By Kent Gray
Stu Avant confesses there was more than a little Canterbury bias behind his initial interest in Ryder Chamberlain, the 14-year-old road racer clearly determined to go places fast.

The Motorcycling New Zealand Hall-of-Famer is a founding member of the new Superbike Pathways Foundation (SPF), established by NZSBK promoter Mike Marsden with the likes of Avant, Aaron Slight and Paul Treacy to nurture Supersport 150 and 300 talent.

Now 71, Avant had a prerequisite, born of his own humble upbringing, when the SPF began discussing names to act as a pilot project for a scheme ultimately designed to reinvigorate the Kiwi superbike scene.

“We started yakking away about it, and I said, oh, is there someone in the South Island? Because I’m a Christchurch boy, and, you know, I just would really like to help someone from our way,” Avant told The Final Sector from the Gold Coast, the place he now calls home.

“And someone sent me a picture of this kiddie with a mullet, who spoke nicely, and I thought, all right. So, I sent some money over to get his bike prepped [for the 2026 NZSBK season], because it hadn’t been touched for a long time...”

What happened next was a chain reaction of small moments that combined to convince Avant that Chamberlain might just have what it takes to progress in the cut-throat world of road racing.

He flew to Christchurch and savoured a reunion of NZ motorcycling royalty at Ruapuna “…with Cros [Graeme Crosby] and Slighty and all the old team, barbecues, enjoyed ourselves.”

“But the main thing for me was to see if he [Chamberlain] was worthwhile, you know — because if he’s, like, 10 seconds off Hunter [eventual NZSBK Supersport 150 champion Hunter Charlett ahead of Chamberlain], then, you know, he’s not going to catch up in a minute.

Avant, who became the first international rider to win the fabled Northwest 200 in Northern Ireland in 1982, among a catalogue of domestic and offshore titles, was committed on project Ryder from the start. But when he discovered that Chamberlain had kicked on from Ruapuna to break the Teretonga 150 lap record in round two of NZSBK in Invercargill, another domino fell.

“Reading that he broke the lap record in Teretonga, which is a track that I know, and beat Hunter — who’s a fabulous kid, but he’d already done two years of the R1 Cup, doing the 150s — that meant Ryder was as good as, on the surface, on race pace anyway, as Hunter…”

Avant was so smitten, he sent a picture of Chamberlain to none other than Randy Mamola, considered by many to be one of the greatest talents in the sport to have never won the 500cc World Championship and today still heavily involved in MotoGP with LCR Honda. The American had stayed with Avant in Christchurch when he was an up-and-comer about the same age as Chamberlain and repaid that favour via a message to Avant during the Red Bull Grand Prix of America at the Circuit of the Americas in late March.

“He said, oh, Stuart, how’s this kid? I saw he’s running around in old leathers and old shit, and a month later he was at COTA, and he sent me a message. Oh, buddy, what size is he? I’ll get him some gear. And actually, you know what, a whole lot of Alpinestar gear turned up for him.”

Those are the connections the SPF can make, the doors the foundation can open.

The next step was to get Chamberlain across the Tasman to see how he stacked up against the continent’s best. Avant and wife Rebecca hosted Ryder and his father Stu Masters for the final round of the 2026 ASBK season last weekend with Avant taking a lead role in setting up the teen’s bike for the three Oceania Junior Cup races.

How did the kid, now sans mullet, quietly confident but not cocky, go? Beyond the combined expectation of both Stus – Avant and Masters – and better than the SPF could have hoped for.

After qualifying 10^th, the Christchurch wildcard finished second in both helter-skelter OJC races and was so quick, it wouldn’t have surprised if he found the top step of the podium if the third race of the weekend hadn’t been red-flagged.

“You’ve got to understand, we went to a track he’d never seen, an environment [OJC] that he obviously didn’t know anything about, on a bike with different tyres, because he runs Bridgestones at home, and he had Dunlops on, Öhlins rear shock, where he normally just rides with a standard shock, and every time I said, how does it feel? He said, ‘that’s fine’. Any different? ‘No, not really.’ Do you know what I mean? It was just, wow, this is good.

“He was just bloody— he was just a machine.”

For the record, the wee Canterbury “machine” quietly loved mixing it with his Aussie peers. Nearly as much as Masters, Avant and Marsden at QR and all the Kiwis cheering back home.

“Yeah, it was pretty fun,” Chamberlain said. “It was super hectic and just, like, crazy compared to New Zealand because there would be, like, three of us in a group in New Zealand where there was, like, nine of us [at Queensland Raceway],” Chamberlain said.

We bet you’re fizzing about another crack in ASBK? “Definitely. I can’t wait to get over there already. It’s definitely boosted my confidence.”

Which begs the obvious question. What’s next for the kid who has proven his speed in two races against boys who have spent a season or more in the hustle and bustle of OJC, tuning their 150s and learning the tracks Chamberlain has only ever heard of? How does the SPF double-down on its investment?

Avant, Marsden and co. are working on that already with an eye to supporting Chamberlain through the full, rejigged 2026-27 ASBK season. But likely not in OJC.

“It’s really early, but my thoughts are that — if you haven’t done the other rounds, and you’re just as quick as everyone else or quicker than the best, then you don’t go and do it again. You just go up a division,” Avant said.

Masters concurs, and with Avant and the SPF’s help, that should see Chamberlain campaigning in the Australian bLU cRU R3 Cup from October. Combined with a promised ride in the Supersport 300 and potentially Supersport 150 classes (if there are sufficient starters) at NZSBK from January-March, and Chamberlain will have ample chances to progress next summer.

“If we can do the 300s in NZ, and if we can get it together to do the Australian series, then he’ll go home to New Zealand going real quick, because if you go abroad… you come home a second a lap quicker just through the experience and the confidence,” Avant said.

“It would be a learning year, because the R3s, you’d probably have to do a second year to be real quick on them,” he continued before tailing off with “maybe, maybe not…”

What Avant was musing internally was the realisation that Chamberlain has already shown he can be quick from the get-go on an unfamiliar Yamaha with foreign tyres and on new tracks.

Even Masters was surprised with the results in Willowbank.

“I was a bit blown away, to be honest. Still am,” Dad said. “Still hasn’t really sunk in. I didn’t expect the podium. I knew he was capable of it, but I know how fast those boys are over there, so... I was going to be pretty happy with the top 10.”

Like many a parent in junior road-racing, Masters is funding his son’s dream on the proverbial smell of an oily rag. Without the SPF, Queensland Raceway wouldn’t have been possible, and he couldn’t be more indebted to Avant and wife Rebecca who not only helped trackside, but took Ryder out for dinner and to an amusement arcade in Surfers Paradise as a reward for his great weekend.

“He’s from Christchurch as well,” Masters said of Avant, “…so he’d done it all when he was young. He knows the struggle, I suppose. Sort of coming from nothing. We don’t have a lot of money and stuff like that so it’s—without those guys helping out, Stu and Rebecca and all the SPF team, we wouldn’t have been able to do that this weekend.”

And without the SPF, there wouldn’t be so much momentum around a young Kiwi rider.

Chamberlain’s “beautiful attitude”, as Avant put it, made it easy for him to be involved. The personal payback was a “bloody satisfying weekend” that has done nothing to quell that Canterbury bias.

You see, you can take the boy [Avant] out of Christchurch but good luck removing that red and black eye-patch. The kicker is that Chamberlain, like Charlett before him, is living up to the provincial hype, gratefully and politely making the most of every opportunity thrown at him.

This won’t be a linear progression, it never is in road racing. But Chamberlain, and by association the SPF, is on his way. And that, for the future of NZSBK, the sport in New Zealand and a good kid, is a very encouraging thing.

“Ryder was focused the whole weekend on what he wanted to do, and I just thought, you could go somewhere, kid,” Avant said.

“Who knows where? I said to him, you might end up going back to school and becoming a doctor would be much better, but if you have an opportunity and you take it, you might end up here [ASBK], you might end up in Southeast Asia, you might end up in Europe, you know.

“The chances of that are low. There’s a one in a million chance, but what did old Jim Carrey say [in the 1994 screwball comedy] Dumb and Dumber? ‘So, you’re saying there’s a chance? One in a million, I’ll take it’.”

Ryder Chamberlain doesn’t mind those odds either.

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By Kent Gray
The results alone from Morgan McLaren-Wood’s wildcard debut at the ASBK finale are eye-catching without need for any deeper scrutiny. When you do learn the sobering backstory, though, his weekend is altogether more impressive.

After qualifying 14^th on Saturday and riding up to 12^th despite a bout of arm pump in the first of Sunday’s two races at Queensland Raceway, the Cambridge 21-year-old briefly flirted with the podium positions in a brilliant ride from the back of the grid in a wet sign-off to the 2026 championship.

A fogged up visor and an overshot corner a couple of laps from the chequered flag conspired to send McLaren-Wood tumbling from the giddy-heights of 3^rd down to 6^th, and then 7^th when he was pipped on the last corner by none less than Cameron Dunker.

But 12^th and 7^th was nothing to be sniffed at given this was his maiden ASBK Superbike weekend. On a bike – a Yamaha YZR-R1 - he’d never ridden before and for a team, Patrick Li’s MotoGo Yamaha Racing, that took a punt on the Kiwi after he’d put the feelers out for a last round ride.

The performance won’t have done his bid for a full-time seat in the new, six-round 2026-27 ASBK summer season any harm whatsoever.

More than that, the weekend is a massive confidence boost after what has been an emotionally fraught year for McLaren-Wood.

The NZSBK campaigner doesn’t like relitigating the crash he was involved in at Oulten Park in May 2025 that cost his mate Shane Richardson and Englishman Owen Jenner their lives.

He’d hate to think anyone might see any reference to his fallen friends as disrespectful as it’s still very raw. He does hope his inspired ride in the wet at Willowbank would have done his former BSB mates proud, though, and “really just carry on their legacy, man, just do it for Shane and Owen.”

“It’s just…it’s hard to explain. It’s been a rough few years with injuries and that crash at Oulten Park, it’s really dampened my confidence, being out there fighting, you know, for positions,” said McLaren-Wood.

“This is the first time I actually had some proper full-on battles back and forth, diving and just taking risks. Because usually I play it quite safe, so it was good to be back to peak performance, I guess.

“I was just treating each rider as an obstacle in my way, looking through them. And it was awesome really. I was just locked in. Just, I guess, it’s in the zone is what you’d call it.”

McLaren-Wood is a low key guy who just likes “spinning laps” on his bike. He does his best to give social media a wide berth so frets that even talking about Richardson might upset some. But as racers, they’d have loved seeing the young Kiwi mixing it with the likes of Mike Jones and five-time ASBK champion Josh Waters.

“I looked up to Shane a lot, especially being over in BSB [together] and how well he’s done and [him] giving me advice. After almost every session, we would catch up and have a quick yarn and that. It helped me out a lot.

“It’s a tough thing to talk about, so I don’t really like mentioning it too much. It’s something I just leave in the back of my mind, really.”

Out of respect for all those involved, The Final Sector will park that chapter here and focus forward. On the evidence of Queensland Raceway, the future looks exciting for McLaren-Wood.

“Race one was good. I definitely made a good step there. Dropped another couple of tenths off my times, and managed to pinch a position from Ty Lynch, who’s a pretty well-rounded rider in ASBK. Sadly just got arm pump, probably three-quarters into the session, which slowed my progress down [just as he was] catching up to Josh [Newman who finished 11th].

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“So I kinda just hunkered down and ended up finishing but overall I’m pretty happy with it [12^th] to be fair. Like I said, I wasn’t expecting to be fighting at all so where I was, beating a couple of the [established] ASBK boys was good enough for me.”

You clearly like the wet too?

“First time racing in the wet on a Super[bike], so I didn’t know what else to expect I suppose. It’s probably a good thing. Just rode it like a 600 and it seemed to work quite well,” McLaren-Wood said in the understatement of Sunday.

“Honestly, I just woke up from a nap, looked outside, it was raining, didn’t really even compute, just kind of hopped on the bike. I was just like, oh, well, we’ll see how it goes then, you know? We’ll soften it up a bit and we’ll just, we’ll just see. And then the lights went out and three corners in, I’m battling with the likes of bloody Mike Jones and stuff, and I was like, well, there you go.

“Sadly, my visor fogged up, so when I was going down the back straight to turn three I was sticking my head out the side, trying to open up the lid to get some air through it, and I just missed my braking marker and ran on into the gravel. But still managed to bring it back into about 7^th because I’d built such a big gap. So yeah, it was overall pretty good, in my opinion.”

It was better than good in anyone’s language.

“It’s definitely a huge confidence boost, man,” McLaren-Wood continued before conversation inevitably turned to his future in ASBK.

“I’m looking into a few options right now. I can’t really go too much into it…I don’t want to be that guy that promises the world and then ends up with nothing but it is looking like I will try and do full-time in ASBK next year.”

And the Suzuki International Series and NZSBK?

“Yeah, I think NZSBK doesn’t clash at all with the [ASBK] rounds, so it will be full-time NZSBK. And I think the Suzuki Series only clashes with one round over here, so it should be at least two rounds I’ll be doing Suzuki Series.”

What bike will you ride?

“Not 100 percent sure yet. I’m talking to a few different manufacturers and trying to work out stuff. I will be on the grid. Just don’t know what on yet.”

What is undeniable is that both Kiwi grids will be better for having McLaren-Wood lining up on them. So too will ASBK which starts its new summer season at Phillip Island alongside the MotoGP alphas in late October.

“I wasn’t really expecting it, to be honest,” McLaren-Wood said when asked for a summary of his ASBK debut.

“But I’m glad I showed what I can really achieve, I guess, in such a small amount of time. I’m really over the moon.”

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By Kent Gray
It goes without saying that things happen fast in motorbike racing but on the really good days, everything positively whizzes by.

Like Tyler King’s Sunday at Queensland Raceway which started with him eight points behind Riley Nautu in the Australia Supersport 300 Championship and ended, in a flash, atop the shoulders of his father Shawn and mechanic Gavin Veltmeyer as the freshly-minted champion.

King Jnr’s feet had barely touched down from the assisted lift to Cloud 9 when he was being poked and prodded with a tape measure for a new set of leathers. The photos and videos from his emotional, historic title fight were still being uploaded and yet the rising NZSBK star was already being sized up for bigger things.

The Silverdale 19-year-old will race in the baby blue and black colours of Queensland’s Stop and Seal Racing in the next Australian Superbike Championship starting at Phillip Island in October, the richest of rewards after becoming the first Kiwi in 35 years to win an ASBK title.

