Motorsport: Superbike victory for Clee

West Aucklander Ray Clee won his third NZ Superbike TT title by the tread on the front tyre of his Suzuki GSXR1000 at Pukekohe yesterday.

Clee took the lead from Australian Scott Charlton with a lap to go and won by just 0.013s from the Victorian with another Aucklander, Andrew Stroud, third in an all-Suzuki podium. Three-time Aussie champion Shawn Giles was fourth.

Amazingly Clee, who spends much of his time preparing machines for other people, had only ridden his winning mount for the first time on Saturday.

Stroud won both the sprint races with an engine prepared by Clee as the lap record was broken several times in the closest racing for years. He outbraked Clee and Charlton at the final hairpin of the NZTT but couldn't hold his line.

Seventeen-year-old Sam Smith stole some of the limelight from the established stars when he won the 600c TT.

In his first season at this level, the local boy from Glenbrook was third in the two sprint races with some aggressive riding on his Yamaha.

In the 15-lap feature race he took the lead from Suzuki's Craig Shirriffs with five laps to go and held on to win from Shirriffs and Australian Chris Seaton with defending champion Andrew Stroud fourth.

One of the most popular winners in what doubled as the first round of the national road-racing championships was Terry Fitzgerald, who won all three Formula Three races after spending the past 12 months battling cancer.

Among other triple winners were Dave Cole in the 250ccGP, Andrew Evans in the 125ccGP and Steven McCaffery in the Post Classics.