By Kent Gray
G’day from Adelaide and welcome to The Final Sector’s first Parc Fermé, the segment where we share raw reflections from the weekend of racing that was.

And what a weekend TFS chose for its first international assignment. Round 3 of the Penrite Oil Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at The Bend had it all: free practice times typically separated by razor thin margins, chaotic wet qualifying sessions, the continued rise and rise of Australia’s plethora of young Superbike talent, Josh Waters’ brilliant riposte for the old guys and six Kiwis doing their sport and country proud. When they weren’t crashing, that was.

Just like our very own NZSBK, ASBK is a goldmine of untold stories. Here’s six Kiwi-centric TFS takeaways from the South Australia paddock to start putting that right and help fill the moto void till the Michelin Grand Prix of France at Le Mans. Merci for the return of MotoGP this weekend.

1. Fast & Curious

The Final Sector savoured the final rounds of Luca Durning’s NZSBK title fight with eventual champion Rogan Chandler at Hampton Downs and Taupo earlier this year. But the speed at The Bend and punch and counter punch of the combatants in the ASBK title reckoning? Next level.

We’d forgotten just how fast Superbikes fang it till we parked ourselves on the pit lane wall at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park on Friday. To quote Neil Ritchie, the voice of NZ motorcycling…Holy Toledo! You can squeeze the expletive of your choice in the middle of that for emphasis.

If you aren’t wowed by bikes screaming past at a click or three over 300kmph, you need your pulse read. These guys have gonads of steel ripping down the home straight and then tipping it into turn 1 at those speeds.

Indeed, The Bend is epic for straight line viewing as the bikes squirrel and twitch out of the final corner and lay down the power. We’re genuinely brand agnostic here at TFS but the sound of the Ducati V4R’s as they nudged the redline was…oh la la.

TFS’s only gripe was once they’d flashed by and negotiated turn 1, the bikes disappeared for the best part of 90 seconds unless you had sight of one of the big screens. And there were only live pictures on Sunday, as opposed to live timing data as fascinating as that was on Friday/Saturday.

The facilities were otherwise top-notch, but for that reason alone, we wouldn’t choose the 4.95km circuit if we had only one last race to attend as a spectator.

It’s a different and very challenging 18-corner proposition for the riders, of course, and the scraps involving race 2 winner Waters (the five-time champ is the elder statesman at age 39), championship leader Harrison Voight, first-time race winner Cameron Dunker (the kid is 18!) and fellow podium rookie Jonathan Nahlous made the TV watch utterly compelling.

Did we mention Cru Halliday and Glenn Allerton…and on and on the list goes. With only four of the 11 races of this compacted season remaining, just 48 points separate Voight in 1^st from Nahlous in 6^th in the championship. It’s going to be a barnburner till the final chequered flag at Queensland Raceway in late June.

2. Luca Durning is just getting started

You have to go back to 1991 and Aaron Slight (Kawasaki ZXR-750R) to find the one and only Kiwi to win ASBK. Luca Durning is a way off that but is lacking none of the ambition or backing required to compete at this level.

“I certainly want to become a champion both here and at home. I’m not sure how long it will take, hopefully a lot sooner than I hope and that comes down to me and my training, and if I want to fully commit to it and how much I really care for it. But I think I can do it in a shorter time…”

You obviously want it pretty badly then?

“Oh, for sure. It’d be amazing to be an ASBK champion…”

The DesmoSports Ducati rider survived a challenging weekend, including an off in qualifying and an oil pressure issue in the final race, to maintain his 13^th place in the championship. The Whanganui 21-year-old qualified 15^th and rattled off a pair of 14^th places in races 6 and 7 which is about par for his first full season in the premier class.

Q15 and P13 are his best results across five rounds thus far, including his debut at Queensland Raceway last August and first points in the final round of 2025 at The Bend in November. Save for the technical and mechanical issues, the weekend gave hint that Durning is slowly coming to grips with his Panigale V4R after piloting his beloved BMW M 1000RR to second place in NZSBK.

The quiet moments that most impressed TFS? How calmly he handled a crash that was almost inevitable given he’d been mistakenly sent out with a dry electronics setting in the wet. And how he hung with the Kiwi kids in the paddock despite the age gap. They’re all in this together and Durning knows the importance of his role as the Kiwi standard bearer.

3. This sport is young. And our Kiwi kids are fast

If you’re a parent reading this, you don’t need TFS reminding you of the fiscal and emotional sacrifices that come standard with campaigning motorbikes – much less offshore. The payback though was in full evidence at Tailem Bend.

From 21-year-old Luca Durning down to the youngest, 15-year-olds Lucas Hyslop and Hunter Charlett, the six Kiwi kids at The Bend exuded everything we love in our New Zealand sports stars. They’re (so) young, fast, humble and unwaveringly polite. A genuine credit to the country in a sport that deserves greater recognition on both sides of the Tasman sea.

Lucas Hyslop (#31 below) won a sensational Yamaha bLU cRU OJC race. Tyler King extended his championship lead in a Supersport 300 class where Nixon Frost and the always smiling (and crashing this weekend!) Alvin Wu kept the Aussies on their toes.

Charlett endured a tough weekend which included a night in hospital, but watch the Papanui High School student’s riposte when the Yamaha bLU cRU R3 Asia-Pacific Championship rolls on to the Pertamina Mandalika Street Circuit in Lombok, Indonesia in July.

A final, special doff of our cap to the parents who made TFS feel so welcome at The Bend. The future of the NZSBK is bright with your kids earning their international spurs in Oz, presuming they don’t all go on to bigger and brighter things. Fingers crossed they do.

TFS looks forward to plotting their upward trajectory, whatever the championship.

4. Tyler King is going places. Fast

We bet you know a teenager or two who has their head in their phone whenever you seem to look. We’re guessing you don’t know too many who put it down, immediately swing a leg over a Kawasaki Ninja 400 and show the kind of pace Tyler King did across the weekend, as spied by TFS on more than one occasion. The kid is the epitome of chilled.

The Silverdale 19-year-old did well to dust himself off after a race one, lap one crash in the wet on Saturday for 7^th and backed it up with two mature 2^nd placings on Sunday after ding-dong battles with Riley Nauta.

King’s championship lead is out to 27 points with Morgan Park Raceway (May 29-31) and Queensland Raceway (June 26-28) to come. He’ll need to keep tabs on his Queensland rival and watch for South Australian #95 Tara Morrison who marked her return from injury with great early race pace and three solid results. But whatever happens from here, it cannot be overstated…a Kiwi kid leads the ASBK development class. Someone’s gotta shout it from the rooftops and TFS is here for it.