The last guy to do that? Aaron Slight when the WorldSBK star-in-waiting became the first and thus far only international rider to win ASBK’s premier title in 1991.

“Oh, man, it’s like checking the box, you know? Like you’ve done it, man. First Kiwi in 35 years, dude!” Shawn King told The Final Sector.

“We just hoped he’d be good enough for a big team to pick him up, and that’s what’s happened. We’re with Stop & Seal Racing, with Robbie Bolger — so that’s [Superbike class frontrunner] Cru Halliday, Tom Toparis and Tyler.

“Going forward we’ll be racing with them in Supersport NextGen, in the 600s.”

It was the sweetest of sweet moments in a sport that is all about sacrifice for the caregivers, fiscally, emotionally and with a far greater time investment tax than many other sporting parents would be willing to give.

“We just had a photo, and it was probably about 50 of us,” Shawn said. “They’ve all come over to watch him. It was awesome, man.”

It was indeed. And nerve-jangling all weekend long in Willowbank.

King arrived four points adrift of Riley Nauta after the Queenslander’s five-win streak – three of them during a perfect penultimate round at Morgan Park - flipped the Race & Road Supersport 300 title script.

The Kiwi had gone into Morgan Park with a 27-point advantage so needed to respond quickly at QR and did immediately — stripping Nauta’s own lap record off him in Saturday qualifying for pole and a bonus point, only to be run down and beaten by .066s in Saturday’s Race 13, the margin to the Queenslander typically thin but the deficit now out to eight points.

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Then came Race 14’s twist: pole-sitter King dropped to third on lap one, fought back to second, before inheriting the lead when Nauta crashed after being taken down by his team-mate Orlando Peovitis at turn 3 on lap seven of the 10-lapper. It was a blocking move gone horribly wrong, and while the Queenslander rejoined and scored points for 17th, it was a swing that flipped a eight-point deficit into a 13-point lead for King with one race to run.

Race 15 needed only one thing from King: eight or better, assuming Nauta won. What followed was a tactical chess match as much as a race.

“That race was real weird,” King Jnr said. “He kept sitting up and waiting for me to come past — a few mind games going on.”

Nauta was trying to back up the pace and bunch the field, hoping to bring rivals and a potential championship ending crash into the fight. King somehow kept his nose clean in the pressure-cooker.

“I knew, from previous rounds, if you’re not going to pass, you’ll be passed — so I was just trying to pass someone at least every lap, then let them go again.”

There was late weather to worry about too.

“Yeah, real nerve-wracking. I mean, the last race was probably the most nerve-wracking of them all, because it was like big dark clouds coming over and I didn’t want it to rain, So like, there’s all that going on. And then, yeah, not crashing at the same time.”

The Kiwi held his nerve, eventually crossing the line second behind Nauta, championship secured by eight points after a ding-dong, season long battle.

What were the immediate emotions, champ?

“Well, just I mean, crossing the line, it’s like, ‘I’ve done it’. And then, yeah, I don’t know, so much adrenaline, just awesome.”

For King Jnr, the moment belonged as much to the people behind him as the result itself.

“It’s like everything Dad and [Shawn King’s wife] Vicky sacrificed — it just seems like it’s all just paid off,” King Jnr said.

“It’s awesome when all the family’s come over too. It just couldn’t be any better, really.”

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While the headline act is the title fight between McMartin Racing Ducati teammates Harrison Voight and Josh Waters, The Final Sector has its eyes fixed on a quieter, distinctly Kiwi subplot playing out further down the grid at this weekend’s ASBK Final.

A Cambridge wildcard chasing data at Queensland Raceway on a borrowed Yamaha. A Whanganui rookie on his rented Ducati who spent Friday closing the gap on the NZSBK newcomer. A Silverdale teenager within a whisker of claiming Australia Supersport 300 glory. A Christchurch 14-year-old getting his big break (with apologies to Lucas Hyslop back home) in the Oceania Junior Cup thanks to a critical NZSBK development initiative.

Here’s five things worth watching as the 2026 season heads into its final laps in Willowbank.

The former fence painter chasing data, not a result

While Harrison Voight and Josh Waters slug it out for ASBK Superbike honours, Morgan McLaren-Wood spent Friday at Queensland Raceway doing something far less glamorous but no less exciting at the opposite end of the grid: learning. On a bike he’d never ridden before. At a track he could barely remember. For a team he met for the first time earlier in the week.

“I made I think 2, 3 second progress throughout the day, so I’m pretty happy,” the 21-year-old Cambridge rider told The Final Sector after a Friday practice that saw Cru Halliday eclipse the QR lap record with a 1:07.055 and serve notice on the championship’s minor placings. Cam Dunker, third and just 11 points ahead of Halliday going into the championship’s final weekend, can’t say he hasn’t been warned at Willowbank.

McLaren-Wood’s own numbers on his borrowed YZR-R1, kindly lent for the weekend by MotoGo Yamaha Racing principal Patrick Li, were encouraging. The NZSBK rider trimmed nearly eight tenths off his opening session time across the day’s three sessions, dropping from a 1:10.596 in FP1 to a 1:09.820 on the fourth to last of his 18 laps in FP3.

It’s the trajectory, more than the position, that pleased McLaren-Wood who finished Friday 15th overall — last but one — and 2.765s adrift of Halliday’s blistering pace. But there’s a quieter subplot playing out behind him: fellow Kiwi Luca Durning (DesmoSport Ducati), 16th on the same combined sheet, started Friday 1.872s behind McLaren-Wood and closed it to just 0.893s shy by the final session. The Whanganui rookie v the Waikato wildcard. Two Kiwis with much bigger ASBK plans.

The pair have history. Last summer in NZSBK, it was Durning who had the upper hand — runner-up in the Superbike standings to McLaren-Wood’s sixth. Don’t expect McLaren-Wood to read much into Friday’s reversal, though.

“Honestly, man, it doesn’t worry me, to be honest,” he said when asked about running ahead of Durning after practice.

“I’m not fazed at all where I come or what happens. I just think as long as I get some good testing in and I’m comfortable on the bike, that’s all that matters, really.”

That’s because this weekend was never about the results. McLaren-Wood’s ride came together almost by accident — he simply let it be known he was hunting a seat, and Victorian-based Li (MotoGo Yamaha Racing) came calling, slotting him into a team that also includes a pair of Asian campaigners for this, the fifth and final round of the 2026 Penrite Australian Superbike Championship presented by Pirelli.

It’s his first time aboard an R1, his first real laps of Queensland Raceway — a club day blow-up three years ago barely counts, by his own admission — and his first taste of a much bigger 2026-2027 season plan: a full-time tilt at ASBK.

“It’s just a good experience to get over here and actually spin some laps and just get in data for next year…so I already have an idea of what I’m getting myself into at Queensland when we race here again,” McLaren-Wood explained.

It’s a methodical approach for a rider who’s been almost everywhere already. Cambridge-based with a Scottish mother and the British passport that comes with it, McLaren-Wood spent two seasons in British Supersport and Stock 600, has lapped at speed in meccas like Mallorca and Barcelona, and contested rounds of the Spanish ESBK championship. All before last summer’s NZSBK campaign on a Suzuki GSXR.

Before any of it, there was simpler work: “I was a fence painter, if you want to put that in,” he laughed.

McLaren-Wood is already sizing up QR with a nuanced eye.

“Imagine Manfeild, but no camber,” he said. “There’s like four long straights, so if you don’t get set up to get drive out of the corners, you’re not making a good lap time. It’s a very superbiker’s track — you’re just focused on getting the drive out of these corners.”

McLaren-Wood is eyeing this summer’s Suzuki International Series, headlined by the 75^th Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day, and NZSBK’s three round season from Jan-March. But his presence at QR is not done on a whim.

ASBK expands to seven rounds for the new 2026-27 summer season, starting at Phillip Island alongside the MotoGP alphas in October — exactly the type of stage McLaren-Wood wants to be ready for when his full-time tilt hopefully arrives. Friday’s laps are simply the down payment.

Saturday’s final practice and qualifying will sharpen the picture before Sunday’s last two SW-Motech Superbike races of the season — Race 10 and Race 11 — bring the curtain down on 2026 and, with it, the latest instalment of a quiet Kiwi subplot with a much grander long-term narrative.

King within touching distance of Nauta as Supersport 300 title fight goes to wire

Tyler King began the final round of ASBK just four points behind Riley Nauta. He ended Friday’s three Australian Supersport 300 practice sessions even closer - just 0.495s adrift of the white-hot Queenslander. This is going to be a nerve-jangling weekend to decide the coveted development class.

Nauta undoubtedly has the momentum, five successive wins including all three races in the penultimate round at Morgan Park last month. A crash didn’t help King’s cause as his 27-point lead quickly became a four point deficit courtesy of Nauta’s perfect weekend.

But the Silverdale 19-year-old, riding a rented Kawasaki Ninji 400, is quietly determined; his 1:21.580 in FP2 was the best response anyone could muster to Nauta’s pace-setting 1:20.399. The Queenslander also had an off in the light rain of FP3 with King remaining in the pits.

It’s all to play for then in Saturday’s qualifying and Race 13, before Sunday’s Race’s 14 and 15. The good news? You’ll be able to catch the penultimate race on the ASBK website live feed and race 15 on Sunday’s Sky Sports coverage from 3pm.

Hyslop off-line after inline hockey incident

Lucas Hyslop had grand plans to finish a topsy-turvy Yamaha bLU cRU Oceania Junior Championship (OJC) campaign on a high, perhaps even climbing to as high as third in the 150cc championship overall.

That was until the Orewa 15-year-old broke his foot playing inline hockey a week out from his flight to Brisbane. It means the #31 will sadly have to watch the action from Queensland Raceway on telly which we’re guessing will be more painful than his mending foot.

Chamberlain off to promising start

Fortunately there is still much Kiwi interest in the OJC decider with Christchurch’s Ryder Chamberlain at Queensland Raceway courtesy of a freshly minted opportunity: the Superbike Pathways Foundation, established by NZSBK promoter Mike Marsden with backing from former Kiwi international Stu Avant.

The 14-year-old — runner-up to another Cantab, Hunter Charlett, in last summer’s NZSBK Supersport 150 class — has travelled to Brisbane with father Stu and will be hosted by Avant and wife Bec.

Chamberlain is off to an impressive start too, 14^th (of 18) in the combined OJC practice classification with a 1:40.145 on his loaner YZR-R15. Champion elect Tom Cameron topped the Friday sessions with a 1:37.259.

Title decider looms as Voight, Waters head to Queensland

The 2026 SW-Motech Australian Superbike Championship looks Harrison Voight’s to lose with the 20-year-old Queenslander holding a 24-point lead over McMartin Racing Ducati teammate Josh Waters heading into Sunday’s title-deciding races.

A Voight win puts the issue beyond doubt; if five-time defending champion Waters sweeps the round (pole and wins in race 10 and 11), Voight needs just two top-seven finishes to be crowned the youngest Australian Superbike champion, eclipsing Mat Mladin’s 1992 mark.

It seems the weekend won’t be a two-horse race, though. Cru Halliday served an emphatic reminder of that on Friday, unofficially smashing the Willowbank lap record and topping both afternoon sessions on his Stop and Seal Ducati — a statement aimed squarely at Cameron Dunker, who he trails by just 11 points for third in the championship.

Glenn Allerton ran Halliday him closest, with Mike Jones rounding out the top three. The title combatants themselves were further back, with Waters 6th and Voight 7th, separated from Halliday by less than a second across the top 10.

Qualifying on Saturday sets the grid for Sunday’s final two races of the season, with the championship — and a piece of Australian Superbike history — on the line. Plus that intriguing NZSBK, Whanganui v Waikato subplot too.

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By Kent Gray
“There will be nobody like Bruce Anstey, but is he a Bruce Anstey 2.0?”

Chris Pritchard had just put his TT Daily Podcast co-host, Lee Johnston, on the spot. The forthright and funny Northern Irishman, a five-time Northwest 200 champion and winner of the 2019 Supersport TT, was ready. He knows Anstey. Raced against the “Flying Kiwi”.

Which meant he also knew the gravity of the comparison.

“Honestly, I didn’t think I would ever say them words, but I’m…I’m saying he’s got the vibe. I think the Bruce Anstey I’ve seen, [Rees is close] to Bruce Anstey.”

Out loud. On the record. The humble 33-year-old from Whakatāne in his second Isle of Man TT framed in the same conversation as a guy that gave John McGuinness the shudders in his pomp. Both rider’s pomp.

Bruce Anstey. Twelve TT wins. One time Mountain Course lap record holder. A bushy-bearded man so fast, so smooth, so utterly unreadable under pressure that the paddock ran out of adjectives and just started calling him “Bruce Almighty”.

And then Mitch Rees turned up in the Milenco by Padgett’s garage, a team previously home to the likes of Steve Hislop, McGuinness, Davey Todd, Conor Cummins, Ian Hutchinson and Anstey himself. Johnston had comparisons at hand.

“He’s beaten everybody that’s winning TTs. On other tracks in New Zealand. So that’s just a…it’s just a time period thing more than the fact of if the ability is there.”

Not if. When.

The most horizontal man in the most horizontal team

There is a moment in the podcast, recorded during race week, where Pritchard asks Mitch Rees what he would like to have achieved by the end of TT 2026.

Rees doesn’t pause.

“Obviously, I’ve already achieved it, to be fair. I went faster than I did last year. Job done.”

This is not false modesty. This is not a rider managing expectations. This is exactly how Mitch Rees is wired, and it is — according to everyone who has watched him operate up close — precisely why he is going to win at this place.

Johnston had already diagnosed a key ingredient before the races began.

“I can guarantee you he’s not wasted any energy today, not one drop. He might actually be sleeping right now as we’re doing this interview and getting recharged.”

Clive Padgett, who has welcomed Hutchy, McGuinness, Todd and “my hero” Anstey through his doors, put it simply: “The lads put enough pressure on themselves without any pressure from a team.”

And then Johnston hit with a comparison that cannot be ignored.

Bruce Anstey. Mitch Rees. Horizontal Kiwis. Men both seemingly utterly unbothered by what should, by any rational measure, be the most terrifying fortnight in motorsport.

“There’s so much of Mitch you can see in him as well,” Johnston said. “It’s hilarious, the fact that nothing seems to faze them.”

How a Whakatāne kid ends up in the Padgett’s garage

The thread that leads Mitch Rees to the Isle of Man starts in New Zealand, in the paddocks he grew up in, watching his father Tony race and win and build a reputation that travelled globally.

Tony Rees is a three-time NZSBK champion. A Cemetery Circuit legend. His sons, Mitch and the late Damon, absorbed all of it without, apparently, ever letting it turn into pressure.

