Rider ready for the circuit

PERSONALITY: Guy Martin.

It will be another all-star cast for the greatest show on Wanganui asphalt this Boxing Day as the Cemetery Circuit hosts the final round of a Suzuki Series with another record line-up of riders. The three-round series starts at Hampton Downs on December 7, continues at Manfeild the following week, then reaches its finale on the Wanganui streets.

Organiser Alan "Flea" Willacy has the best kind of headache - finding room for the largest number of international riders to enter the series. "It's a nice problem to have, but, to be honest, the more the merrier," he laughed.

The list of riders arriving from overseas includes championship winners from Britain, the Isle of Man, Germany, Japan and Australia. Flamboyant British racer Guy Martin returns for a second year to race just the Cemetery Circuit round, perhaps to complete some unfinished business. The popular Isle of Man TT racer and television presenter finished just behind the leaders in the headline 1000cc Formula 1 class on his loaned Suzuki GSXR1000 in 2013, although he did get in the books by breaking the lap record in the Classic Solo grade on a Manx Norton borrowed from Napier's John Marsh.

For Martin to win the F1 events in Wanganui, he will have his work cut out against the riders hunting the overall Suzuki Series crown, including German Superbike champion Horst Saiger.

"It's going to be a huge series," said Willacy. "Instead of just confining themselves to race one event only, perhaps just the final round on Wanganui's Cemetery Circuit, many of these international riders have this year signed up to race the entire three-round series."

Saiger comes from the Principality of Liechtenstein, bordered by Switzerland and Austria. The world-class competitor holds the 1000cc superstock lap record at Ireland's North West 200 and finished third in the FIM World 24-Hour Endurance Championship earlier this year.

Lining up against him will be former Suzuki national superbike champion and the 2012 F1 series winner Dennis Charlett of Christchurch, Wellington's Sloan Frost, Auckland's Jaden Hassan, Whakatane's Tony Rees, New Plymouth's Hayden Fitzgerald, and Taupo's Scott Moir.

Others to watch on the day will be Orewa's female superstar Avalon Biddle, who has raced the men for New Zealand and Italian championships, Auckland teenagers Daniel Mettam and Connor London, and Wanganui's own Jayden Carrick and Richard Dibben (super moto class).

It is a wide open F1 field as former winner Andrew Stroud and last year's champion Nick Cole are both retired.

"I know Dennis Charlett is very determined to win the Robert Holden trophy before he finally hangs up his helmet and boots, but Guy Martin is also keen to take it away," said Willacy.

"Jayden Carrick has now stepped up to the 1000cc Suzuki superbike and he's already on a winning pace, so the competition is looking very hot indeed."

In the 600cc F2 division, Isle of Man's Billy Redmayne will race Manfeild and Wanganui. He joined the names of legends like Robert Dunlop and Phillip McCallen when he won the Manx Grand Prix Newcomers title at the Isle of Man TT in August, setting a lap record, all while he was on leave from his parachute regiment serving in Afghanistan.

Redmayne will come up against the talented Japanese pair Toshiyuki Arakaki and Akashi Kohno. A third Japanese rider, Kishimoto Yoshi, will tackle the F3 class, facing off with British women's champion Maria Costello. Costello will also race a KTM690 in the Bears (non-Japanese bikes) class.

Multiple time Queensland and national superbike champion Linden Magee will race the first two rounds and spearheads an Australian contingent which includes Aidan Hopkins, Rennie Scaysbrook and the popular father and daughter pair of Phil and Sophie Lovett.

Lovett senior was a legend of Australian enduro racing, before switching to superbikes to form a team with his daughter.

In the sidecar division, Auckland's defending Suzuki Series champions Adam Unsworth and Stu Dawe are back.

They will face a field which includes Masterton's national champions Spike Taylor and Astrid Hartnell, Waikato's Aaron Lovell and Tracey Bryan, Wanganui's Corey Winter and Tim Shepherd and the Northland pair Peter Goodwin and Darren Prentis.