We can’t wait to see how King fares in Thailand this weekend racing round 2 of the Idemitsu Asia Road Racing Championship. As ever in the competitive world of moto, he’s racing to keep his TVS Racing International Championship seat for the remainder of the season despite sitting 5^th in the title race after a DNF and 4^th at the opening round at Malaysia’s fabled Sepang circuit in April.

Given his form at The Bend, we’re quietly confident King will get the job done at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram this weekend. And be right back on that phone. Kids nowadays! 😉

5. ASBK is glitzy and getting better

Aside from one grumpy photographer who wasn’t too pleased to be asked for directions to the Race Secretary’s office on Friday, TFS left The Bend thoroughly smitten with the atmosphere of the ASBK Championship. And believe us when we say this wasn’t our first rodeo in terms of world class sports assignments/events.

The two developmental Yamaha bLU cRU series – Oceania Junior Cup and R3 Asia-Pacific Championship – add much colour. The Parc Fermé photo call/champagne celebrations and the sit down press conferences that follow (more for the spectators given the unbelievable absence of print/digital media) added to the glitz. It’s amazing too what a few flash transporters do to make this feel bigger than its being treated by the mainstream media.

Don’t expect too many big trucks in the NZSBK paddock any time soon but promoter Mike Marsden is no doubt receiving intel on all the good fluff around the edges stuff happening in Australia to help make next summer’s Kiwi championship even more compelling.

The exciting news is the move to an expanded summer calendar for 2026-27 once the current ASBK championship reaches its climax at Queensland Raceway in late June. Better still is the news that the opening round has been incorporated into the MotoGP weekend in October before a return to Phillip Island in late February tied into the opening round of next season’s WorldSBK Championship.

It’s hoped the new calendar slot and associated weather will lure international riders Down Under and Aussie expatriates home to ASBK.

Sign. Us. Up.

The 2026-2027 ASBK Championship

2026
R1: Phillip Island, VIC (October 23-25)
R2: The Bend, SA (November 13-15)
R3: One Raceway, NSW (December 4-6)

2027
R4: Queensland Raceway, QLD (January 15-17)
R5: Phillip Island, VIC (TBA but late February)
R6: Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW (March 19-20)

6. Another Kiwi kid is headed to ASBK

How good to see Christchurch teenager Ryder Chamberlain get a ride in the final round of the bLU cRU Yamaha Oceania Junior Cup (OJC) at Queensland Raceway in June.

The exciting opportunity comes courtesy of a new Superbike Pathways Foundation — established by NZSBK promoter Mike Marsden with support from former Kiwi international Stu Avant.

Runner-up to Hunter Charlett in the NZSBK Supersport 150 class last summer, Chamberlain will travel to Queensland with his father Stu and be hosted by Aussie-based Avant and his wife Bec.

“I’m excited and really appreciate the opportunity the Foundation and the Avants have given me,” the 14-year-old said.

“I spent time with Stu during the national series where he mentored and advised me. I think he sees a little of his early self in me; growing up in Christchurch, in love with bikes and trying hard to make a go of racing.”

Chamberlain will link with Lucas Hyslop who is currently running 5th in the OJC. Charlett and current Moto3 campaigner Cormac Buchanan are previous Kiwi graduates of the class which was established in 2019 as the stepping stone to the big time for the continent’s best young talent.

By Kent Gray in Adelaide
A race win snared by a gnat’s whisker in a crazy seven bike photo finish that captured one rider sliding across the line on his back. A Kiwi kid quietly giving it to the Aussies with consistent speed across a weekend that had started inauspiciously. A teen sidelined on medical advice, traipsing around the paddock plotting his revenge. The New Zealand contingent’s alpha male learning his craft, and patience, at nigh on 300kmh in the premier class.

Sunday delivered in high-octane spades for the Kiwis at The Bend for round 3 of the Penrite Oil Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK).

Orewa 15-year-old Lucas Hyslop ignited the day with a sensational second Oceania Junior Championship win – his first of this season – by popping out on the right side of an insane finish where you probably didn’t need all of a proverbial blanket to cover the seven riders.

Hunter Charlett was meant to end it with the second race of the bLU cRU Yamaha R3 Asia Pacific Championship but the Doctors had other ideas after the Christchurch 15-year-old had spent the previous night in hospital under observation for concussion. As it turns out, missing both races stung more than his big, high-sided off in the sighting lap before Saturday’s opener but Doctor’s don’t let you play Russian roulette with the noggin.

In between times, Silverdale’s Tyler King racked up a pair of second place finishes to extend his lead in the Supersport 300 championship to 25 points while Whanganui’s Luca Durning managed to leave Tailem Bend where he started the weekend, 13^th in Superbike class despite a challenging three days marked by an avoidable crash in qualifying.

Enjoy The Final Sector’s bite-sized class-by-class wrap of the flying Kiwis’ Sunday at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park:

SW-Motech Australian Superbike

Championship Standings: 1. Harrison Voight (QLD/Ducati) 147pts; 2. Josh Waters (VIC/Ducati) 136pts; Jacob Roulstone (NSW/Honda) 124 points. Also NZL: 13. Luca Durning (Whanganui/Ducati) 49pts.

After his unnecessary visit to the kitty litter in Saturday’s wet qualifying session, when he was mistakenly sent out with a electronics package set for dry conditions, Luca Durning qualified 15^th. That meant starting on the 5th row (of 7) on the grid for Saturday’s 6^th and 7^th races of the championship and the Whanganui rookie improved to 14^th by chequered flag fall in both races to finish the weekend exactly where he’d started it, 13^th in the championship.

But the close-knit Kiwi team on the left side of the DesmoSport Ducati box will take a lot of learning out of a weekend marred by technical and mechanical issues.

“This morning was a very good race for me, we made very good progress with the bike and with the team as well,” Durning said, referencing Saturday night’s bike rebuild.

”However in the second race, after the 4^th lap we came to an issue where it was low oil pressure on the down shift so I had to slow down my pace in order to maintain the engine.

“Not ideal to end the weekend but I’m happy we walked away unscathed.”

Fit to fight another day and determined to eke more speed out of his Panigale V4R as the ASBK Championship rolls on to Morgan Park Raceway in three weeks time (May 29-31) before the finale at Queensland Raceway on June 26-28.

“It’s certainly not easy when lots of things go wrong but you’ve got to take it on the bright side that we’ve learnt from our mistakes in what happened with qualifying and the racing today so hopefully we won’t come across that again.