“Dad’s watched it [the TT] and obviously he’s a great road racer and had the opportunity to come over and do it,” Mitch said. “You sort of see it and hear it all the time. It’s not in your face as much as it probably is in the UK, but you know, it’s one of those things… ‘that’s pretty cool, pretty mental, it’d be cool to do it.’ But I never thought I’d be here.”

The mechanism that got him here was three-time TT winner Davey Todd, the young Englishman as at ease behind a microphone during TT fortnight as an expert analyst as he was frustrated watching from the sidelines, injury having cruelly ruled him out of racing.

Todd came to New Zealand, raced at the Cemetery Circuit and the earlier Suzuki International Series rounds, and encountered Mitch Rees the way everyone encounters Mitch Rees. Almost confused by how fast someone so calm can actually be. He dialled Clive Padgett’s number before leaving the land of the Long White Cloud and unheralded, unflappable street racers.

“Davey rang me from New Zealand back end of ‘24. Davey’s out there stopping with Mitch and the family and Tony and Vicki and so on, and, oh, ‘you’ve got to get this guy over, you know, come on, we’ve got to get him on a bike at the TT’.

“And, you know, me being me, I said, well, better get Mitch to give me a shout because I’m very soft at going forward and asking guys to ride our motorbikes. It’s got to be their decision and wholly their decision to go down Bray Hill. It’s, we love the place, but we do know its inherent danger and Mitch sent me a lovely text and here we are now.”

Rees had earned that phone call the hard way. In the New Zealand summer of 2024-25, he had gone out and done something quietly extraordinary. He had raced Todd and Peter Hickman — two of the fastest road racers on the planet — and handed them all a lesson.

“I’d kind of smoked Davey, smoked Pete,” Rees said, with the same matter-of-fact delivery he applies to everything. “So I was stoked with that in New Zealand. And I was like, I really wanted to do something different and just go and see what I could actually do out there in the world, sort of deal, you know?”

A text to Padgett. A deal struck in January 2025. A first TT that produced the Veron Cooper Trophy for Newcomer of the Year. The fifth fastest debutant ever. And then the return, in 2026, as a known quantity, a rider the paddock had stopped wondering about and started watching.

What the Mountain teaches you

There is a specific detail in Mitch Rees’ account of TT 2026 that tells you more than the results sheet ever could.

During practice, John McGuinness came up on him around the 13th milestone. Watched him through a left-hander on the approach to Kirkmichael. Then roared past. Afterwards, the Morcombe Missile delivered a single piece of advice that stayed with Rees the rest of the fortnight. It’s one little gem now embedded into the Bay of Plenty mechanic’s muscle memory.

“He said I went in really well but was sort of slow out. So I almost tried to do it the opposite way and went in there still, all right, but tried to get the better drive and focus on the exit rather than rushing in too much. And definitely felt like that helped for sure.”

This is what the TT does to a rider who is genuinely learning it. It’s never, according to the legends, rewarded aggression. It rewards precision, patience, and the ability to absorb information from people who have already paid for it in thousands of laps, some in ways you don’t want to think about.

Rees is absorbing it faster than almost anyone around him expected.

“Just each session, to be fair, just getting more and more confident,” he said. “It’s obviously been really nice having some dry track this year. Just been enjoying it, probably even more so this year …just really enjoying it, embracing it, and just taking it for the experience that it is.”

The results by the end of race week — 20th Superbike, 13th Supersport 1, 11th Supersport 2, consecutive personal bests, two silver replicas, his first full six-lap race completed — tell the story of a rider building a foundation, not chasing headlines. They came anyway.

Clive Padgett’s framework was always three years minimum. Rees is two in.

“It takes a minimum of three years,” Padgett said, citing 10-time TT winner Giacomo Agostini as perhaps the only exception in the modern era. “There’s no pressure from us. Lee will probably tell you we’re the most laid-back guys in the paddock, and that’s how it should be.”

The Senior TT that wasn’t

There is one thread in TT 2026 that sits unresolved.

The Senior TT, the showcase race, the one pretty much every rider comes to the Island for, was red-flagged on lap two. The result was later declared on lap one positions when the window to re-run it was slammed shut by weather. Dean Harrison, on outright lap record pace at the time, was declared the winner. Mitch Rees was 24th.

What the result doesn’t show is that Rees spent much of that first lap managing a bike that was cutting out intermittently — “once at the bottom of Bray Hill, just cut out for whatever reason…the ignition and everything was still on, it’s just like [the] fuelling cut and then it went in and then again after Ballagarey.”

He nursed it around the circuit, not knowing if it would happen again, riding in a state of managed uncertainty that would have unravelled a less composed person entirely.

“I rode most of the lap expecting maybe it was when the bike was G’ing out, maybe a loose wire or something like that. But it never did it again.”

Efforts to re-run the Senior were defeated by the Isle of Man’s weather. The race stands. Rees’ actual pace that day — 125.494mph on a bike playing up compared to his 127.082mph PB on the opening Superbike TT — remains the one unanswered question from 2026 that only 2027 can answer.

He is, characteristically, not dwelling on it.

“Hard to know where I was tracking, to be fair. It just wasn’t a great start to that one.”

But Johnston is dwelling on it. Pritchard is dwelling on it. Padgett, in his undemonstrative way, is thinking about it. Everyone in that paddock who watched Mitch Rees build through two weeks of racing in 2026 understands that the Senior TT has not yet seen what he can actually do.

The lineage

It would be easy to make the Bruce Anstey comparison only about temperament. Two laid-back Kiwis in a sport that rewards composure. But Johnston was pointing at something deeper.

Anstey came from New Zealand’s road racing culture, where circuits like the Cemetery Circuit in Whanganui and long since mothballed Paeroa forge a particular kind of racer. One who is comfortable with proximity, with consequence, with the discipline of racing on public roads where the margin for improvisation is almost zero.

That culture runs through Tony Rees. It runs through John Hepburn, who was anti-Mitch doing the TT until he understood that the reason his friend’s son wanted to race the Mountain Course was the same reason Hepburn himself had. And well too, winning six bronze replicas in 1999.

The TT is what road racers do when they’re ready. It runs through Bruce Anstey, who grew up in the same paddocks and became one of the most celebrated TT riders of his generation. Lauded by the likes of John McGuinness.

And it runs through Mitch Rees, who barely knew Anstey personally, though did meet him at the Northwest two years ago. “Dad raced against him, but I didn’t really know Bruce”.

They all carry the same wiring, a similar upbringing, the same instincts forged on the same roads.

“Through the guys at the Cemetery Circuit in New Zealand that have made it happen for these guys [like Todd, Hickman and Johnston] coming to New Zealand… which is then correlated back over here. So it’s worked out really nicely to have all that and, and just, I guess, some friendly shoulders [to lean on].”

What comes next

Rees is confirmed for the 75^th Cemetery Circuit races on Boxing Day. He’ll race Formula 1 and Formula 2, the spearhead of an extended Honda NZ Race Team that will campaign the Suzuki International Series. The Nelson Street Races on January 2 and the Burt Munro Challenge in Invercargill, where Mitch last year took the Star Insure NZ Hill Climb record from his father, are also on his radar.

NZSBK? “At this stage, no NZSBK is planned for myself at all. I just don’t know what the plan is for when I’ll be back over here [Europe], so I can’t commit to any of that.”

Which tells you that the plan being formed for 2027 has a European dimension. The Northwest 200 in May. A third TT in late May-early June. A third year that Padgett’s framework has always pointed toward.

There is no confirmed ride yet. “I haven’t got anything secured for 2027. I’ve spoken to people just in passing.”

The insurance costs are significant. The funding gap is real.

“Unfortunately don’t get any support from the TT or the Northwest, or Motorcycling New Zealand to come and do it. So we’ve got to find a whole bunch of money to do that.”

But Clive Padgett clearly loves what he has in Mitch Rees, and the TT now lives in Rees’ blood the way it lives in the blood of almost every rider who has ever turned the first corner at Bray Hill and felt the Mountain Course reach up and claim them.

“I really hadn’t done a lot of homework prior to that,” he said of the decision to come in 2025 after the text exchange with Padgett. “Once it was like right, it’s happening…I locked in big time.”

He will lock in again. The only question is the machinery and the budget, and those are problems that have a habit of solving themselves when enough people in a paddock have watched someone put the fastest road racers in the world away on New Zealand circuits and then come to the Isle of Man and go faster every time they ride.

When, not if

Chris Pritchard said it on the podcast. “It’s a matter of when, not if, I think with this guy.”

Rees, characteristically, deflected. Johnston, characteristically, doubled down.

What neither of them said — what the results and the trajectory and the testimony of Padgett and McGuinness and Todd and Hickman all quietly insist — is that the when is not far away.

The Mountain Course takes three years to learn, Padgett says. Year one, Mitch Rees won the Newcomers Award. Year two, he posted consecutive personal bests, took two silver replicas, completed his first full six-lapper, and handed a compromised Senior TT back to the weather without complaint.

Year three is 2027. And the people inside the ropes, the ones who matter, as Johnston put it, are already leaning forward.

This is not a retreat. It’s consolidating gains made the past two years, the foundation of something even grander. A fiscally responsible, less-is-the-same and, critically, temporary pivot for New Zealand’s premier road racing championship and its riders.

That was the message from promoter Mike Marsden on Tuesday following the unveiling of a condensed 2027 NZSBK schedule.

The key takeaways? Four rounds in 2026 become three in 2027 but don’t mistake consolidation for contraction, Marsden says.

There will still be 12 races across the seven classes, just across three rounds instead of four. The upside? Reduced cost for all in this cost-of-living crunch and more spectator pulling power with two races each on Saturday and Sunday after practice (FP1 and FP2) and qualifying on Friday (except for Timaru, but more on that soon).

That’s a track time bonus for riders and a boost for the spectator’s buck given Saturdays previously featured qualifying and only one race.

The 2027 NZSBK calendar:

• Round 1 — Levels Raceway, Timaru | January 21–23 (Thursday–Saturday)

• Round 2 — Ruapuna, Christchurch | January 29–31

• Round 3 — Star Insure MotoFest, Hampton Downs | March 5–7

Ruapuna will again host the New Zealand Grand Prix while MotoFest at Hampton Downs will see the return of last summer’s popular Bike Show, Street Riders Track Cruise, plus the NZ TT and Aaron Slight Trophy showcases.

Out go Teretonga which held last summer’s second round tagged to the Burt Munro Challenge, plus Taupo International Motorsport Park. In comes Levels Raceway in Timaru for a Thursday-Saturday schedule to open the championship.

There’s also plans afoot to return to four rounds in 2028 but increase to 16 races. Manfield in Feilding is on Marsden’s radar for that expansion.

Goodbye Taupo

In short, geography has played against the Central plateau, in addition to cost. With Taupo and Hampton Downs in the same North Island catchment, it meant the series was fighting for essentially the same audience within a week of each other.

The Final Sector also understands snipping Taupo will save somewhere in the region of $70,000–$80,000, a smart play to ensure the long-term sustainability of the series given the current economic climate.

“By doing the same amount of racing that we’d normally do at four rounds at three, everybody wins,” Marsden says. “We can really deliver three great events — Timaru, Ruapuna, Hampton Downs — next year, consolidate the growth we’ve had over the last two years. Make a real statement again next year.”

Hello Timaru

The Timaru round starts on a Thursday. Unusual but not unprecedented in recent NZSBK history.

Levels Raceway’s limited Sunday allocation is locked out by noise restrictions, so Thursday–Saturday is what’s available. NZSBK has worked this calendar before and Marsden knows what it takes to make it fly.

“We’d prefer it to be after Ruapuna because it gives that day for people to get back [home], but it’s still a workable scenario. We’ve done it before. We had a successful event there two years ago.”

That 2025 Timaru round had Aaron Slight and Robbie Phillis on-site, a Legends Garage, a bike park, a lunchtime cruise, and free Friday entry. All of that is likely to return.

“From my side of it, it’s really about consolidating on the progress we’ve made so far. And the last two years, the growth is obvious. You know, the Ruapuna round and Motofest [Hampton Downs] last year were outstanding. We can capitalise and grow again with both those events. And we can build something at Timaru.”

So long, Invercargill

NZSBK is moving on after three years at the Burt Munro Challenge. Marsden is clear it’s amicable — he canvassed competitors before making the call, rang Southland Motorcycle Club President Bill Moffat directly and gave plenty of notice.

Teretonga ran under a pre-existing deal Motorcycling New Zealand had with the Burt Munro. NZSBK turned up, tagged onto the coattails of the local’s promotion but didn’t run the show. The format was the biggest challenge: Superbikes getting two seven-minute races per day, one of them outside the championship. Grids blended with other classes.

There was also the calendar friction. Lining the Burt Munro dates up with the South Island rounds, so competitors could cluster their travel and manage budgets, was a persistent headache that never fully resolved.

“The race formats just don’t work for NZSBK,” Marsden said.

“It’s a long way to go to race such short distances which aren’t championship race distances. So, it doesn’t fit with the championship mould. And we’ve also got our championship grids mixed up with every other class, or quite a few other classes on the same grid. So for all those reasons, it doesn’t work.

“We’ve done our three years there. I spoke to Bill. We’re on good terms. I let him know a few months back. I did canvas a lot of the competitors and, you know, it was consensus that our time was done there and we need to own our own destiny.

“These need to be full championship rounds promoted by us, promoted like we do and managed by us and full championship race lengths to go with it.”

What the new format means for riders…and fans

The shift to a four-race weekend fixes something that’s quietly annoyed many (and unwittingly shortchanged spectators) for years: Saturday always felt like the undercard.

Under the new format, Saturday carries the same weight as Sunday. Two races per class. That ups the ante to sort your set-up on Friday, qualify strongly, and perform across the weekend.

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“No longer is Saturday a lesser day than Sunday,” Marsden said. “You’ve got the same amount of racing, all classes running two races on the Saturday. It just makes sense on all fronts to move to the four-race, three-day format.”

From 2027, in addition to the supersized Saturday schedule, Marsden is also making a smart play for the next gen. Under-18s will get in free at all NZSBK events.

“It’s really important for us to attract that young audience and have parents being able to bring their kids all the way up to 18 at no cost and indoctrinate them with the entertainment value that is motorbike racing,” Marsden said.

2028 — A bigger pond, a permanent calendar

The three-round calendar is a staging post, not a destination. Marsden wants four rounds back in 2028, and the missing piece is Manfield.

