leak.

It wasn't long before Bugden had stamped his authority on the race, winning by nearly 10 seconds from Stroud, who had finally managed to get past Ray Clee.

Just in case folk hadn't quiet worked out just how fast Bugden was over the weekend, he proceeded to give the rest of the field a master class in speed in the second race of the day, the NZ Superbike TT, winning by a country mile. Stroud and Jones fought for the minor places with Stroud eventually snatching second.

The 40-point advantage Jones brought into the final round of 600 Sport Production race proved to be too much for James Smith. Jones clinched the national title with a second place finish in race one and duly won the 600 TT yesterday afternoon after a close-fought battle from Sam Smith and Dennis Charlett.

"Getting second in the first 600 race made me more determined to win the superbike race but the DNF ended that and I was pretty gutted," said Jones. "I had a real point to prove in the TT and had a real go at it. I'm glad it came off."

Glen Williams had been pinged for a technical infringement during the Formula Three races at Manfeild. He was subsequently stripped of all his points so had to race over the weekend.

He managed to get both hands back on the trophy with a win and a second place in the first two races of the weekend but was pipped for the F3 TT by Glen Skachill.

Rising female racing star 16-year-old Avalon Biddle had chased down 125GP series leader Tim McArthur and was leading in her first race on Saturday. However, over Ford Mountain the bike got away from her and she crashed heavily, breaking her femur.

Biddle was in "fine spirits despite the broken leg", in Middlemore Hospital said clerk of the course Chris Costello.

McArthur clinched the championship after a fourth place finish yesterday and Alistair Hoogenboezem won the 125 TT after the race was red flagged with three laps to go.

Chris and Richard Lawrance won the sidecar championship and Stephen Bron and Dennis Simonsen took the sidecar TT trophy home.