“Just getting as many points as possible and finishing all the races,” Durning continued when asked what he wants out of the two remaining rounds in Queensland.

“After today we’ve certainly discovered what we’ve been struggling with all season with the bike so hopefully more time on the bike means we’ll get consistently faster as well.”

Queenslander Harrison Voight remains top of the championship but the gap to his McMartin Racing team-mate Josh Waters has been cut after the five-time ASBK champion’s emphatic race 7 victory. That after the Victorian had gambled on a new Pirelli compound in the earlier race and paid a heavy price, hanging on for 7^th behind first-time Superbike class winner Cameron Dunker on his Yamaha YZF-R1.

Road and Race Australian Supersport 300

Championship Standings: 1. Tyler King (NZL/Kawasaki) 149pts; 2. Riley Nauta (QLD/Kawasaki), 122pts; 3. Orlando Peovitis (WA/Kawasaki) 121pts. Also NZL: 17. Nixon Frost (Wellington/Yamaha) 38pts; *20. Harriet Grace (Christchurch/Kawasaki) 19pts; 24. Alvin Wu (Whangarei/Yamaha) 14pts

Tyler King was back where he belongs on Sunday, fighting for the top step of the podium after a tricky Saturday saw him crash on lap one of the opening Supersport 300 race before coolly rejoining and fighting to 7^th.

Sunday produced a pair of 2nd placings behind Riley Nauta and sees King extend his championship lead to 27 points over the Queenslander. Read that again. A Kiwi kid leading the development class across the ditch with just two rounds to go.

“Riley just had incredible pace in those later laps, I had nothing left, I mean, so smooth, and every corner he was just pulling away the time a bit more and I was relying on the slipstream but once he broke away it was game over,” King said in his press conference after race 2 before pulling out the killer quote.

“Yeah I’m real happy with the results. I mean the first race of the weekend we fell off but I’m still pretty happy about it because I got to rejoin and finish 7^th. But yeah, these podiums are what we need to extend our championship lead so playing the big game here and just aiming for the No.1 trophy at the end of the season.”

Nixon Frost, son of two-time NZSBK Superbike champion Sloan, was one of just two Kiwis to stay upright in Saturday’s big wet but sod’s law saw him fall in Sunday’s first outing, race 8. The Wellingtonian recovered from that wind-assisted off to finish 11^th in race 9 and took just as many lessons out of the weekend as points, all good intel for the final two rounds in Queensland.

Alvin Wu, meanwhile, managed to keep that trademark smile of his flashing after a weekend of crashes, the Whangarei 16-year-old’s sole points coming in the Sunday opener when he placed 18^th. After going eight months without an off, Wu sure made up for it is South Australia but it’s these weekends that build deep layers of determination to show what he’s made of in the future.

*Editor’s Note: Grace’s 19 points all came in the opening round of the championship at Phillip Island. She did not ride at Sydney Motorsport Park or The Bend.

Yamaha bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup

Championship Standings: Thomas Cameron (NSW/Yamaha) 124pts; 2. Callum Campbell (NSW/Yamaha) 112pts; Austin Attard (QLD/Yamaha) 106pts. Also NZL: 5. Lucas Hyslop (Orewa/Yamaha) 88pts.

Lucas Hyslop will go into the final two rounds of the season with the confidence of adding a second OJC victory to his résumé, Sunday’s race 5 triumph even more of a nailbiter than his wildcard win at Phillip Island last September.

That result, after Saturday’s 5^th in race 4, clawed the Orewa 15-year-old back into championship reckoning after a crash at Sydney Motorsport Park although he wasn’t happy with a 9^th to close out the weekend at The Bend.

“That last race was just a combination of things, just got stuck behind a few people, just bit of a mess, got stood up in a few corners but it is what it is,” Hyslop said.

The search for consistency will go on in Queensland but at least he’s in with a shout at OJC glory. No one can take away his victory in Sunday morning’s elbow’s out fight for the line that saw Queenslander Austin Attard skid across the line in his leathers – for 4^th place no less.

“It was great, It’s something that you plan out in your head during the race or beforehand and it’s always great when it actually happens. Yeah, just tried to play it strategic and use the race craft. It was a real close one, it was a massive group once again just like the last race and I managed to get up to the front of it and just got them on the line.

“Hopefully the next few rounds I can get some more podiums, get some more points closer to winning the championship. I’m a little bit far behind because of that DNF in Sydney but I’m feeling good. Yeah, I’m in with a shout.”

Yamaha bLU cRU Asia-Pacific R3 Championship

Championship Standings: 1. Farres Fadhill (Malaysia/Yamaha) 70pts; 2. Hunter Corney (Australia/Yamaha) 68pts; 3. Teeranai Tabtim (Thailand/Yamaha) 57pts. Also NZL: 14. Hunter Charlett (Christchurch/Yamaha) 16pts.

A sad face emoji used to sign off his final Facebook post from Adelaide said it all for frustrated Hunter Charlett.

The Christchurch 15-year-old started the weekend 7^th in APAC R3 championship and looked to be getting on top of the set-up challenges that made the opening round at the Sydney Motorsport Park tricky.

But just when his flying lap in qualifying on Saturday was flashing green sectors, the trouble began. He went down at the final corner and later high-sided it in the sighting lap so didn’t even make it to the start line for race 1.

Charlett felt fine after a routine night in hospital but wasn’t given medical clearance to race on Sunday, the pointless weekend seeing him tumble down to 14^th as the championship heads to Indonesia in July.

Watch for the dual NZSBK Supersport 150 and 300 champion’s riposte at the Pertamina Mandalika Street Circuit in Lombok.

“Well my weekend is over. I’m not allowed to race. I was really looking forward to this weekend but sometimes it just doesn’t go your way,” Charlett wrote on Hunter Charlett Racing.

“So I’m pretty gutted I can’t race but there is still four rounds to go, it’s not going to be easy [but don’t count him out]. Thanks for all the support and messages. I’ll go home and enjoy my weekend soccer games now.”

MotoFest at Hampton Downs looked a doozy.

The penultimate round of the 2026 Star Insure NZSBK Championship had it all: Rogan Chandler and Luca Durning seemingly fighting for every corner in the Superbikes, close scraps across the support classes, the promise of sexy new releases at a street bikes exhibit, a free pit lane walk at lunchtime. Probably an old-school hotdog on a stick too, if I was being honest with myself.