The play is geographic. For the promoter, Taupo and Hampton Downs felt like “fishing in the same pond” — Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty – two weeks running. Manfield opens up completely different water: spectators from the lower North Island, Palmerston North, the Kapiti Coast and particularly Wellington. Wairarapa also has strong NZSBK links and is within comfortable reach of Feilding.

Like Timaru, Manfield also walks a noise restrictions tightrope so locking in a date for 2028 is a key remit for Marsden.

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“We’ve held initial talks with Manfield already – they’re warming to the idea,” Marsden said. “It’s a good chance in 2028 when the climate hopefully has changed and everybody involved can afford to go back to a four-round series.

The destination Marsden is building toward is a locked, repeating calendar, the same venues, same dates, year after year. Certainty for competitors, sponsors, and fans.

If Manfield can be secured “that will mean 16 races. So we’re really getting into some serious racing,” Marsden said.

“We’re well placed geographically. We’ll go south two rounds back-to-back. So those dates that we’ve announced today will be the same for years to come, and then we’ll have two events in the North Island from 2028 on, which are back-to-back also — probably ideally Manfield before Hampton Downs. We finish there at the big event.

“From my standpoint, I know I can pull a big event together at Manfield with the way we market, with the way we go to market and what we deliver.

“We will then have four really strong events and a commercially viable series which hopefully will see growing grids, growing crowds, bigger audience, more value for customers. More value for riders, more value for sponsors, more value for everybody.

“It’s just a natural progression from where I’m standing as we continue to grow and deliver sustainability back to the series.” - by Kent Gray.

THEY SAID IT…

Motorcycling New Zealand Road Race Commissioner Andy Skelton:

On the move to three rounds: “Condensing four rounds into three in 2027 is the right move given the current economic environment, and the suitability of available circuits. The new format will offer more value per round for riders and spectators.”

On the 2028 plan: “The intention for 2028 is to add a round at Manfield, aligned with MotoFest, and we have already started that process.”

On where the series is heading: “It’s great to be involved with something that is growing year on year and the foundational effort, commitment and energy extended by all stakeholders is starting to deliver on what will become a super series.”

On the same class structure in 2027 with possibly some development around evolution for the long term: “The homologation process review is well underway, as well as Technical Rule changes for classes, which will be announced shortly when feedback from Class Co-ordinators has been captured.”

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By Kent Gray
It’s not a matter of whether Mitch Rees finds his way onto a podium at the Isle of Man TT, it’s merely a case of when.

That was the unemotional assessment of host Chris Pritchard, a respected TT voice relaying the conviction of those with even deeper Mountain Course knowledge, during an episode of the excellent TT Podcast devoted entirely to the Whakatāne Flyer on Thursday.

As 14-time TT winning sidecar passenger Tom Birchall went on to say on the TT Live+ broadcast the following day, after Rees had lit up the Monster Energy Supersport TT Race 2, the humble Kiwi was having none of the fuss.

At the time of Pritchard’s intro, Rees shifted uneasily on his podcast stool, no doubt swelling with pride inside but also willing the conversation to quickly turn a corner. All the 33-year-old could do in the slightly awkward moment was force a tentative smile, a purposely controlled look perhaps fuelled by the knowledge of what New Zealand’s infamous Tall Poppy Syndrome can do to Kiwi sports stars who get ahead of their station.

The remainder of the video podcast was a fascinating listen to fill in a rainy, race-less Thursday on this wet Isle in the middle of the Irish Sea and well worth a watch. But it was what the Milenco by Padgett’s rider did on Friday that added real weight to Pritchard’s big call.

Rees returned to the seat he’s felt most comfortable on throughout this disrupted TT, riding his baby-blue Honda CBR600RR to a career-best TT finish of 11^th in the Supersport three-lapper with another personal best average lap speed.

The trajectory is undeniable now. The 19^th and 23^rd placings in last year’s two Superstock TT’s en route to Vernon Cooper Trophy honours as the fifth fastest newcomer of all time. His 20th place in this year’s opening Superbike TT, 13th in Supersport 1, 11th in Supersport 2 with consecutive PBs: 123.610mph to 124.600mph. In new money, that made Friday’s average speed over 60.72km of the most dangerous motorbike race circuit on planet earth a scorching 200.524kmh.

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Rees is making such an impression he was hauled in front of the TV cameras again, this time on the platform overlooking the TT Grandstand where the likes of Aussie analyst Cameron Donald (2008 Superbike and Superstock TT winner) and injured 3xTT winner Davey Todd have been singing his praises all week.

You’re building on your newcomer year last year, and after a difficult week with the weather, how do you feel about that result today, anchor Matt Roberts quizzed.

“Yeah, happy, real happy,” Rees said.

“First time on a Supersport bike in nine years, so just, yeah, really enjoyed it. It’s just a little bit more pleasant than riding the big bike around here, so it’s been a good change [from his solely Superstock campaign last year]…nice to learn the track in a slightly different way as well.”

After a bit of banter about how motorhome neighbour Todd had promised to give Rees’ already short haircut a fresh trim if he’d cracked the top-10, the Englishman turned serious as focus switched to the afternoon’s ultimately red-flagged Senior TT.

“I know you made a few changes to your Supersport bike there for the race, and they definitely seem like they worked,” Todd said. “Have you got any changes with the big bike [Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade] that you want to do for this afternoon that you think will help you a little bit?

“Nah, nothing to really change,” Rees responded.

“I feel like it’s still me that needs to learn how to race the circuit and learn the circuit more. And the likes of yourself and Pete [Hickman] and John [McGuinness] have all given me some great advice, and it’s just trying to take those little bits in. And it’s— for me, I feel like when I’m getting to certain stages of my speed, it feels like, ‘oh, that’s what you meant when you were talking about such and such.’

“So yeah, no real massive change, just go and have some fun.”

Donald, whose 2008 Superbike TT win was over his then Relentless Suzuki team-mate Bruce Anstey: “Mitch, each time you go out, or nearly each time you go out, you’re increasing your personal best. You added a mile an hour to your PB speed on the Supersport bike. Is it circuit knowledge, bike setup?”

“It’s a circuit knowledge more than anything. I think I’ve done 40 laps total before the start of today, so I feel like, yeah, for me it’s just learning every time,” Rees said.

”Just, you know…where the blind spots are that are just a little vague on entry now. I’m slowly adding something in every lap and just finding those little bits, the half a mile an hour here and there and just lap by lap, just trying to just be better and smoother and faster.”

Mission thus far successful.

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Rees was asked what he intended to do in the gap between the Supersport and the Senior TT. For some, like Michael Dunlop (more soon!), it was filled by the Carole Nash Sportbike TT while others, Roberts mused, couldn’t think of holding down anything approaching a substantial lunch.

The Kiwi said he was going to grab a dip in Todd’s mobile ice bath and was then cheekily given licence by Roberts and Donald to raid the reigning Senior TT champion’s motorhome cupboards too.

“Nah, I am fairly chill with it. I’ll go back, jump in Davey’s ice bath actually, and just chill out for a bit, have some lunch, and sort of about an hour before, when I start thinking about putting my leathers on, that’s when I start getting nervous.”

Fast but still mindful of the dangers of the TT and wrestling a 1000cc stocker Superbike around the fabled Mountain.

That was underscored when the Milwaukee Senior TT was red flagged on lap two of four with Honda Racing UK’s Dean Harrison on his second ascent of Snaefell, on lap record pace, 14 seconds clear of Peter Hickman (Monster Energy BMW Motorrad by 8TEN Racing) and seeming riding his way to what would have been a second Senior title.

The rider involved was reported conscious and talking in the immediate aftermath and was taken by Airmed to Noble’s Hospital for further assessment and treatment on what was initially reported as a leg injury. Due to less than 50% of the race being completed, it could not be declared a result so the Senior TT will now be re-run on Saturday (scheduled for 11pm NZT), the Isle of Man’s uncooperative weather permitting.

Here’s hoping Rees gets to finish his first Senior TT after being robbed of the chance to even start the showpiece last year by dangerous winds. It would be a fitting finale to another mightily impressive TT, especially with the two Superstock races for 2026 now officially sacrificed to the weather gods.

Following an improvement in the forecast for Saturday, and with heavy showers and low cloud now expected on Sunday, Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson has confirmed that the contingency period previously identified for Sunday will not be utilised.

While the Senior TT drama unfolded, Friday had already delivered something remarkable.

Michael Dunlop’s Friday of records: 35th and 36th TT wins cement a legacy beyond comprehension

There are statistics and then there are the statistics owned by Michael Dunlop MBE.

By the time the Scars Racing Ducati rider had finished his second Friday at the 2026 Isle of Man TT, he had added his record extending 35^th and 36^th wins. In 98 TT starts he has finished 78 times and won 36 of them.

As TT Live+ anchor Steve Day noted after the Supersport, Dunlop finishes 79 percent of the races he starts. And of the races he finishes, he wins 45 percent of them.

Nearly half the times Michael Dunlop sees a chequered flag at the Isle of Man TT, the most significant wave is for the Northern Irishman from Ballymoney who treats finishing off the podium as the exception rather than the rule.

Monster Energy Supersport 2

Dunlop (Ducati Panigale V2) won the second Monster Energy Supersport race by 26.1 seconds from Dean Harrison, with Peter Hickman third. Harrison led early and set the fastest lap of the race at 129.218mph on the opening circuit, but Dunlop used a quicker pit stop — five seconds faster than Harrison — to take the lead at Glen Helen on lap two and never looked back. A final lap of 128.405mph sealed his 35th TT victory, his 10th consecutive Supersport win, and his 54th TT podium from 97 starts.

Carole Nash Sportbike 1

Two laps. One Paton S1-R-650. Twenty-eight seconds to the good.

Dunlop led from Glen Helen on the opening lap, set a new class lap record of 123.637mph on lap one, then went faster on lap two — a stunning 124.530mph final lap giving him victory by 28.775 seconds and a second class lap record in the same race.

Mike Browne and Paul Jordan fought a magnificent battle for second throughout, just 0.122 seconds separating them after lap one. Browne prevailed by 0.663 seconds at the flag, both riders breaking 123mph in the class for the first time. Peter Hickman fourth, Jamie Coward fifth, Joe Yeardsley a career-best sixth.

By Kent Gray
P13 in his first Supersport TT after qualifying P21. A personal best lap of 123.610mph (198.931kmh) on his baby-blue Honda CBR600RR. Damp patches all over the infamous Mountain Course.

Mitch Rees, humble mechanic from Whakatāne, is knocking on the door of the Isle of Man TT’s modern day elite. Loudly.

Dunlop. Harrison. Hickman. Jordan. Brookes. Herbertson. Coward. Anderson. Hutchinson. Browne. Johnson. Cummins.

And then Mitchell Rees on the Milenco by Padgett’s Honda CBR600RR. Thirteenth out of 42 finishers.

“P13 in my first Supersport race at the Isle of Man TT, after starting P21 in less than ideal conditions,” Rees said afterwards, with the understatement of a man who fixes ATVs and side-by-sides for a living in the Bay of Plenty and races the world’s most dangerous circuit as a hobby. “Massive team effort this gig.”

Massive indeed

From rookie crashes to knocking on the door

This is a rider who finished 19th and 23rd in his two Superstock races in his 2025 rookie year, fell off on lap one of his only Superbike TT start that same year, and came back in 2026 to finish 20th in Monday’s Superbike TT opener.

P13 in the Supersport is not just a personal best race result. It is a statement of intent from a campaign that is building beautifully with the Superstock and Senior TTs — the latter a race stolen from him by dangerous winds last year — still to come. Not to mention another Supersport TT, fingers crossed.

His 198.931 km/h on the 600 boxed very closely to the PB 204.518 km/h average he posted on the CBR1000 in the Superbike TT.

Davey Todd, speaking from the sidelines as he recovers from his Daytona injury, put Rees’ ride into context on the TT Live+ broadcast.

“In those conditions, it’s always impressive to see riders setting personal best lap times. Not ideal conditions…I know there’s a few damp patches out there. Mitch Rees and Pierre Yves Bian setting personal bests out there in those conditions is good to see.”

When one of the fastest road racers on earth singles you out by name, even when he’s a close pal, you’re doing something right.

The conditions Todd referenced were the product of a weather-disrupted race week that has tested everyone’s patience. Tuesday’s Supersport TT was delayed four hours from its original 11am start to allow the roads to dry after Monday’s inclement weather and overnight rain, the race also cut from four laps to three.

Even so, damp patches remained at Glen Helen, Glentramman, Ramsey Hairpin and the Waterworks when the race finally got underway at 3pm local time. Racing in the dry around the Mountain Course is challenging enough. Racing it in mixed conditions, on a bike you’ve barely ridden in the last decade is something special.

Dunlop extraordinary. Again.

At the front of the race, Michael Dunlop was simply extraordinary. Again.

The Scars Racing Ducati Panigale V2 rider overhauled early leader Dean Harrison at the end of the first lap and never looked back, winning by 24.47 seconds with a fastest lap of 127.672mph. It was Dunlop’s 16^th Supersport TT win, the last nine of them consecutive, and extended his all-time TT victory tally to 34. It was also a 53^rd TT podium, numbers that add to a family legacy unmatched and unlikely to ever be touched.

Harrison (Honda CBR600RR) finished second, Peter Hickman (Swan Triumph by PHR Performance) third. Paul Jordan was fourth on the Ducati Panigale V2, Josh Brookes fifth.

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Three of the top six rode Ducati Panigale V2s — Dunlop, Jordan and Dominic Herbertson. Harrison and Jamie Coward in 7th represented the CBR600RR contingent in the upper reaches. The bike matchup matters for understanding what Rees achieved.

Todd, who pioneered the Ducati V2 himself at the 2024 TT, laid out the technical reality with precision.

“… the CBR600 isn’t slow — it is fast top-end speed, it just takes a little bit longer to get there because it’s down on torque from the Ducati V2,” said the Englishman who has 2024 Senior and Superstock and 2025 Superbike TTs to his name.

“The place where it does suffer is from Ramsey up the mountain, especially where you’re driving uphill — that Ducati V2 torque really comes into play there, and you can lose a considerable amount of time up the hill driving without having the torque.”

The flip side, Todd noted, is through the brutal Ginger Hall to Ramsey section, the stretch of road so violent riders stand on the pegs for two minutes because sitting down makes it impossible to see. It’s a sector where the CBR600’s superior chassis can claw some time back.

“The CBR600 chassis is a fantastic chassis. Arguably one of the best chassis in the class, or any class for that matter. Everybody always loves riding a CBR600, handles really well, whereas the Ducati has been known — and when I rode it, it was incredibly nervous around this place, over the bumps it didn’t like so much.”

