They're best of friends off the track, but if you get Suzuki teammates Andrew Stroud and Craig Shirriffs going side-by-side at 200km/h, don't expect either of them to give way.
"Yes, we're all one big happy family in the pits," says Hamilton's Stroud, the national superbike number two."But, on the race track, anything goes."
That's the likely scenario when the two men compete around the streets of Wanganui at Boxing Day's annual Cemetery Circuit meeting.
They are equal favourites to win at the venue and neither is going to let friendship get in the way on December 26.
Stroud won at Wanganui last season and knows his biggest challenge will again come from Shirriffs.
Feilding's Shirriffs raced a GSX-R600 at Wanganui last season and kept Stroud and his Suzuki GSX-R1000 honest throughout. This time Stroud may race the 750cc Suzuki and Shirriffs is on the GSX-R1000.
"The 750 has a little bit less power than the 1000cc model," Stroud says. "But, when you're racing around a street circuit, close to kerbs and hay bales, it doesn't make a lot of difference. I think the smaller bike may actually be easier to ride."