Heck, I’d go for the sidecars alone given my soft spot for those crazy buggers on three wheels. That’s a fascination deep fried from early childhood when, shadowing my Dad at the Wairarapa engineering business he worked at, we stopped one evening to chat to a colleague tinkering with his homebuilt outfit.

Sadly, though, weekends - and by default summers - don’t belong to you when you derive your mortgage working in the sports industry as I have since I left school.

There’s always hope in the habitual search for a road race weekend just like Motofest to provide the kind of sensory fix only motorbike racing can. But anticlimax has surely followed over the years as high profile race meetings clashed with work, family or fiscal commitments, or a combination therewith.

Ah, well, maybe next year. This won’t be the last time work gets in the way of having fun.

Then, unexpectedly, Saturday fell free after all. Boom. A favourite fold-out chair biffed into the boot, I was off down State Highway 1 for a day of full-throttle immersion.

I’d claim a quiet patch of grass at an elevated vantage point, enjoy practice and qualifying, race one in each of the nine classes and call March 7 an unqualified success. Bikes screaming. Scratch itched. Back to the real world on Sunday. Crack on with life.

Except that wasn’t what happened.

First, it was a kid, Hunter Charlett, smoothly riding away from his Supersport 150 and 300 rivals in every session. As it transpires, the 15-year-old was beaten by pint-sized New Plymouth pilot Billy MacCrae in the final 150 race of the weekend, the only blip across both classes and 24 races all season long.

Charlett’s peerless riding begged a background check and the official MotoFest programme duly helped connect the dots between the Papanui High School speedster and his Dad, Canterbury legend Dennis. But the trail soon ran dry when I searched for the family story online. Hmmm. Frustrating.

In the penultimate race of the day, the veteran Smith brothers, Barry and David, were powering to victory in the sidecars only to come unstuck on the final lap, passenger David spat off the back of their Carl Cox Motorsports outfit.

I hadn’t seen it, my view obscured by a large tire wall, but the off didn’t sound good. Surely there’d be an update soon, alongside the revised Superbike standings following Durning’s impressive race one win moments earlier?

But after the breathless action and day long roar? Crickets. Double and triple hmmm.

It was a sobering conclusion to my intoxicating day at Turn 8 but not half as perplexing as lunchtime.

Before my pit lane walk, peek in the legends garage, all that eye-candy in the street bikes exhibitor marquee and the food trucks, I waited to take in the three-lap ‘Street Riders Track Cruise’.

Wait, why am I suddenly choking up over this slow-paced procession? Like, genuine moisture behind my sunglasses kind of flustered?

Sure, the cacophony of chromed high bars, ADV’s, streetfighter nakeds and road-legal sportsbikes were an awesome assault on the senses.

But there was none of the speed and associated danger provided by the flying two and three-wheel gladiators in the just completed practice and qualifying sessions. So why the palpable discharge of emotion as 200-odd weekend warriors completed pace car-controlled laps around the undulating Waikato circuit?

What had triggered this most unmanly of moments at a congregation of blokes who were tattooed-on tough, plus plenty of women rocking slightly intimidating full-length black leathers too?

Psychologists call it a ‘social elevation and inclusion response’, apparently. That much I ascertained as I struggled to compose myself over lunch, a more substantial cheeseburger trumping the saucy sausage I’d initially imagined.

Turns out I was reacting to the permission given to ordinary, everyday humans to flirt in the playground of their heroes, however fleeting and controlled it might have been. Real Kiwis with inside access to something extraordinary.

It was the complete antithesis to the increasingly woke high performance sports world I normally inhabit. How can you not be moved by riders who make a deal with the devil every time they swing a leg over? And for what? At grassroots level, little more than a bit of weekend fun wrapped up in a cold, communal brew on Sunday evening. And then a long drive home. With work or school tomorrow. And a repair and consumables bill no one else is going to foot.

Crickets
The uneasy/energized feeling I left Hampton Downs with was the birth of The Final Sector, before I knew it was even a thing and well before it had a name.

I just couldn’t let the frustration sit after MotoFest, the irritation of not being able to delve deeper into NZSBK and its combatants.

The storyteller within took over and dialed Dennis Charlett with a crazy concept. You don’t know me from a bar of soap, but would you mind if I follow you to Taupo International Motorsport Park for the final round next weekend? I’ll swing a camera about and do a wee story, a keepsake for you and Hunter worst case scenario.

The upshot is Heir to the Throttle, a mini documentary showcasing one of the country’s most promising talents and the father subtly instilling the secrets of “16 or 17” national championship wins (“I’ve honestly lost count”) into that project

The video gives hint to the depth TFS intends to explore, telling the stories of the factory riders, the plucky privateers, their mechanics, the family pit crews and paddock rats who make motorcycle racing one of Australasian sport’s best kept secrets. The extraordinary tales too often lost somewhere between the official programme, the podium and the ride home up SH1.

Passion. On Ice
On reflection, Turn 8 wasn’t where TFS was brough to life. It turns out my passion for bike racing was merely reawakened there, no longer dormant under 35+ years of mortgage payments, work commitments and missed race weekends. Hampton Downs just reignited the flame.

A V8 mad mate calls racing motorbikes ‘central muscle cars’, sans roll bars of course.

I flirted with the freedom of the road till an incident in my early 20s when my noob bravado collided with roadworks at high-speed north of Masterton in my early 20s. Nothing but pure luck saw me survive the ensuing fish tail on loose gravel I should have seen coming and very nearly ruined lunch at my sister’s place. Christmas lunch that was.

That NSR 250 was irresistible in the dealership window as I romanticized my boyhood bike heroes – Rainey, Schwantz, Gardner, Doohan – but was a terrible two-stroke choice for my first road bike. It was sold shortly afterward but the admiration for riders, on street and track, and the lust for the rocket ships they pilot, was clearly just chilling on ice.

The weekend immersed in the Taupo paddock stirred that unmistakable knot-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach tension I felt as a kid racing the mini-motobike my great and now sadly late Dad built me. It was powered by a Briggs and Stratton lawnmower motor and I rocked yellow and black ‘buzzy bee’ mittens Mum hand-knitted (what health and safety?) to match my dream machine’s paint scheme.

I even won a race in Masterton - Aaron Slight country - once. In the wet no less.

I recall falling off at least twice on the greasy lime track and only winning because a kid on a factory-built motocross bike took a short-cut right at the end of the race after also crashing, a desperate attempt to keep his unbeaten season record intact. The little cheater’s DQ only made my mud-splattered moment sweeter.