Rees, on the Honda, a bike with less torque but a chassis to die for. He used it well. His pit stop of 35.670 seconds on lap one was competitive — within four seconds of Dunlop’s 31.346 and Harrison’s 32.719 — meaning the places he gained from 21st to 13th came almost entirely on the road.

That’s eight places on pure pace. In patchy conditions. On a bike that he last raced seriously in 2017.

Now the weather gods get their say

The next challenge is going to be getting back on track at all.

TT organisers confirmed Wednesday morning’s session has been cancelled, with low cloud and showers forecast throughout the day. A further update on Wednesday afternoon and evening racing will be issued no later than midday local time (11pm NZT), but the outlook is not encouraging. Thursday is also forecast for inclement weather.

The Superstock TT Race 1 — in which Rees will line up on his CBR1000RR-R Fireblade — was already postponed on Tuesday after Saturday’s original running was also abandoned. Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson has indicated Sunday is likely to be pressed into service to accommodate the remaining races, including the showcase Senior TT.

For Rees and everyone else, patience is now the discipline. The Padgett’s Hondas are quick. The Kiwi rider is in form. The Mountain Course is giving up its secrets one lap, one race, one personal best at a time — his 127.082mph Superbike best on Monday, his 123.610mph Supersport best today.

The weather gods, for now, get to have their say.

By Kent Gray
Tuesday’s Supersport and rescheduled Superstock TTs— weather permitting — can’t come soon enough for Mitch Rees.

The Whakatāne 33-year-old goes into the three-lap Supersport (9:30pm NZT) and Superstock (5:30am Wednesday NZT) with the bit between his teeth after finishing 20^th in his first full six-lap Superbike TT on Sunday, sealed with his fastest ever lap of the Mountain Course at 127.082mph.

After last year, when he crashed out on lap one of the opening Superbike TT before being denied the chance to race the Senior TT due to dangerous winds, finishing was a win in and of itself.

Rees was “really, really happy” afterwards but he also knows he left time and finishing places on the table after a fumbling second pitstop.

“Obviously we’re sort of sitting around that 15th to 20th spot quite, I would say, easily to a certain extent,” Rees told The Final Sector, understandably preferring to accentuate the positives first.

”I was really happy with that. Just riding… wasn’t worried about the result so much and where we were actually finally placed, just worried about getting around and being smooth and enjoying it.

“I felt better than I thought I was going to. You just never know what to expect when you’ve never done it before. I come good around lap three and four and felt really strong and really happy.

”Even like the last lap was my fastest lap [127.082], so obviously that’s a learning thing for me. I’m just getting more and more accustomed to going around here. Just bit by bit, not rushing it, which is great.”

The fastest lap coming last is not surprising. The Mountain Course is not a place that reveals itself quickly; experienced TT campaigners reckon it takes at least three years to fully get up to speed around the 60.72km circuit.

“The result and the lap definitely gives me some confidence going into the rest of the week. Every time we get out there is just a little bit of building up, and I’m just enjoying it to be fair. How can you not enjoy it?”

Arm pump at Ballacraine — Five kilometres in, five laps to go

Sunday’s TT, after Saturday’s Superstock TT Race 1 was postponed due to weather, didn’t start smoothly. By Ballacraine, barely five kilometres into the opening lap, with 55 kilometres still ahead and five more laps to follow, Rees had arm pump.

The debilitating forearm condition caused by sustained grip and tension can reduce a rider’s hands to near uselessness. At the TT, where the physical demands of six laps accumulate relentlessly, it’s a particularly brutal early visitor.

“It didn’t start so well,” Rees said. “I got arm pump by about Ballacraine on lap one.”

Rees rode through the pain and found his rhythm by laps three and four. And kept building from there.

He’d been running as high as 15th during the race, a position worth sitting with for a moment. The final finishing position of 20th, just 1.6 seconds behind 19th-placed Erno Kostamo (BMW 1000RR), tells only part of the story. The pit stops tell the rest.

Rees lost a combined 2 minutes 26.081 seconds across his two stops — 58.356 seconds on lap two and 1:27.725 on lap four, the second stop compromised when a visor refused to seat properly.

“The first pit stop went real good. The second pit stop, unfortunately, we had an issue locating the visor on one side. It just wouldn’t slot into place properly. But hey, I was really happy with the race regardless. Felt like I rode really well, felt comfortable.”

Rees finishing position won’t change now but the numbers are worth revisiting for context of just how well his second year campaign is progressing. Had Rees matched his lap two pit stop time of 58.356 seconds in the second stop rather than losing 1:27.725, he would have saved approximately 29 seconds. That drops his race total to around 1:48:47, enough, the numbers suggest, to have finished between 15th-placed Shaun Anderson (1:48:42.789) and 16th-placed Marcus Simpson (1:48:46.309). That unhelpful visor likely cost him four places.

For context, race winner Dean Harrison lost 1:59.128 seconds across his two stops. Peter Hickman spent 1:46.963 refuelling and changing rubber. Kostamo, who finished 1.6 seconds ahead of Rees on the road, lost just 1:52.067 seconds.

Still, there is no point dwelling on it. The lap times are what matter and Rees knows he has the road speed. The pit lane execution will come.

The 600 slows it all down. Fractionally

Looking ahead to Tuesday, Rees goes into the Supersport TT on his baby-blue CBR600RR with genuine optimism. The smaller bike has been a revelation.

“The 600 is definitely a little easier to ride,” he told iomttraces.com.

“It just slows everything down a little bit. I feel I’ve learned more this year just by being able to ride the Supersport.

“Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that the CBR600 is the easiest bike in the world to ride. It just lacks a little bit of horsepower but I’ve really been enjoying riding it and the times have been decently placed over qualifying.”

Slower, in this context, is a relative thing. At the TT, where familiarity with the Mountain Course is everything, a bike that allows the brain to process information a fraction more clearly is an advantage. Rees has used it exactly as intended, qualifying as high as 10th in Supersport across the week.

The first Superstock TT, postponed from Saturday due to adverse weather, will be run over three laps as originally scheduled. The Sportsbike TT earlier on Tuesday UK time has been shortened by one lap to accommodate this.

Whether tonight’s race goes ahead is another matter. The weather had closed when The Final Sector spoke with Rees on Monday and has cast a shadow over the week’s remaining schedule.

“The rest of the week’s not looking great, but we’ll just be here, and when we can go, we’ll go.”

Harrison dominant, Todd absent and a Kiwi taking notes

Harrison had been in a class of his own throughout the first week of free practice and qualifying and it wasn’t long after flag fall in Sunday’s Superbike TT that the #3 took a lead he’d never relinquish.

The Honda Racing UK rider set the fastest lap at 134.892mph and crossed the line 15.5 seconds clear of Hickman (Monster Energy BMW Motorrad by 8TEN Racing). Dunlop (MD Racing Honda) was third, 12.4 seconds further back.

It was Harrison’s first Superbike TT victory and his sixth TT win overall, placing him alongside legendary names including Jimmy Guthrie, Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Jim Redman and sidecar passenger Chas Birks in the all-time winners list.

Rees offered a measured paddock perspective on the state of play.

“Dean’s kind of had the rule of the roost this TT. Pete’s still coming back from his big one last year, and Michael’s, yeah, not really firing. Obviously it’d be good to have seen what would happen if Davey [Todd] was fit and healthy and out there, because I know that they push each other along.”

The absence of Todd — ruled out after his heavy crash at Daytona earlier in the year — has removed the one rider most likely to have pushed Harrison hardest. Rees knows that dynamic better than most, having spent much of his European campaign in the company of the Englishman.

At the TT, Rees and wife Mihi are parked alongside Todd in the motorhome zone, learning whatever the three-time TT winner has been willing to share. That knowledge is compounding now, lap by lap, race by race.

The Mountain Course is slowly giving up its secrets to the Kiwi. Now he just needs the weather to play ball.

By Kent Gray
Pole and P1 on Saturday. P1 and P1 on Sunday. The perfect weekend, with a premier class caveat given the Superbikes have only raced twice at 2026 Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) rounds thus far.

At Morgan Park Raceway, 20-year-old Harrison Voight did it on his McMartin Racing Ducati to take charge of the Superbike championship. In Supersport, fellow Queenslander Riley Nauta was your man on his Kawasaki. NSW’s Thomas Cameron the same on his rented Yamaha in the Oceania Junior Cup.

The four New Zealanders? Yeah, well, nah. Not quite.

Round 4 of ASBK wasn’t quite as easy for the Kiwis although all four flew out of Brisbane International with positives to bring back to Queensland Raceway late next month for the final round of this truncated season.

In the Superbike class, Luca Durning finally cracked Q2 for the first time on his Desmosport Ducati and remains 13^th in the championship after 12^th and 11^th placings in Sunday’s races. The 11th was his season best result but slightly tempered by the smaller field in rural Queensland with just 12 riders in race 2 and Durning’s 1:01:084 deficit to Voight over 16 laps.

A top-10 at Queensland Raceway, or ‘QR’ as the Aussies like to abbreviate it, and more track intel banked for the impending move to the new summer ASBK championship (from October 2026 to April 2027) will be the Whanganui 21-year-old’s final round aim.

QR will also be the scene of a thrilling finale to the Race and Road Australian Supersport 300 championship after Nauta’s perfect weekend at Morgan Park meant others, Silverdale’s Tyler King chief among them, couldn’t have one.

King entered round 4 with a 27 point lead in the championship but left Morgan Park with a four point deficit to Nauta who now has the momentum after winning five races on the trot, a streak started at The Bend in early May.

The Rodney 19-year-old is nothing if not chilled though and will hope for his luck to turn at QR after 2^nd, 14^th and 3^rd placings in races 10, 11 and 12 respectively.

The 14^th was a hammer blow after a late crash – he did well to rejoin and gain seven points. But the off came back to haunt the AVA NZ / GVR / WET4U Race Fairings / Mad Mike Motosport-backed rider in the weekend’s final race. King initially ran with Nauta but eventually slipped off the pace, could only shake his head in frustration as Orlando Peovitis passed him into second and was forced to nurse his wounded Ninja 400 home.

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“Yeah thank you… it’s not quite the way we wanted it. I mean, the clutch started giving way during the race and something else came loose,” King said on the live broadcast after being congratulated on his race 12 podium.

Then came the promise.

“I’m not going to blame anyone, these things happen, it’s racing and we’ll bounce back next round.”

Nixon Frost had a solid weekend on his Yamaha YZF-R3. The Wellingtonian rattled off 9^th, 10^th and 11^th places in the 300 class to sit 13^th overall. In the Yamaha Blu Cru R3 Cup, the teen fought for 6^th, 7^th and 9^th places and is 11^th in the overall standings. A massive crash in Sunday’s opening R3 race involving Connor Lewis and Nikolas Larzos helped promote Frost up the standings, but a clean weekend in a class that can bite hard is a result in and of itself.

In the Yamaha Blu Cru Oceania Junior Championship, Lucas Hyslop will enter the final round 5^th in the standings after a topsy-turvy weekend at Morgan Park.

After his crash and rejoin for 17^th in Saturday’s race 7, the 15-year-old rebounded with 8^th and 2^nd placings on Sunday, the latter in a nip and tuck exchange near the front throughout a race reduced from six to four laps after an early red flag.

Hyslop is 74 points behind championship leader Thomas Cameron so the title is mathematically feasible if Hyslop had the perfect weekend at QR and those above him stumble. More realistically, a top three finish overall will be in the Orewa teen’s sights with Ryder McKenna just five points ahead in third.

SW-Motech Superbike: Voight in control but QR will have the final say

Voight extended his championship lead to 24 points (198pts plays 174pts) over McMartin Racing team-mate and five-time ASBK Superbike champion Josh Waters, the latter frustrated with 2^nd and 3^rd placings over the weekend as the prospect of a sixth title slipped a little from his grasp.

Yamaha pilot Cameron Dunker is 3^rd overall on 146 points but with a maximum of 50 points up for grabs at Queensland Raceway, this is now a two rider title fight.

Voight’s perfect weekend was achieved despite a decent dose of jetlag after he’d flown in from Barcelona following the opening round of the Moto2 European Championship.

He was straight back out for Europe on Sunday night for testing and round 2 at Portugal on June 14, a fortnight before Queensland Raceway. Given the top-flight competition that Roulstone (who remained in Europe), Voight and JJ Nahlous are getting in Europe – they’re 7^th, 9^th and 13^th in the Moto2 Europeans respectively – it surely gives the young guns race fitness over the likes of Waters and Mike Jones who enjoyed his first podiums, 3^rd and 2^nd, of the season at Morgan Park.

The only guarantee? Round 5 of the Penrite Oil ASBK Championship from June 26-28 will be appointment viewing.

Luca Durning made it into Q2 for the first time in the premier Superbike class. Tyler King banked more precious podium points in his quest to win the Supersport 300 title. Nixon Frost secured a top-10 in the same race and earned his first points in the Yamaha bLU cRu R3 Cup. Lucas Hyslop was in the hunt for a Oceania Junior Cup podium before a crash tainted his day.

Saturday at the penultimate round of Australia Superbike Championship (ASBK) had a little bit of everything for the Kiwis at Morgan Park Raceway in the Southern Downs region of Queensland, 160km south-west of Brisbane.

Durning will start Sunday’s two SW-Motech Superbike races from the 4^th row of the grid after qualifying 12^th. The Whanganui 21-year-old, riding for the DesmoSport Ducati team, squeezed into Q2 for the first time in his rookie year by 0.891 of second and will go in search of his first top-10 on Sunday.

Championship leader Harrison Voight (McMartin Racing Ducati) will start from pole after a 1:12.417 lap of the tight, twisty Morgan Park track. Voight’s team-mate and defending champion Josh Waters (1:12.563) and Yamaha Racing Team’s Mike Jones (1:12.863) will fill out the front row. Durning’s best lap was a 1:16.706 – 4.289 off pole-sitter Voight.

King went into the weekend with a 27-point lead in the Race and Road Supersport 300 Championship. That’s down to 21 points after his closest challenger, Queenslander Riley Nauta, backed up his two wins at The Bend in round 3 with victory in Saturday’s race.

Frost was 9^th after qualifying 13^th and later finished 6^th in the R3 Cup race on his Yamaha YZF-R3. They’re promising results for the Wellingtonian who had qualified 9^th on the R3 which is doing double duty this weekend.

King is doing what he has to do by keeping Nauta tight but Sunday’s two 300 races are set to be critical in the championship title fight, especially if the Kiwi wants a little less stress in the final round at Queensland Raceway in late June.

“Qualifying was my best to date, my first front row in P3. We tried some different gearing and we went in the right direction,” King told The Final Sector.

