KEY POINTS:
The Battle of the Streets series is dead, with the annual race for the Robert Holden Memorial trophy now to be decided at just the one meeting, Wanganui's famed cemetery-circuit showdown on Boxing Day.
It will be the 30th event taking in the city's industrial streets and past
the city's dead centre with Wanganui organisers deciding to split from the traditional link with the Paeroa street races event in February.
Top contenders for the title race in honour of Robert Holden are Aucklander Andrew Stroud, campaigning a 750cc Suzuki rather than the usual 1000cc superbike, Craig Shiriffs from Palmerston North, who moves up from a 600 to a Suzuki GSXR1000, and New Plymouth's Hayden Fitzgerald on a Honda.
Stroud, 39, who has six kids with wife Karyn, has spent 13 years travelling the globe to campaign bikes up to world superbike level and now concedes it's time to seek "a real job".
"If I have to work for the next 20 years that's fine because I've done what I wanted to, travelled and competed all over the place and loved it."
But that is not a retirement call, he says. It is just that he is looking at what to do after the summer superbike series is over.
"The wife likes it more than me, the kids [ages 9, 7, 6, 5 and twins 22 months] all love it," he says. Then he admits he enjoys it most "when stretched the most", and so is looking to renew rivalry with Australian Robbie Bugden who is returning to contest the superbike series. The pair were never split by more than 0.3s in last summer's track events.
Stroud has stepped down to the 750GSR because of the tight circuit at Wanganui and after testing at Pukekohe.
"At Wanganui I was struggling to keep the front wheel of the 1000 on the ground down the straight, even at three-quarter throttle. The 750 is more user-friendly, it's a pretty useable package, good cornering and less weight. You can get on the power a lot earlier out of the corners, carry the speed out of the corners and it's a smoother ride."
He loves the local street race atmosphere, with spectators close to bikes doing 260km/h, the Wanganui and Paeroa circuits all right-hand corners allowing bike set-up to cope.
By contrast, the Isle of Man, where he raced once, has a longer, twisting, narrow and bumpy course producing lots of crashes and injuries.
Stroud sees his main rival as the more Wanganui-seasoned Shiriffs.
Shiriffs is likewise respectful of Stroud's ability. "He certainly has more experience than me and probably more than I'll ever have."
The 34-year-old plumber and drainlayer has switched to the bigger bike for his sponsor, Haldane Suzuki, and although he has had some good days in practice at Manfeild he is wary of the extra power at Wanganui.
"The bumps could be a big problem. There's 200 more horsepower going to the back wheel than I'm used to, it's like racing an F1 car around a carpark."
To distinguish his machine from Stroud's he has shifted from the Suzuki blue and white.
Like Stroud, Shiriffs has the support of wife Joanne at race meets as well as that of their twin 10-year-old daughters. "It's the only time we get to travel really."
There are four major race classes at Wanganui - the Robert Holden, open to the 30 fastest bikes in heats; Formula Wanganui for sports superbikes limited to 750cc and now including the old formula two class bikes of 600cc; the Supermotard motocross bikes running road tyres, which will this year detour for an off-road section through the old railway yards; and sidecars.
Each class runs two eight-lap races then a 10-lap feature, with points accumulated towards a title. The Holden title races are two 10-lap races and a 15-lap feature.
There are also races for formula three (450cc four-strokes and 125cc two-strokes), the BEARS class for British and American bikes and the post-classics (1965-on).
American brothers Matt, 18, and Dave Sadowski jun, 19, the sons of 1990 Daytona 200 winner Dave Snr, and Garth Jones from Australia (all Yamahas) will also compete.
The Supermotards races include two Australians on factory Aprilias, Josh MacFarlane and Alex Gobert, brother of Anthony, the former world superbike racer banned after he tested positive for cannabis. Aucklander Toby Summers and Mitch Rowe from New Plymouth (Yamahas) plus Stephen Briggs (KTM) also compete.
The sidecar series will be hotly contested, with Steve Bron from Wanganui expected to have an edge thanks to his buying the 2007 world championship-winning sidecar from Englishman Tim Reeves.
Bron teams up with Aucklander Charlie Bilby. Driver Lionel Minnel has handed the lead to defending Boxing Day champion Stacey Stellar and will swing for him on the machine on which Stellar won and Minnel has since bought.
The racing will be webcast live at www.cemeterycircuit.co.nz, with highlights on TV One's motorsport show.
* SUMMER ROAD RACING
DECEMBER 26 Wanganui, Cemetery Circuit.
DECEMBER 28 Taupo Motorcycle Spectacular.
JANUARY 2 Port Nelson Street Races, Nelson.
JANUARY 12-13 NZ Superbike Championships round 1, Ruapuna (including the NZ Grand Prix).
JANUARY 19-20 NZ Superbike Championships round 2, Levels.
JANUARY 26-27 NZ Superbike Championships round 3, Teretonga. FEBRUARY 10 Pacific Summer Series, Taupo.
FEBRUARY 17 Battle of the Streets, Paeroa.
FEBRUARY 23-24 NZ Superbike Championships round 4, Manfeild.
MARCH 8-9 NZ Superbike Championships round 5, Pukekohe (including the NZ TTs).
MARCH 30 Pacific Summer Series, Taupo.