I graduated to a second-hand Honda 75 and must have driven the neighbours crazy ripping around our little 2-acre lifestyle block, cutting out a track that was complete with a jump over a dirt mound Dad had piled up digging out the foundations of the house he was building us.

Dad’s ‘turn his hand to anything’ skills bypassed me and the closest I ever came to being in an elite paddock was at Manfield as a cub reporter assigned to cover Slight, NZ’s young star, at one of what must have been the very first rounds of WorldSBK in the late 1980s.

TFS can’t wait to follow Hunter in the Yamaha Blu Cru R3 Asia Pacific Championship and the plethora of other Kiwis and Aussies ripping it up at home and abroad. It’ll take the platform a while to fully get off the grid, but we hope winging it to Adelaide for the third round of ASBK 2026 at The Bend illustrates the intention. After that, who knows?

What is clear is all those missed weekends are now not-to-be-missed weekends.

Turn 8 saw to that.

By Kent Gray in Adelaide
Six Kiwis. Eight crashes. One crazy day at The Bend.

Saturday’s qualifying and opening races at round 3 of the Penrite Oil Australian Superbike Championship was a tough watch for those who bleed black.

Hunter Charlett did it toughest at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park, admitted to hospital for an overnight concussion watch though the young Canterbury racer hopes to pass a fitness test in the morning to race on in the Asia-Pacific R3 Championship.

Mercifully, the weather forecast for Sunday looks better albeit cloudy again. Before we get to that, first a wrap of a wet and wild Saturday where crash after Kiwi crash had The Final Sector in a tailspin.

SW-Motech Australian Superbike

Luca Durning’s steep learning curve in the premier ASBK class came to an abrupt halt in the kitty litter in Q1 – just when it looked like the Whanganui rider might crack Q2 for the first time.

A bike setup blunder left the Kiwi rookie piloting a Ducati V4R set up for the dry, despite it sporting wet tires as the rain turned Superbike qualifying into a game of braking chicken on the greasy, turn-ladened 4.95km circuit.

The inevitable happened when Durning lost the rear on the final corner of a flying lap four.

“We found out that I went out… the electronics were actually for a full dry bike, so the track control and engine brake were not correct,” Durning told The Final Sector.

“And it’s also [that] the slick tires are a different size to the wets, so the bike had no idea what it was actually working, and just came into the last corner and the engine brake was too much and just spun out.

“Yeah, it certainly caught me off guard. Just tipped it in and then the back came round and it was going a lot faster than I thought, and I was rolling through the gravel in no time.”

Durning managed to run his Ducati back to pit lane but with a broken brake side handle bar among other damage, it was too much to fix before the session ended. The 2:25:077 he set on lap three ended up 16^th best, meaning Durning will start Sunday’s races from the sixth and final row of an injury-hit grid.

Frustrating? For sure.

“Yeah, I felt it. Certainly felt it,” Durning said of his bike on the flying lap that ultimately wasn’t.

“Like at home it rains quite a bit, so a lot of wet practice for us, I just felt comfortable, especially on a bike that’s set up for full dry. You know, imagine if we were on the wet setup… it could have been even better.”

Five-time ASBK champion Josh Waters snared pole for Sunday in 2:11.05 – .192 of a second ahead of McMartin Racing team-mate and championship leader Harrison Voight (2:11.217). Cameron Dunker secured the final spot on the front row of the grid with a 2:11.605 on his Yamaha R1.

How treacherous were the conditions? Consider that the ASBK qualifying record around The Bend was Troy Herfoss’ 1:49.889, set in 2023 on the Queenslander’s Honda CBR RR.

Durning’s DesmoSport Ducati team-mate Anthony West was 12^th in Q1 but a wrist/hand injury looks like it might end the Queenslanders weekend, doubling the despair in the DesmoSport Ducati garage.

Not that Durning is down in the dumps. He can’t wait for Sunday’s two races – races six and seven of the championship - come what may.

“If it’s rain or shine tomorrow, you know, I’m confident we can go faster than we were today and yesterday, but whatever the outcome is, I’m ready for it,” Durning said.

“It’s fine [his confidence]. Wasn’t anything to do with me, so can’t blame myself, so the confidence is still there.”

Road and Race Australian Supersport 300

The three Kiwis involved in some of the worst of Saturday’s big wet produced enough drama to fill a full page of The Final Sector’s increasingly soggy notebook. There was a late, Aussie plot twist to squeeze in too.

Championship leader Tyler King (Kawasaki Ninja 400) crashed on the opening lap of what was the 7^th race of the Supersport 300 season, as did Al Wu (Yamaha R3). Both Kiwis quickly dusted themselves off and raced on though sadly for Wu, his day lasted less than another lap as he binned it again, this time for good. It was the happy-go-lucky Whangarei rider’s 4^th crash of the day after two earlier spills in turns 1 and 2 in Q1 and Q2 respectively. Struggling to keep up? Us too. But hang tight, things get crazier.

King was the major benefactor of a race that wasn’t over till it was, recovering to finish a creditable 7^th despite a bent hand bar from his off. The Silverdale 19-year-old finished a place ahead of Wellingtonian Nixon Frost (Yamaha R3) who joined OJC campaigner Lucas Hyslop as the only Kiwis to keep it upright throughout a challenging Saturday.

Things ended even brighter in the final washup for King after his closest rival in the championship, WA’s Orlando Peovitis, crashed on the final lap with a huge lead and the race seemingly in the bag.

“I’ve never been so happy about crashing and rejoining, so yeah, real good points. I’m real happy,” King said afterwards.

“Yeah, crashed on lap one. Turn six on the exit, like, just touched some paint and, yeah, down she went. It wasn’t too bad [the crash] but I was still in the dirt and the bike did a little bit of a tumble, but yeah, I picked it up straight away and got going again.

“And apparently I got the second fastest time of the race [2:30.055 on lap six compared to Peovitis’ 2:29.156] as well, so yeah, it was good. Felt good on the bike with the bent handle bar, so a bit gutting, but extended my points lead now to 22 points.”

Time to cash in tomorrow then?

“Yeah, and keep it on two wheels this time,” King said with a rueful smile.

Frost was rightfully chuffed to avoid all the carnage.

“That was pretty crazy, so many people were flying off left, right and centre, I didn’t know what to do, so I just took the rest of the race easy,” Frost said.

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy with it. Eighth place is all right. Not the best I can do in the wet, but given that I couldn’t see anything and it was super slippery, fought as best I could do.”

For the record, Victoria’s Matthew Ritter took advantage of Peovitis’ crash to win race 7 by .174 of a second from South Australia’s Tara Morrison.

