Winning Ways Continue For Honda’s Mitch Rees

Less than a week after Bay of Plenty’s Mitch Rees stamped his authority at Invercargill, he virtually repeated the dose at the next phase of the motorcycle road-racing championships near Timaru at the weekend.

The 32-year-old raced his Tony Rees Honda CBR1000 superbike to 2-1-1 results in his three New Zealand Superbike Championship (NZSBK) races at Levels International Motor Raceway, near Timaru, on Saturday and, although not quite the same as the perfect unbeaten score-card that he’d laid down during round one in Invercargill a week earlier, it was impressive nonetheless.

The Honda man from Whakatane has now won five out of six races in the premier class.

With these first two of four rounds in the 2025 NZSBK now done and dusted, the two-time former national champion finds himself well cemented at the head of the points table in the premier 1000cc superbikes class, alone at the top with 147 points, with Christchurch’s Alastair Hoogenboezem the second-best individual in the rankings after Levels, albeit a daunting 39 points adrift.

And guess who was again up there and sharing the podium with Rees and Hoogenboezem at Levels? Mitch Rees’ 57-year-old father Tony Rees, the evergreen multi-time former New Zealand champion only too pleased to play “wingman” to his son as they each chase a share of championship glory.

With a 3-2-2 scorecard at Timaru, Hoogenboezem finished overall runner-up for the weekend and moved up to take second spot overall in the series standings, but hats off to “senior citizen” Tony Rees who registered 4-3-4 results and occupies third overall in this premier class at this midway stage in the series, just eight points behind Hoogenboezem.

“I grabbed an extra point for qualifying fastest and then I guess I have to be happy with my race results after that. You can’t always win every race,” said Mitch Rees afterwards.

“Christchurch rider Dale Finch won the first superbike race at Levels, but then he crashed out of race two and that’s bit of a dent in his campaign. That’s something we all have to watch out for ... if I had pushed harder, I might have been able to beat Dale in race one, but it’s a risky sport too and I just needed to ride fast but still ride safe.

“I just needed to log in the laps and bring it home.

“The focus for me is on the championship title, although the racers’ ego doesn’t like to accept second or third place and so it was pleasing to win races two and three.

“I have a good points buffer now, but I still can’t afford a non-finish.

“It’s good to see that dad is in the hunt too,” he said.

Meanwhile, other national championship class winners at Levels at the weekend included Christchurch man Jake Lewis (Supersport 600 class); Auckland’s Cameron Leslie (Supersport 300 class); Christchurch’s Avalon Lewis (née Biddle) (Pro Twins 650 class); Hokitika’s Luke Ryder (Super Twins/Superlites class); Whangarei’s Lincoln Wright (Supersport 150 class) and Palmerston North’s Barry Smith with Stu Dawe (sidecars class).

The series now crosses Cook Strait to arrive at Hampton Downs, near Meremere, for round three in just three weeks’ time, on March 8-9 and, finally, it all wraps up at Taupo with round four on March 15-16.

DATES FOR 2025 NZ SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIPS SEASON:

Round 1, Feb 7-9, 2025, Teretonga Park, Invercargill (part of Burt Munro Challenge week);

Round 2, Feb 14-15 (Friday and Saturday), 2025, Levels International Motor Raceway, Timaru;

Round 3, March 8-9, 2025, Hampton Downs (MotoFest);

Round 4, March 15-16, 2025, Taupo (MotoMania).

Credit: Words by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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