“Race one, I got a good jump off the start but then I was a bit too nice going into turn one and rolled off the gas a bit, there was someone on the outside of me and I didn’t want to make any contact, and it happens two other riders came around the outside of me as well, got pushed a bit inside, ran over the curb in turn two and after that Riley [Nauta] had pulled away a bit, probably a second in the first sector.

“From there I was just trying to play catch-up and found myself in a little battle in the first laps which let Riley get up to a three second lead at one point and by the time I got to the front of the group, I managed to reel him in and we finished one second behind.

“The race was just damage limitation really points wise. [I’ll] definitely learn from my mistakes, won’t make the same mistake again tomorrow. Yeah, hope to go one better tomorrow.”

Hyslop finished 17^th of 18 in the opening OJC race of the weekend (race 7 of the championship) after a spectacular crash on the second to last lap. It was a cruel blow after the Orewa 15-year-old had battled his way up to 4^th after qualifying 9^th.

He bravely dusted himself off after the crash to finish with a badly bent handlebar and is now 8^th in the Yamaha YZF-R15 title race. Rest assured, he’ll have the bit between his teeth for Sunday’s races 8 and 9.

“Was a bit of a disappointing finish to a good day…just before the white flag got overtaken and pushed onto the dirty part of the track and just got highsided,” Hyslop said.

“Bit unfortunate but managed to get it going again, finish and bag some points so yeah…some points is better than none. Hopefully we can get a better result tomorrow and maybe get on the podium.”

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By Kent Gray
A split second or so after the 17^th milestone on the Isle of Man TT circuit is a scary fast place called Ballacrye.

For those who work in metric, you’re just shy of halfway through a 60.72km lap of the Mountain Course, right at the start of sector 3, and flying. Literally.

Most will never see this small ribbon of public road on the tiny island in the Irish sea but Mitch Rees is one of the select few who knows it intimately.

“Fifth or sixth gear depending on your gearing or what bike you’re on,” he says. “Pretty much a flat corner, left-hander, really fast. And then it’s into a jump…you launch about 30 feet.”

He pauses, not for effect. Because he’s actually running the sequence in his head.

“You’re coming up to it, and you’re looking for the white line on the inside but you can’t see it as you’re entering the corner because it’s a long-ish corner. But that’s your apex point. So you’re turning in, but you can’t turn in too aggressively. Then you see the white line and you tip into the curb. Then the jump. Fifth, sixth gear, launch 30 feet in the air.”

And while he’s hurtling along in outer space?

“You’re thinking about Quarry Bends. You need to apex there. Come back two gears, holding fourth through there, right-left-right onto Sulby straight. And there’s a big bump coming out of Sulby, so, like, all that’s going through your brain as you’re coming off the jump through Ballacrye.”

He says all this in one breath. Two seconds of airtime. A lifetime of preparation packed into it.

Mitch Rees is 33-years-old, a mechanic from Whakatāne, and one of only a handful of New Zealanders to have raced the Isle of Man TT. He won the Vernon Cooper Trophy last year as the fastest newcomer. Even more impressively, he was the fifth fastest debutant of all-time. In a miserable fortnight of weather. He’s back for more.

The Final Sector spoke to him from the Isle of Man paddock on the eve of practice week, his rented motorhome parked alongside those of Davey Todd, Pete Hickman, and John McGuinness — men whose names are carved into the history of the most dangerous race in the world. He was relaxed, loose, and happy to talk. He described himself, again, as “just a mechanic…a weirdo from Whakatāne who just enjoys riding bikes.”

“Just Mitch” is the most interesting kind of sportsman. Elite without ever claiming so, perhaps without even knowing it. And the kind who has genuinely thought about what he does.

Most people who watch the TT — and hundreds of thousands do, from the grandstands and the hedgerows and the screens in pubs across the British Isles and beyond— understand it as spectacle. The numbers are staggering. The showcase Senior TT is six laps of the Mountain Course. 364.32km. Average speeds nudging 210kmh. Stone walls, trees, telegraph poles, manholes and curb stones at arm’s reach. Sometimes closer.

What they don’t know is what it feels like from inside the helmet.

“The adrenaline’s just so high,” Rees says.

“Your brain is honestly in overload the whole time. You’re getting from one place to the next so quickly, and there’s so much in between. You have to think about it before you get there and then forget about it, because you need to be thinking about the next thing. You’re creating a natural instinct of doing.”

He talks about Bray Hill, the steep plunge from the start-finish line down into Douglas. The hedge on the right that he’s practically clipping with his elbow. The kerb at Ago’s Leap that needs to be no more than a foot or two off at the bottom so the suspension doesn’t bottom out. The wrong line through the bottom of Bray Hill puts you on the wrong side of the road. The right line puts you somewhere between the curb and the hedge at 273kmh, threading a needle you can’t fully see because you’re already looking at what comes next.

“You’re not focused on what’s right there,” he says. “You’re looking so far ahead. You almost become numb to it. It’s there. You can feel everything going past you so fast. But you’re not focused on that. You’re focused on what’s coming.”

There is a section between Ginger Hall and Ramsey that every TT rider mentions unprompted, like it’s a war story they can’t quite shake.

“The surface is so rough,” Rees continues. “So violent.

“You’re stood on the footpegs, squatting, for a couple of minutes. Because if you sit down on the seat, you literally physically cannot see. The vibration of sitting on the seat…your brain gets juggled around, your eyes get juggled around inside your head. All you see is a grey blur of the road and the curbs. Then a green blur, which is the trees.”

He says it calmly. This is just what it is.

The bike, by the way, the Superstocker, is producing 220 horsepower. And it wants to wheelie in fourth, fifth, sixth gear at speeds he describes as silly.

“You’re just wrestling the thing the whole time.”

After a session or a race, you’d expect him to be so exhausted that he’d sleep like a baby. Except the brain can’t instantly switch off after something like that.

“Your brain’s been operating at probably the highest speed level it can,” he says. “You’re scanning for dangers over a 60-kilometre period. You come back in and you need to process it. Your brain starts slowing back down. And then, every racer does this, you go, ‘I could be better here. I could be faster there.’”

He laughs at himself for it.

“Yeah. And then you want to go again.”

Rees is campaigning the 2026 Isle of Man TT on two Milenco by Padgetts Hondas — a CBR600RR in Supersport and a CBR1000RR-R in Superbike, Superstock, and the Senior TT. The Senior is the one that was cancelled last year. He’ll get his shot at it this time around, fingers crossed.

He came to the TT after a recce trip with his father Tony, who taught him to race and now wrenches for him on the road. Tony drove with him around the circuit for four or five days, and Mitch talked him through it — every gear, every curb, everything to watch for. Tony had been asked to ride the TT himself years ago. The timing was wrong. Now he’s here as crew.

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“He was quite impressed,” Mitch says. “Like, ‘Oh, you’ve done your homework.’”

He’d done hundreds of laps on the video game. Hours of onboard footage on YouTube. Laps in the car. And still, nothing fully prepares you for the bottom of Bray Hill in sixth gear with the front wheel trying to leave the ground.

“You don’t get the physical feeling from the game,” he says. “You go down Bray Hill, you get to the bottom, and then your body g-forces out and your face is in the fuel tank. At sixth gear, 180 miles an hour. Just — phwoa.”

The Final Sector asked Rees what the TT gives him that nothing else does.

He thought about it.

“It’s the feeling you get from completing a lap,” he. “Just completing a lap is a big deal. It’s an achievement. And I think what every motorcyclist ever wants to do is go flat out on open roads. You ask any motorcyclist…if we close the road, you just want to go flat out and do whatever you want. And the road’s yours. That’s effectively what I’m getting to do.”

He said it without a shred of ego. Like it was just obvious.

The boy from the Bay of Plenty, a humble mechanic by day, TT racer by choice, doing the thing of motorcycling dreams. Fanging it on the most famous roads in the street racing world.

Race week at the TT begins tonight. Strap yourself in.

RELATED: Up the Wahs! Rees’ shout out to the NZ Warriors after wrapping TT qualifying with best-of-week speed

By Kent Gray
You can take the boy out of Whakatāne but you can’t take Whakatāne out of the boy.

Mitch Rees is fast becoming a favourite of the pit lane reporters at the 115^th Isle of Man TT for his friendly Kiwi demeanour and, as interviewer Grace Webb found out on Friday, his quirky Kiwi-ness.

The Lincolnshire lass didn’t quite know what to make of Rees’ sign off to their latest interview following the Kiwi star’s best-ever Supersport lap on his Honda CBR600, a 123.452mph effort good for 10^th in qualifying session 4.

Follow along for fun.

“Yeah it was good,” the three-time NZSBK Superbike champion said of the lap.

“Massive headwinds up the Mountain Mile so, lot of places where like, ah, I feel like I’m losing a lot of time but everyone is in the same boat. Nah, just really enjoying it to be fair, just round and round.”

Webb: “I mean, you just pushed into the top 10 of the timing sheets then. Do you think there is more to come [in racing] if the weather goes in our favour?”

“I dunno to be fair, just keep riding and I’m just learning every lap …just finding apexes where they are supposed to be, yeah, just working away and enjoying it.”

Webb: “Looking really good out there Mitch, thanks for speaking to us.”

“Up the Wahs!” Rees said, pointing to his cap.

Throughout practice week, the crosses back up to the commentary booth following pit lane interactions with Rees have normally brought further accolades from Steve Day, James Whitham and Tom Birchall. This time though, there was a split second of dead air, none of the commentators quite able to make sense of the Kiwi colloquialism. The irony given Whitham’s thick Yorkshire accent wasn’t lost on many TT Live + followers watching back in NZ.

For the record, the Warriors are away to the Penrith Panthers on Sunday evening (NZT) and you can bet Rees will find a way to tune into the mouth-watering top of the table NRL clash. It’ll come after the 33-year-old lines up in the first race of the week, Saturday evening’s three-lap RL360 Superstock TT Race 1 (9.45pm), and before Sunday’s RST Superbike TT over 6 laps (beginning 12.30am Monday NZT).

For context of how well Rees’ qualifying week has gone, note that he’ll start Saturday’s Superstock race 21st on his Milenco by Padgetts Honda CBR1000RR. In other words, first of those who hadn’t already been seeded per TT tradition where the top-20 competitors are given pre-determined race numbers based on previous experience and results. The fastest combined qualifying results determine the start numbers for the remainder of each field.

Same, same for Sunday’s Superbike TT where Rees will look to post his first result in the premier class after a mechanical derailed his debut Superbike ride last year, before the weather put paid to the showcase Senior TT.

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Rees’ results in the two Superstock races on debut last year were 23^rd and 19^th and he’ll be hopeful of eclipsing that after his 1,275km across 21 laps of free practice and qualifying in the first week on the Mountain Course.

Friday’s 123.452mph lap on the CBR600 bettered his 122.063 on Wednesday and meant he didn’t need to venture out for the fifth and final Supersport qualifying on Friday evening. His 126.668mph lap on the Superstock CBR1000RR was good for 15th in Q5, within a whisker of his personal best 126.8mph from 2025.

Dean Harrison has been untouchable throughout qualifying, the Honda Racing UK rider topping every session before signing off Friday with a stunning 135.484mph lap on his Superstock machine — just 1.6 seconds outside his personal best set in last year’s race.

Michael Dunlop and Josh Brookes are his closest Superstock rivals heading into Saturday’s three-lapper, while Peter Hickman’s preparation has been disrupted by a black flag inspection and a Sulby Bridge moment that left him visibly unhappy with his BMW.

Roll on the weekend. ‘Up the Wahs’ and Up Mitch Rees.

115^th Isle of Man TT – Rees’ Week 1 Results

FRIDAY

QUALIFYING Session 5
Superbike: 1. Josh Brookes (132.22); 2. Nathan Harrison (129.791); 3. John McGuinness (128.544).

Superstock: 1. Dean Harrison (135.484); 2. Michael Dunlop (131.946); Ian Hutchinson (130.7). 15. Mitch Rees (126.668).

Supersport: 1. Michael Dunlop (128.719); 2. Peter Hickman (127.301); 3. Josh Brookes (125.556). Mitch Rees (Did not run).

QUALIFYING Session 4
Superbike: 1.Dean Harrison (134.877); 2. Peter Hickman (132.712); 3. Michael Dunlop (132.149). 33. Mitch Rees (124.138).

Superstock: 1. Mike Browne (129.798); 2. Peter Hickman (129.725); 3. Josh Brookes (129.186). 16. Mitch Rees (124.138).

Supersport: 1.Michael Dunlop (128.351); 2. Peter Hickman (127.215), Dean Harrison (126.899). 10. Mitch Rees (123.452).

Wednesday

QUALIFYING Session 3
Superbike: 1. Dean Harrison (133.712); 2. Peter Hickman (132.039); 3. John McGuinness (129.775).

Superstock: 1. Josh Brookes (131.943); 2. Ian Hutchinson (130.691); 3. Nathan Harrison (130.24). 13. Mitch Rees (125.754). Best lap: 18:00.107.

Supersport: 1. Micheal Dunlop (129.557); 2. Dean Harrison (125.96); 3. Paul Jordan (125.376). 10. Mitch Rees (122.063). Best lap: 18:32.770.

QUALIFYING Session 2
Superbike: 1. Peter Hickman (131.328); 2. John McGuinness (130.863); 3. Michael Dunlop (130.233).

Superstock: 1. Dean Harrison (133.867); 2. Michael Dunlop (131.952); 3. Nathan Harrison (130.318). 13. Mitch Rees (126.02). Best lap: 17:57.831.

Supersport: 1. Michael Dunlop 128.315 17:38.552; 2. Peter Hickman (127.245); 3. Dean Harrison (127.242). 12. Mitch Rees (122.641). Best lap: 18:27.527.

Tuesday

QUALIFYING Session 1
Superbike: 1. Dean Harrison (133.925); 2. Michael Dunlop (130.341); 3. Nathan Harrison (130.01).

Superstock: 1. Josh Brookes (130.197); Peter Hickman (129.42); 3. Jamie Coward (128.702). 24. Mitch Rees (122.882). Best lap: 18:25.354.

Supersport: 1. Michael Dunlop (126.922); 2. Josh Brookes (124.271); 3. Peter Hickman (123.584) 16. Mitch Rees (119.203). Best lap: 18:59.469.

By Kent Gray
If Luca Durning’s 2026 ASBK season was a screenplay, the producers would probably send it back to the writers. A bit too much drama to be realistic, not enough payoff. Not yet anyway.

A qualifying crash caused by an electronics package mistakenly set for dry conditions in the wet at The Bend. A race two oil pressure scare that forced the Whanganui 21-year-old to manage his pace and nurse his DesmoSport Ducati Panigale V4R home.