King had qualified 5^th with a 2:11.408 with Frost 10^th and Wu 18^th.

Yamaha bLU cRU Oceania Junior Cup

Lucas Hyslop enjoyed a day that kept on getting better and finished right as the dark clouds overhead began crying and turned The Bend into a skating rink.

The Orewa 15-year-old started the weekend 9^th in the championship, qualified 6^th in 2:39.107 and then finished 5^th in his race, edging a group of five/six riders who were embroiled in a ding-dong battle for much of Saturday’s five-lapper on the identical Yamaha YZR-R15s.

The race was won by South Australian Ryder McKenna but Hyslop was happy with his points haul which went some way to avenging a DNF in the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

“It was a good race. Heaps of battles going on, and I’m just happy to come out on top of that [chasing] group. And, you know, it’s pretty lucky…it just started raining on the last lap, so thankfully it wasn’t too sketchy out there at the end,” Hyslop said.

And tomorrow?

“Hopefully we can get on the podium. That would be good. I just need to get a good start and hang with those guys at the front. If I can get two top five finishes tomorrow, that’d be real good, some good points.”

Yamaha bLU cRu Asia-Pacific R3 Championship

Hunter Charlett’s day to forget led to a night of fret in hospital, the Christchurch 15-year-old under observation for concussion.

Charlett’s flying lap in qualifying was flashing green sectors, seemingly putting him on course for a front row position, only for the Papanui High School student to lose his rear wheel at the final corner.

His best free practice time meant Charlett was allowed to start Saturday’s sole race in 15th position but he never made it to the start line, things going from bad to worse when he rode over a white line on the sighting lap and high-sided over the top of his Yamaha R3. The big off has put a serious dent in his championship ambitions, a situation no doubt contributing to a self-deprecating social media post before he was summoned to hospital.

“Dumb mistake in the wet on the sighting lap that shouldn’t have happened,” Charlett wrote on his Facebook page Hunter Charlett Racing.

“I’m off to hospital for observation and have medical check in the morning to see if I am fit enough to race tomorrow. I feel really stink as I’ve not only let myself down but also Mum and Dad and everyone. Here’s hoping I can make it to the grid tomorrow fit and fighting.”

Welcome to the inaugural ‘Formation Lap’, The Final Sector’s full fat but bite-sized preview to the weekend of two-wheeled goodness ahead.

In the future we’ll (also) feature Antipodeans blazing a trail in MotoGP and WorldSBK/WCR but to open, we’re buzzing to be in the paddock at The Bend for round three of the Penrite Oil Australian Superbike Championship presented by Pirelli.

It’s the halfway stage of the 2026 ASBK season and we’re poised for a bumper weekend at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park where we’ve got our peepers on six Kiwis campaigning in four of the weekend’s classes. We’re also keeping a watchful eye on the skies above South Australia with rain forecast across the weekend for races six and seven of the premier Superbike class where Whanganui’s Luca Durning finds himself battling in one of the most exciting title races in years. Think a gaggle of fearless youngsters giving it to and getting as good as they give from the old guard led by five-time defending champion Josh Waters.

Before we crack into it, if you like what you read, consider subscribing to TFS’s Substack and sharing with a two-wheeled mate or three. It’s free and will go a long way to ensuring we can continue following those racing Down Under and around the world, giving them the attention they deserve. Thanking you in advance.

Flying (Solo) Kiwi
Luca Durning is the sole Kiwi in the premier class and enters the weekend 13^th in the championship. It’s a position he mirrored in free practice on Friday. We covered that minor frustration here. You should come back and read that, but first…

Australian Supersport 300
Silverdale teen Tyler King is the fastest of the three Kiwis in the Supersport 300 class thus far, both across the championship – which he leads – and Friday’s free practice at The Bend where he finished 4^th overall on his Kawasaki Ninja 400. The #128’s best lap was a 2:12.208 with Wellington’s Nixon Frost 13^th (2:13.825) and Whangarei’s Alvin Wu 16^th with a 2:15.255.

Fuelled by his third place in the ASBK 300s last year and from the fresh disappointment of finishing runner-up to Zak Fuller in last summer’s NZSBK Sportbike class - by one, harrowing point no less - King is happy to be on the pace again in Australia.

“Yeah, today’s gone good,” the 19-year-old told The Final Sector.

“Made good progress and yeah, top four for a whole day, so not too bad. I’ve had a tow as well, so qualifying’s [going to be about] trying to get behind someone, get a good tow, and hopefully go a bit better. When I was behind someone, my lap time was saying minus, whatever. And then I go down a straight when I’m not behind someone, I lose a second straight away.

“The track’s so big [4.95km]. It’s 17 corners or something crazy and yeah, it takes a while to get your head around it, but no, I’ve got it pretty nailed now.”

King is also loving the argy-bargy that comes standard in ASBK racing.

“Everyone here’s way more pushy. The competition’s just way tighter and everyone’s a bit faster than New Zealand. It’s good. You learn heaps… learn to get your elbows out a bit.”

Frost is 21^st in the championship and Wu 23^rd heading into Saturday’s qualifying and race 1. Two further races follow on Sunday and for King, the mission is simple, albeit not easily achieved.

“Yeah, the main goal’s probably just to leave the weekend still leading and hopefully extend the points lead. Obviously, the goal’s to win as well, but got to keep it on two wheels at the same time, so play it safe and competitive, I guess.”

Oceania Junior Cup
Lucas Hyslop is the sole Kiwi campaigner in the OJC, 9^th in the Yamaha bLU cRU-sponsored championship. The #31 was also 9^th fastest on Friday with a 2:39.750. Aussie Charlie Nicolls went fastest with a 2:36.859.

Yamaha bLU cRU Asia-Pacific R3 Championship
After surviving a baptism of fire at the opening round of the APAC R3 where bike set-up issues and crashes ahead of him made for a challenging weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park, Hunter Charlett is still handily placed in 7^th in the championship. But he wants way more out of his weekend at The Bend.

It’s started well with the Christchurch 15-year-old mixing at the very top of the timing sheets all of Friday, eventually settling for 5^th with a 2:14.398. Namesake Hunter Corney produced the day’s fastest lap with a 2:12.668 but Charlett’s final lap in FP3 was stunted marginally by a couple of slower riders.

Dad Dennis Charlett is at The Bend helping put right the things they didn’t know in Sydney re the setup of the identical Yamaha YZF-R3s being used across the class.

“At the first round at Sydney, Hunter’s bike was so different to his bike in New Zealand, and we didn’t realise that you could actually change the geometry of the bike,” Charlett Snr said.

