Bernard Yamaha rider Dan Stauffer overcame a very bad moment in the first race to finish with a second and a third in the first round of the New Zealand Superbikes Championship at the Levels in Timaru yesterday.
Suzuki ace Andrew Stroud won both races, the first by around 3 seconds
but the second by centimetres from a resurgent Robbie Bugen, with Staufferclose by.
Team manager Brian Bernard says that Stauffer had quite a moment.
"It had everybody's heart going. He was coming on to the start/finish straight, right in front of everybody - he came up quickly behind Stroudy, he had to shut-off real quick and that caused the bike to slide.
"The bike sort of bucked one way and blew his feet off the foot pedals, and he ran his own leg over - and he still didn't come off. 200km/h and he's off into the grass, but managed to stay on the bike, come back on and still be in third place."
Stauffer passed Bugden to finish second that race.
"We could have done so much more," Stauffer said. "We took evasive action to miss Stroudy in race one, hit the triple jump and ran off into the grass. That wrecked our race, which I felt was going to be our's.
"Stroudy sort of baulked into a corner a bit wide, I was flat out, had to go off the track, ran over my leg and stuff, got back and managed to get to second."
He got in front of Stroud late in the second race but was forced wide when getting a bit close to Bugden, and Stroud came through for his second win.
At Woodville, young Wanganui motocross rider Tom Managh had to be content with tying for third in the 125 class at the New Zealand Moto Cross Grand Prix. The problem? Two slow starts.