And now, before a wheel has been turned at Round 4 of the Penrite Australian Superbike Championship at Morgan Park Raceway in Warwick, Queensland, a Thursday evening storm that sent crew member Jo Taylor flying off a canvas wall and scattered a mobile toolbox full of tools across the garage.

“Yeah, it turned into a bit of a shit show,” Durning said with the good humour of a man who has learned to roll with it.

Everyone is okay. The toolbox is back ship-shape. The weekend weather forecast much more favourable. And the Kiwi rookie, sitting 13th in the SW-Motech Superbike championship on 49 points, is ready to get on with the business of learning.

Specifically this weekend, that means graduating to the next level at a circuit perched some 475 metres above sea level in the Southern Downs region of Queensland, about 130km south-west of Brisbane.

“It’s because we’re real high up,” Durning noted of the cool temperatures that have surprised those expecting Queensland warmth. “We’re up in the hills.”

The 2.967km Morgan Park circuit, tight, bumpy and unforgiving, sits in sharp contrast to the monster 4.95km expanse of The Bend. Durning has ridden here before — a couple of years on an R6 and one season on a V2 — but never on a Superbike. That is both the challenge and the opportunity.

“I don’t mind this track, actually. It’s a bit closer to home with the layout and the quality of the track. So it’s a bit easier for us Kiwis, I’d say,” he said.

“Bumpy, tight. Yeah, just a bit hard. It’s a very hard track, especially the first sector because it’s so tight. And then there’s heaps of bumps, and the surface of the track is like brand new surface for half the track and then the old stuff for half as well. So it’s very mixed quality.”

Getting the DesmoSport Ducati setup right on Friday is the priority — and after a season spent wrestling with a bike that has been, in Durning’s own words, “really good on the brakes but then once it gets into the corner, just real sluggish,” the team believe they have identified the core issue following The Bend.

“It’s been struggling to finish a corner,” Durning said. “Like, it doesn’t finish the corner and carry the lean angle I want to carry the speed. So if we can hopefully make some forward progress with that, especially at this track, it would be good. Because I really do like this track, so it would certainly benefit if we could then get some pretty good results. Would be exceptional.”

Those results have a clear shape. Q2, reserved for the top 12 from Saturday’s Q1, has been the holy grail all season. Reaching it would be a result in itself for a rider in his first full Superbike campaign. And with only Morgan Park and the season finale at Queensland Raceway remaining before ASBK transforms into its groundbreaking new summer calendar, time is of the essence.

“Just learning. It’s pretty much just learning the tracks on the superbike with the speed differential and just to have fun, really,” he said.

“Hopefully we can make some advances with the setup, how we’ve been struggling all season, so that’s really the main goal. Just to fully get my head around all the tracks, especially with the new season starting later in this year. It’ll be good to have that knowledge.”

That new season begins in October with Round 1 of the all-new ASBK summer calendar at Phillip Island — doubling as Round 18 of the MotoGP World Championship from October 22-25 — and Durning is clear-eyed about what these final two rounds represent in his development.

“Yeah, a top 10 would be awesome, but mainly just time on the bike and improving, showing that I can improve no matter what,” he said. “And I would like to get maybe a second or two faster off my lap time. That would be the overall goal, but a top 10 would also be just the cherry on top.”

He has a top 10 in him. Anyone who watched him at The Bend — methodically trimming 1.5 seconds across 23 laps of free practice, absorbing the electronics drama with composure, managing a mechanical issue mid-race — knows that. Anyone who saw him edge eventual champion Rogan Chandler in a thrilling final race of the NZSBK season at Taupo Motorsport Park knows that (admittedly on his beloved BMW). It’s a question of when, not if.

The SBK championship picture: Voight under the pump at his Morgan Park Superbike debut

Championship Standings: 1. Harrison Voight (Ducati) 147pts; 2. Josh Waters (Ducati) 136pts; 3. Jacob Roulstone (Honda) 124pts. Also NZL: 13. Luca Durning (Ducati) 49pts.

WATCH LIVE: Sky Sport 4, Sunday 3pm-6pm

The SW-Motech Superbike title fight is shaping as one of the most compelling in years. Queenslander Harrison Voight leads the standings but his McMartin Racing / Ducati team-mate and five-time champion Josh Waters has clawed back ground, sitting just 11 points behind with Morgan Park specialist Mike Jones lurking as the biggest wildcard of all.

Waters finally broke his Morgan Park duck with a win here in 2025 — a circuit that had historically tormented him — while Jones has three wins at this venue from 11 starts.

Jacob Roulstone, 23 points back in third, needs a big weekend to stay in touch in this battle of the young guns versus the “old” guys. Talking of the kids, Roulstone (7^th and 7^th), Voight (8^th and 9th) and Jonathan ‘JJ’ Nahlous (12^th and 13^th) come in fresh from racing the opening round of the Moto2 European Championship at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last weekend.

Dismiss Cameron Dunker at your peril too after his maiden Superbike win in a dramatic opener at The Bend. The NSW’s hard charger is 4^th in the standings on 113 points and as big a threat as any of the other internationally honed kids.

Make no mistake, this titlefight is going to the bell.

Supersport 300: King’s title fight the real deal and Morgan Park could suit him perfectly

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; 24. Alvin Wu (Whangarei/Yamaha) 14pts.

There are not many 19-year-olds who can absorb a race one crash, get back on the bike and fight to 7th, bank two second places the following day and still extend a championship lead. But Silverdale’s Tyler King is not your average 19-year-old.

The #128 arrives at Morgan Park with a 27-point advantage over Riley Nauta in the Supersport 300 standings, a lead that is genuine, hard-earned and, with two rounds to go, very much defendable.

His ASBK campaign has been running in parallel with a stint in the TVS Asia One Make Championship, part of the Idemitsu FIM Asia Road Racing Championship, where King has been fighting for his footing on an unfamiliar Indian-manufactured machine against riders who arrive with a full season on the TVS Apache RR 310 already banked. The Asian campaign has come to an end for now, but his father Shawn King sees a silver lining that lands perfectly for this weekend.

“It was a great experience for Tyler and he found a heap of corner speed in the last round [in Thailand],” Shawn King told The Final Sector.

Given that Morgan Park is exactly the kind of tight, twisty circuit where corner speed is the currency, the timing could not be better. A Kiwi leading the development class in Australia with two rounds to go is a massive story, and King knows what’s at stake.

Wellington’s Nixon Frost continues his development season in 17th, while Whangarei’s Alvin Wu (24th, 14pts) is sadly MIA at Morgan Park as he looks towards the New Zealand summer.

Oceania Junior Cup: Hyslop eyeing the podium

Championship Standings: 1. Thomas Cameron (NSW/Yamaha) 124pts; 2. Callum Campbell (NSW/Yamaha) 112pts; 3. Austin Attard (QLD/Yamaha) 106pts. Also NZL: 5. Lucas Hyslop (Orewa/Yamaha) 88pts.

Lucas Hyslop arrives at Morgan Park with momentum after his sensational win at The Bend — a result that announced the Orewa 15-year-old as a genuine podium contender in the Oceania Junior Cup.

The Orewa 15-year-old sits 5th in the championship, 36 points from the lead, and with two rounds remaining the task is clear: win races, climb the standings, and show that The Bend result was no flash in the pan. The Australian boys at the top of the table have been warned.

Friday is practice day at Morgan Park. The Final Sector will have full coverage across the weekend.

Before you go: A Kiwi leading an Australian national championship class. A rookie Superbike campaigner chasing Q2 glory. A 15-year-old OJC winner with his eyes on the podium. If you’re not subscribed to The Final Sector yet, now’s the time. It’s free, it takes 10 seconds, and it means we can keep following these stories all the way to Phillip Island and beyond.

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By Kent Gray
Free Practice and three qualifying sessions. Sixteen laps across three days on two humming Hondas in nigh on perfect conditions. A fraction off his fastest lap of the fabled Mountain course, unofficially of course. Glowing references from all and sundry on the TT+ live stream coverage.

Mitch Rees is trending nicely at the 115th Isle of Man TT, thank you very much.

The Whakatāne 33-year-old has thoroughly earned Thursday’s rest day after a combined 971.52km of learning and improving speed on his Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade stocker Superbike and CBR600 Supersport entry.

Riding for the Batley-based Milenco by Padgett’s Racing Team, the 2025 Vernon Cooper Trophy newcomer winner’s headline numbers are encouraging.

On the Supersport CBR600, he’s clocked best laps of 119.203, 122.641 and 122.063mph for 16^th, 12^th and 10^th place on the time sheets across Tuesday and Wednesday’s qualifying sessions.

On the 1000, he’s gone 122.882, 126.02 and 125.754mph. Wednesday morning’s 126.02mph effort is closing in on his debut year best of 126.8mph although official lap times count only in the second week of racing, which Rees must be looking forward to now.

Racing begins this weekend with the RL360-sponsored Superstock TT Race 1 on Saturday (where Rees will look to eclipse his 23^rd and 19^th places in the class on debut last year) before Superbike Sunday with the six-lapper RST Superbike TT.

Before that, there’s two final sessions of qualifying on Friday and ample time for The Final Sector to amplify the progress being made by arguably New Zealand’s most under-rated elite sportsman, via the TT+ commentary team experts.

This from analyst Jamie Whitham, a 10 year TT veteran between 1990 and 2000 who campaigned in the era of Carl Fogarty, Steve Hislop and the mighty Joey Dunlop.

“Yip, doing everything right is Mitch, for me, everything we’ve seen of him,” Whitham said in his syrupy thick, northern Yorkshire accent.

Later in a Supersport (CBR600) session, Whitham bounced back and forth with co-analyst Tom Birchall, the most successful passenger in TT history with 14 sidecar wins alongside his older brother Ben.

Whitham: “We, me and Tom, just got some lovely shots of him [Rees] towards the end of the lap going down to the Nook and Sign Post…we just watched a shot of him going round Sign Post and he just looks classic.”

Birchall: “Yeah, straight behind the bubble, isn’t he. And letting the bike run. Just looks like he’s been here for 10 years in a row, never mind this being his second year. And maybe just with the smaller bike, things can just get processed a little bit better and a little bit quicker than, you know, the big 1000cc bikes. It’s probably been great for a different perspective, different point of view.”

Down in pit lane, two-time TT winning Aussie Cameron Donald helped put Rees’ ride on the CBR600 into context after his 122.641mph lap in Q2.

“I think he was telling me the last time he rode one was like 2017, he’s pretty much spent all his time on 1000s and he’s in 12^th, just outside that top 10 with a really respectable time in anyone’s terms, let alone someone who’s a newcomer to Supersport here and only his second year. And he got very few laps last year with that poor weather so this will be great for him.”

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Rees would go on to crack the top-10, right on the bubble, in Supersport Q3. And the warm fuzzies kept flowing upstairs in the commentary booth, triggered by Birchall.

“I mean, it’s so good for Mitch this year to have the weather because last year’s newcomer year…,” Birchall said before Whitham jumped in: “He didn’t have good weather, did he...he hardly got two laps on the bounce.”

“Exactly,” Birchall continued. “So this is just perfect for him. Just get out there and learn the course, learn your lines, and build your speed up through the week.”

Whitham: “Everybody you speak to who’s ridden with Mitch rates the fella.”

Birchall: “Such a calm, cool, collected guy, you know. A little bit wide there at Sign Post, but you know, that’s all part of the learning curve. But yeah, you know, he’s got his family over, his mum [Vicki] and dad [Tony, on the tools], and he’s there with his girlfriend [wife Mihi], in the camp up with Davey Todd and all the guys, John McGuinness and all them people.

“Just a really cool, calm environment and enjoying his TT.”

Rees really is. The three-time NZSBK champion admitted as much in an interview after Wednesday’s first session.

“Mitch, looking very cool in blue out there,” pit lane reporter Grace Webb said. “You must be happy with that lap?”

“Yeah, to be fair, just really enjoying riding in the sun like I said the other day. And nice to get on the little Supersport bike first, just get the brain up to gear, and just really enjoying it,” Rees responded.

Webb: “We saw when you came back into the garage, huddled around people’s phones having a look at the time screens. Is that the first thing you want to look at when you come in?”

“Nah, to be honest, I’m not overly concerned. I’m still in the learning phase and I’m just really trying to just enjoy it. They tell me I’m a high… I don’t even know what a fast time is on a Supersport bike. Well, 130-something by Michael [Dunlop], but yeah, I can’t expect to be anywhere near that.”

Webb: “But you’re chasing a feeling. And how is that bike feeling at the moment?

“Oh, look, the little CBR600 is…you ask any rider and it’s like the easiest, nicest bike to ride. Lacks a little bit of horsepower, but so nice and easy and comfortable to ride. Like, I’m just really enjoying it.”

Webb: “It’s great to hear, Mitch. We’ll let you get back to the team. Thanks so much.”

“Awesome. Thanks, guys.”

“Yeah, really good job there from Mitch Rees,” said anchor Steve Day back up in the booth. “And let’s not forget, the best is yet to come actually on the bigger bikes for the Kiwi.”

Here’s hoping.

All this came after Todd, team boss Clive Padgett and Donald sang Rees’ praises following Monday’s free practice, which you can read in our Day 1 TT Diary here

Rees did take a good-natured ribbing live on air from Todd after stalling his baby-blue livery CBR600 on the start line at the start of one session.

“He thought he got away with that,” Todd said on air.

No chance, not when ya injured pal is in the microphone, as much as he’d prefer to be on the handlebars.

It’s about the Kiwi’s only misstep thus far and punishable by no more than being the target of some promised banter back in the paddock.

If that’s as rough as it gets over this fortnight, the humble mechanic from the Bay of Plenty will take it.

115^th Isle of Man TT – Rees’ Week 1 Results

Wednesday

QUALIFYING Session 3
Superbike: Dean Harrison (133.712); 2. Peter Hickman (132.039); 3. John McGuinness (129.775).

Superstock: Josh Brookes (131.943); 2. Ian Hutchinson (130.691); 3. Nathan Harrison (130.24). 13. Mitch Rees (125.754). Best lap: 18:00.107.

Supersport: Micheal Dunlop (129.557); 2. Dean Harrison (125.96); 3. Paul Jordan (125.376). 10. Mitch Rees (122.063). Best lap: 18:32.770.

QUALIFYING Session 2
Superbike: Peter Hickman (131.328); 2. John McGuinness (130.863); 3. Michael Dunlop (130.233).