“The forks, for example, you can’t push the forks through. He has his forks through at least 30mm at the top of the triple clamp [on his NZSBK Supersport 300 winning R3], and these ones are about 10. So that’s a huge difference.

“They evened all the kids out by weight too, so Hunter was running a full tank of gas [in Sydney], whereas normally in New Zealand he’s only running three litres of gas, and he was running about eight or nine litres of gas.

“So yeah, the bike felt heavy to him. It didn’t want to turn in.”

Charlett Jnr did well to gain 6^th and 10^th places at SMP and was gaining in the second race after narrowly avoiding a big crash …until it was red-flagged by another incident.

Friday’s free practice was on tires run at Sydney so it will be fascinating to see how Charlett goes on a fresh set in qualifying and across the two APAC R3 races at The Bend.

“He really wants to win,” Charlett Snr said. “For me, I’d like to see him in the top five. It would be a good position going forward, but he needs to finish the races and do as good as he can, and he’s pretty determined to win. So we’ll see how we go.”

SW-Motech Australian Superbike
It’s crunch time in the premier class as the wily campaigners led by five-time ASBK champion Josh Waters and three-time winner Mike Jones look to hold off the exciting emergence of young guns Harrison Voight, Jacob Roulstone, Jonathan Nahlous and Cameron Dunker.

Voight and Waters have won four of the five races between them thus far – Roulstone is the other rider to find the top step of the podium in race 2 at Sydney – and have shared a pole position apiece, Voight at Phillip Island and Waters at Sydney.

Waters topped Friday’s free practice times with a 1:50.398. Current championship leader Voight was 4th in the combined session times on 1:50.982 to sit behind Waters, New South Welshman Cru Halliday on yet another Ducati V4R and a Yamaha R1 pilot Jones, the latter duo sharing identical 1:50.970 laps. It’s paper-thin tight at the top and with rain forecast, hold all bets.

Saturday sees qualifying with the top 12 emerging from Q1 for Q2 while races six and seven of the championship are scheduled for Sunday. Waters’ FP times and championship clinching success here in 2025 make him the man to beat. - By Kent Gray in Adelaide

By Kent Gray in Adelaide
Three sessions of free practice got progressively faster for Luca Durning on Friday at The Bend. That’s pretty much all anyone could ask of the Kiwi rookie to open round 3 of the Penrite Oils Australian Superbike Championship but don’t think for even a tenth of a second that he’s satisfied.

The Kiwi rookie knows there’s still oodles of speed he can wrangle out of his DesmoSport Ducati around the monster 4.95km circuit in South Australia as we head into free practice 4 and qualifying at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park on Saturday.

The Whanganui 21-year-old wrapped up Friday 13^th (of 20) in the combined classification, 5.8 seconds adrift of five-time defending champion Josh Waters.

But each and every one of the 23 laps he completed across the three sessions left something to be desired even as he methodically chipped away at his best time, trimming nearly two seconds from a FP1 best of 1:57.766 to a 1:56.193 by the final session.

Durning’s Panigale V4 R isn’t yet doing exactly what he wants it to do in the corners, but the direction of travel is the right one thanks to the deliberate, systematic work with his DesmoSport Ducati crew and the Kiwi’s need to prove he belongs further up the grid.

Waters, meanwhile, was imperious. The Queenslander led every session and got quicker as a blustery day wore on — 1:51.161 became 1:50.768 and then 1:50.398. Current championship leader Harrison Voight could manage only fourth in the final session on 1:50.982 to sit behind New South Welshman Cru Halliday on yet another Ducati V4R and Yamaha R1 pilot Mike Jones, the three-time ASBK champion, who shared anidentical 1:50.970 with Halliday.

For Durning, the line in the sand is pronounced as he settles into his first full ASBK Superbike campaign. The step up from NZSBK has been immediate and unambiguous.

“It’s a lot harder, but it’s more of the fact it’s the tracks,” Durning told The Final Sector.

“Our tracks at home are hard, but then you get over here, and there’s the World Superbikes racing some of the tracks and MotoGP as well. And there’s a lot more races. The actual racing community here is just bigger as it seems to be dying at home, unfortunately, which is never good.”

Durning entered the weekend 13th in the ASBK championship on 35 points, built across mid field consistency in the five races thus far at Phillip Island and Sydney Motorsport Park.

It was on this very circuit, at last year’s ASBK finale, that Durning made his Superbike class debut, finishing 13th in both races. He knows what The Bend demands and is slowly working out how to take more from it.

The circuit’s particular character has been part of the puzzle.

“It’s actually surprisingly [the case that] most of the time gained is on the throttle, whereas a lot of the time, if you’re really good on the brakes, you can sacrifice a little bit on the drive,” he said.

“But there’s not really many braking points here. You get to turn one off the straight, and then you’re on the throttle to turn six, and then there’s just three long right-handers after that, and you’re just adjusting the throttle ever so slightly. So yeah, it’s quite hard, actually, trying to work out that you need to be more on the throttle than you do on the brake.”

The setup work is ongoing. The bike isn’t behaving the way he wants it to, particularly on corner entry, but he is clear-eyed about separating the mechanical from the personal.

“Yeah, the setup’s not quite right. I’m trying to get it into the corner, and it’s just not wanting to do what I want the bike to do.

“I don’t know if that is a bit of me or the setup, so we’re trying to work on both. But hopefully for this evening’s session and tomorrow morning’s practice session, we can get it all sorted.”

There were further positive signs on FP3 but Saturday ups the ante further, FP4 followed by the critical two-stage qualifying format. The top 12 from Q1 advance to Q2 and for Durning, breaking into that group would be a result in itself.

He was 1.764 seconds off NSW’s Marcus Hamod in 12^th place on his Honda SBR in the combined classification on Friday, not a small gap but not insurmountable either give Saturday is a new day and this track’s gigantic proportions.

“I mean, a top 10 would be awesome, but mainly just time on the bike and improving, showing that I can improve no matter what,” was During’s answer when asked for his ambitions for races six and seven of the championship on Sunday.

“And I would like to get maybe a second or two faster off my lap time. That would be overall goal, but a top 10 would also be just the cherry on top.”

With the beauty of reflection, Friday at The Bend was a lot like Durning’s rookie NZSBK campaign. Very nearly but not quite.

Entering the final round at Taupo Motorsport Park level on points with Upper Hutt’s Rogan Chandler — and ahead on countback — Durning won the final race of the season but was edged for the title after a complicated final weekend.

It was the kind of ending that can break a young rider or harden one.

Twenty-three laps into Round 3 of ASBK at The Bend, the evidence points firmly toward the latter.

Dad Dennis Charlett is a legend of the New Zealand Superbike Championship paddock with so many titles to his name he’s genuinely lost count. His 15-year-old son Hunter? Catching up. Fast.

Every nook and cranny in the team van not taken up by bikes, spares and sweaty gear was needed for trophies when the duo finally rolled out of Taupō Motorsport Park for the long-haul home to Christchurch following the final round of the NZSBK Championship.

With due deference to Upper Hutt’s freshly-minted Superbikes champion Rogan Chandler, who edged away from Whanganui’s Luca Durning in the premier class during a dramatic final round, it was the Charlett show in Taupō.

Share The Final Sector

Dennis wrapped up the 650 ProTwin title with two seconds and a third, the 57-year-old’s trademark consistency meaning he’s now won every national road race title available – save for sidecars. The veteran racer plans to put that three wheel resumé anomaly right some day too.

“It’s either 16 or 17 titles,” Charlett Snr said unconvincingly. “I honestly don’t know…I’ve lost count.”

For now though, the focus is very much on the rise of young Hunter who captured his second and third NZSBK titles this season, including the Supersport 150 class in Taupō with two races to spare, just like Dad in the 650s.

The Papanui High School Year 11 student is jetting back to Australia this weekend to prep for the second round of the Yamaha R3 Blu Cru Asia Pacific Championship, a stepping stone to the WorldSBK Championship.

To say Charlett Jnr is heading to The Bend in heady form is an understatement.

The teen didn’t so much win the NZSBK Supersport 150 and Supersport 300 titles as obliterate his competition in 2026, many of them much older riders.

He wrapped up the 150 title in style with three victories across the Taupō weekend for a series tally of 11 wins from 12 starts. It was his second 150 title after first clinching the development class in 2023… as a 12-year-old.

His dominance was even more comprehensive in the Supersport 300s, a perfect 12 from 12 across the four-round championship which opened at Ruapuna in late January. Not only that, he also achieved a unique “Double Treble”, winning the three prestige races over the series – the NZ Grand Prix, Aaron Slight Trophy and NZ TT – in each class.

Charlett Jnr clinched the 300 title at Hampton Downs but didn’t relent in Taupō, again qualifying on pole and riding clear in every race on the bigger machine to underscore his talent.

That cool-headed consistency hasn’t gone unnoticed by Slight who won 13 WorldSBK races and racked up 87 podium finishes in 229 starts in the 1990s.

“The thing I like about watching Hunter is he’s on the pace the whole time,” the Masterton legend said. “He gets out in the lead, and he keeps stretching the lead…a lot of people get in front and just try to maintain it but he’s on lap record pace every lap.”

The Yamaha R3 championship will be decided over six rounds across Australia, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand from late March-November. The winner earns a fully supported ride in the Yamaha R3 Blu Crus FIM World Cup, which runs on WorldSBK weekends in Europe.

“Hunter’s going to need to make another big step, but he’s gone to Australia before and actually won, so a big pat on the back for that,” Slight continued. “Usually, people try and change too much, try to move on too quickly… he’s just got to keep it simple, progress step by step and I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

Charlett Jnr’s idol is Spain’s seven-times MotoGP championMarc Márquez. He’s also keeping close tabs on Kiwi Cormac Buchanan in Moto3 and looks to have an even calmer determination about him than the Southlander.

“I think every motorcyclist’s dream is to be a MotoGP world champion,” the young Redwood rider said.

“If I was going for my perfect [career], I’d want to be more than Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi and Giacomo Agostini, yeah, just have more titles than them. Being a Kiwi, it’d be pretty darn good to get that.”

It seems Charlett Jnr’s lofty goals mightn’t just be the stuff of teenage dreams either.

An interested spectator in Taupō was Peter Clifford, director of rider development for the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, a cut-throat series that helped send Buchanan on his way. Secure one of those 26-highly coveted seats and there’s only two more rungs – Moto3 and Moto2 - up the ladder to road racing’s promised land.

“Hunter’s doing fantastically well, it’s been an incredible season for him and I’m sure he’s going to do very well on his trip to Australia,” Clifford said. “He’ll learn a great deal there, new tracks, new competition and that sort of thing, allow him to make another step forward. I really look forward to the day when we can see him in Europe, hopefully as part of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.”

Dad’s experience can’t be underestimated in the ascent of New Zealand road racing’s next big hope. Charlett Snr’s not only fastidious chief mechanic but also the purveyor of 42 years of race craft, hard-earned across Australasia.

The key message? Titles are won with consistent points accumulation, not crashes. It seems the “keep it smooth, son” mantra is finally sinking in after Charlett Jnr suffered more than a few spills in recent seasons.

“Hunter started out on a Kayo 150 and even from when he first rode out from pit lane, he’s been watching me since he was a baby, he’s seen me for all those years and you could see when he went out on the Kayo that he was already doing the right lines and looking nice and smooth and very consistent,” Charlett Snr said.

“In the last year, travelling to Australia and doing what we’ve been doing with OJC [Oceania Junior Cup] you can see him growing up from a boy into a man. He’s really matured a lot in the last year, understanding what’s going on with his bike, he can give me a lot of feedback.

“He’s eager to go [full throttle all the time] but with my experience, I might hold him back a little but I think that’s conspired into him becoming very consistent and very fast. If he’s got to come second or third or fifth, and that’s the best he can do, then that the best he can do with the championship in mind.”

While he struggles to remember how many titles he’s won, one number Charlett Snr was firm on was the ‘15’ that adored the front fairing of his Yamaha R7, a nod to the age when he started racing. That was until he sealed the ProTwin title last Saturday and Slight peeled off the ‘5’ in parc fermé just before the podium interviews, leaving the number ‘1’.

It was another special moment for what NZSBK media manager Peter Donaldson describes as the “Royal Family of South Island motorcycling”; Charlett’s wife Ange and daughter Emma were missing in Taupō but also race regularly.

Dad’s coronation will be complete with that elusive sidecars title (he’s finished 3^rd previously) but you can bet Charlett Snr would forsake it all to see his son make it to the top.

So far, young Hunter is finding all the right lines towards that destiny. Next stop, The Bend. - By Kent Gray

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Ed’s Note: This feature originally appeared in The Press. Hunter Charlett heads into The Bend 7th in the Yamaha R3 Blu Cru Asia Pacific Championship standings.