Superstock: 1. Dean Harrison (133.867); 2. Michael Dunlop (131.952); 3. Nathan Harrison (130.318). 13. Mitch Rees (126.02). Best lap: 17:57.831.

Supersport: 1. Michael Dunlop 128.315 17:38.552; 2. Peter Hickman (127.245); 3. Dean Harrison (127.242). 12. Mitch Rees (122.641). Best lap: 18:27.527.

Tuesday

QUALIFYING Session 1
Superbike: 1. Dean Harrison (133.925); 2. Michael Dunlop (130.341); 3. Nathan Harrison (130.01).

Superstock: 1. Josh Brookes (130.197); Peter Hickman (129.42); 3. Jamie Coward (128.702). 24. Mitch Rees (122.882). Best lap: 18:25.354.

Supersport: Michael Dunlop (126.922); 2. Josh Brookes (124.271); 3. Peter Hickman (123.584) 16. Mitch Rees (119.203). Best lap: 18:59.469.

Suns out, Kiwi gun’s out.

That was the general and increasingly impressed consensus from those in the know watching Mitch Rees complete his first laps of the 115^th Isle of Man TT in free practice on Monday.

The Whakatāne 33-year-old got two laps in on his baby-blue livery Supersport CBR600 and at least a couple more on his stocker Superbike CBR1000RR-R Fireblade before a red flag incident led organisers to cancel the rest of the day’s schedule.

From his Milenco by Padgett’s Racing Team boss Clive Padgett to three-time TT winning Englishman Davey Todd, everyone asked for a comment on the Kiwi on the official TT+ live coverage were captivated and predicted more to come.

RELATED
• ‘I’m just a f…… mechanic, a weirdo from Whakatāne who enjoys riding bikes’
• Everything you need to know about Rees’ IOMTT fortnight

Good pal Todd, who has sadly been ruled out of this year’s TT after his big off in Daytona 200 qualifying in early March, caught up with Rees after his Supersport sighters and before coming on air. It was a meeting of the 2018 (Todd) and 2025 (Rees) TT newcomers award winners and the grin on Rees’ dial told the story.

“He actually did all his laps last year in pretty terrible conditions, patchy damp conditions, so it wasn’t ideal for him at all,” Todd said of Rees who recorded the fifth fastest newcomer time of all time last year.

“He’s never experienced riding around here in the sun before so he couldn’t believe how bright it was out there, so the conditions were perfect for him and he’s excited to get a few more laps on the big bike.”

The Englishman doubled down later.

“I know he’s got a lot more in him. He’s beat both myself and [14-time TT winner and outright lap record holder] Peter Hickman on his home turf, and I know he can ride a bike. It was just really not an easy year last year to be a newcomer.

“I had a good year back in 2018 when I was a newcomer myself and we had a lot of sun, but last year for him was very difficult where he was going out and [has] been excited in practice week saying, ‘Oh, that was awesome riding around there.’ And we all came back in and said, ‘That was some of the worst conditions we’ve maybe ever rode in.’ And he’s never quite experienced what it’s like to ride a really good condition track around here at the TT. So hopefully he gets to do that now.”

A cross to Padgett in the pits offered more context.

“Mitch’s second time at the TT, I hope he has a load of fun because last year, [he] showed lots of promise but didn’t get many laps with the weather as it was,” Padgett said.

“My goal for him would to be have some fun, just go out there, enjoy yourself and just what I said to him as he left the garage 20 minutes ago. And I don’t think we should have any aspirations to put lap times in place…learn the place. The guy can ride a motorbike and if he learns the circuit, in time he’ll be very fast.”

Before the Superbike free practice, anchor Matt Roberts quizzed Todd and Cam Donald, the two-time TT winning Aussie, on Rees’ pedigree. The conversation ducked and weaved, eventually ending on the Kiwi’s decorated Dad, Tony, who has also mixed it with Todd and Hickman in recent Suzuki International Series racing on NZ soil.

“Hugely talented rider,” Donald said of Mitch Rees. “Interesting. He’s had very little Supersport experience. He pretty much started racing straight on a Superstock and Superbike, so he’ll be happy to get on the bigger machine.

“I saw him ride in New Zealand earlier this year. I actually watched him win a hill climb [The Star Insure NZ Hill Climb champs at the Burt Munro Challenge]. He set a new outright course record, beat his dad’s lap record at a hill climb at the bottom of the South Island [Bluff] there.

“But he spends a lot of time on the bike, not just on the road. He also is a very handy motocrosser as well. He’s got that Kiwi sort of laid-back way about him. You never really can read him. He’s a bit of a poker face. Reminds me quite a bit actually of [12-time TT winning Kiwi] Bruce Anstey.”

His dad still races as well, doesn’t he, Roberts enquired?

“He’s proper fast as well,” Todd interjected.

“He’s here on the tools for him, helping him out with all the bike prep and everything like that. But hey, if they need to sub Mitch out and bring his dad Tony in, he’d be not far away. Trust me. The guy’s— I’m not sure I want to say his age on TV. He probably wouldn’t like that. He’s a good bit older than John McGuinness and Michael Rutter, and he’s still really fast.”

Donald jumped back in: “I raced against him back in the day. I mean, you [Todd] raced against him when you went to New Zealand, did you not?

“He beat me. He beat me a couple of times,” Todd responded.

“I have to admit, he goes really well and in some really bad conditions where you’d expect at Whanganui, the [Cemetery Circuit] road race over there, some sketchy conditions in qualifying. You’d expect a younger rider to take a few more risks and he smoked us all in qualifying. In really sketchy conditions, so he’s, he’s definitely still got it.”

Like father, like son.

Tuesday has Qualifying 2 on the schedule, beginning with Supersport and Superbike at 1830 local time (5:30am Wednesday NZT).

Rees can’t wait and is taking it all in his stride, as he said during a chat with pitlane reporter Grace Webb.

“You’ve just described that as the best two laps you’ve had around here. Tell us why,” Webb asked.

“For a start, unlike last year the suns out, so that’s a win from the start,” Rees responded with a smile.

Even so, tell us about the conditions. A bit buggy, a bit dusty?

“Yeah, it’s a little bit slippery, especially some of the white lines, things like that. Maybe once there is a bit of rubber on the track obviously things will change,” the three-time NZSBK champ said.

”But to be fair, it’s day one, we’ve got good weather, we could get up to eight laps for myself today so just cruise around, take [our] time and just learn. That’s what we are here for.”

Monday’s opening session was ultimately abandoned following a serious incident at Parliament Square in Ramsey which brought out a red flag at 1.50pm local time. TT organisers later confirmed a rider and eight spectators were injured after barriers were pushed into a spectator area, with all involved transported conscious to Noble’s Hospital. The rider was reported to have suffered leg injuries as officials suspended the remainder of the day’s action while investigations began.

By Kent Gray
The tarmacked paddock under the shadow of the imposing TT Grandstand in Douglas sprawls upwards of three hectares. That’s four full sized rugby fields alive to the hum of focused humans and generators powering everything from man-in-a-van to motorhome glam setups.

It’s an intimate and egalitarian environ and, unlike most modern motorsport paddocks, remarkably accessible to the public. Fans can get closer to the bikes, riders and mechanics here than almost anywhere else in world motorsport, the kind of proximity that would be unthinkable at a F1 Grand Prix or a MotoGP round.

RELATED: Everything you need to know about Mitch Rees’ TT fortnight

There’s an inner sanctum that’s much harder to penetrate, of course. It’s a place where the riders and their nearest and dearest chill after sessions and at night, long after the fans migrate from the side of the Isle’s fabled roads into the local pubs.

The banter in both places, especially after the sun goes down, is legendary. One lubricates legend, the other is the place of actual human examples debriefing the day’s racing in intimate detail with fellow riders and mechanics.

The Final Sector is calling into Mitch Rees’ temporary sanctuary from Auckland. He’s in the process of setting up camp next to TT alphas Davey Todd and Pete Hickman and we’re mindful of being a new road racing publication introducing ourselves at about the worst time possible, encroaching on the Kiwi ace’s precious time at the most important event of the year.

“It’s all good, mate. I’m just some f…… mechanic from Whakatāne,” he says with a friendly laugh.

That’s the thing you quickly ascertain about Rees. He actually means it. By day, he fixes bikes at the Team Rees Motorcycles dealership in the Bay of Plenty and when time and finances permit, he fangs it around the world with the swiftest street racers on two wheels.

You don’t win fastest solo newcomer honours at the TT, as Rees did last year, without immense talent but the 33-year-old is about as unassuming as they come, the epitome of the laid-back sports stars New Zealanders like to put on pedestals.

If he were a rugby player, he’d be headline news, fending off endless interview requests. In reality, he’s the kind of Kiwi who kicks about with the rich and famous and thinks nothing of it.

Last week, before he caught the ferry across from Heysham, he stayed a couple of nights at John McGuinness’s place in Morecambe. The “ranch”, or “stronghold” as Rees called it.

Take your pick. And then just let that land for a second.

McGuinness has 23 TT wins, third on the all-time list behind Michael Dunlop and Dunlop’s uncle Joey. He jointly holds the record for the most Senior TT wins – seven – with Mike ‘The Bike’ Hailwood. And Mitch Rees, humble mechanic from Whakatāne, slept at his house before the biggest fortnight on the racing calendar.

That’s the stuff of dreams, isn’t it. Knocking about with the Morecambe Missile himself?

“Yeah I guess so…but I met him in 2024 when I came over here and surprised Davey, Davey’s really close with him as well, and he’s just John, really sound,” Rees says.

“He’d come up at events like [BSB rounds] Oulton Park and Donington and he’s like ‘how’s it all going?’ He’s just a guy who genuinely loves motorcycle racing, much like my dad does. He’s just into bikes. For me it’s more of a friendship than like, ‘Oh, it’s John McGuinness.”

This is who Mitch Rees is. The world keeps trying to make him remarkable, and he keeps pointing out that he’s just a bloke who likes going fast on motorbikes.

“Like, I find it weird when people are, “Oh, can I have your autograph?” I’m like, ‘I’m just a weirdo from Whakatāne that works on ATVs and side-by-sides and just enjoys riding bikes.’ You know… I’m just Mitch.”

Full Throttle Pedigree

Don’t be fooled by the humility. “Just Mitch” happens to be a decorated member of one of New Zealand road racing’s royal families. Three-time NZSBK champion, five-time Suzuki International Series winner, serial conqueror of Whanganui’s Cemetery Circuit. Vernon Cooper Trophy winner at the 2025 TT.

Tony Rees paved the way, winning just about everything there is to win in Kiwi motorcycling. Three premier Superbike titles himself, the last of them in 2017 – 12 years and a legal wrangle after his previous win in 2005.

He raced with top 10 results in Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Belgium and the TT came calling more than once but he turned it down, a new business and young family trumping the lure of the Mountain course as much as he must have yearned for the island in the Irish Sea.

Instead, Tony built the family business. He watched his sons Mitch and the late Damon grow up and excel around bikes. And when Mitch’s TT campaign became real, he packed his tools and got on a plane.

He is now his son’s mechanic, embedded in the Milenco by Padgett’s Racing Team. Pre-season testing in Spain, BSB rounds, the Northwest 200 — Tony Rees has been there, hands on the Hondas, a sounding board for Mitch, every step of the way.

Earlier this year, they came to the island together on a recce. Four or five days, driving laps of the Mountain Course in a hire car, Mitch talking his father through every metre of it. What gear here. Watch this curb there. Stay right through this section. The left-hander at Ballacrye — it looks fast, and it is fast, fifth or sixth gear, and then there’s a jump, 30 feet in the air, and while you’re airborne you need to be thinking about Quarry Bends already.

Tony soaked it in. All of it.

“He was like, ‘Right, I want you to do a full lap and, like, talk me through it.’ I was like, ‘Yep, sweet. No drama. So I’m talking him through it…just all those little key things.

“I’d spent so much time learning it, hundreds and hundreds of laps on the video game and hours of watching YouTube laps and then last year when I came over, I spent a week over here and I did 20-odd laps in the car as well.

“He was quite impressed that, like, ‘Oh, shit, you’ve, done your homework and you know what you’re talking about. You’re not just going out and riding around 60 kilometres of racetrack.’”

Coming from Tony Rees, who knows exactly the physical and mental toll of six laps on a purpose-built track, much less three to six laps of a 60.72km street circuit, that’s not a small thing to say.

Mum Vicki is on the island too. So is Mitch’s wife, Mihi. The whole crew, parked up in the motorhome zone as practice week begins.

“I’m very fortunate with the relationship I’ve got with my parents and my dad,” Rees says. “A lot of people don’t have that, let alone having that and going racing.

“It’s just like when you’re a kid growing up and I guess it’s sort of kept rolling on and we just enjoy hanging out and spending time to each other.”

He says it plainly, without sentimentality. Just a fact he holds dear.

Road to the Island

The travelling family dynamic has been important because the lead up to the 115^th Isle of Man TT hasn’t been without its challenges.

The two British Superbike Championship rounds Rees rode were purely for preparation — controlled, and ridden with one eye already on the ferry. At Oulton Park, the first BSB round, he fell in qualifying, started from deep on the grid and rode conservatively through the race. Oulton Park was where fellow Kiwi Shane Richardson was killed at the same event last year. Rees knew that. Everyone knew that.

“All the TT boys, we were riding around in a group,” he says of the most recent round at Donington Park. “Just, ‘we want to get through this and get to the TT.’ You’re not wanting to take too much risk. You’ve waited 12 months to get back here.”

The famous Northwest 200 between Oulton Park and Donington was a topsy-turvy week emotionally. It started with something no one who was there will forget quickly.

A Czech rider, Kamil Holan, was killed in a practice accident. Rees rolled through the scene moments after it happened.

“The accident on the Thursday, that sort of scared me a bit, just with everything that I’d seen when I rode through. It was it was pretty horrific,” he says quietly.

“That makes it all the more real. The dust was still settling as I came down through there. Yeah…right through a war zone, effectively.”

Like every other rider, Rees just had to find a way to park the sobering scene and race on. He did, somehow, and the results were, in his own words, “awesome” and “surprising.”

On the Supersport CBR600 — a bike he hadn’t raced properly since 2017, a class he’d done almost nothing in for eight years — he finished 6^th after starting 21^st on the grid. He was 10^th in the Superstock and rattled off 12th and 15th places in the Superbike races, all great intel for the TT.

“The Northwest results went really well this year. Surprised is probably a little bit of the way to sort of say it… just with [seeing the aftermath of the accident], I didn’t feel the greatest.

“I was probably a little bit taken back, a little bit... just needed to process it. Yeah, just one of them.”

Every street racer knows the risk but you can’t dwell on it. Still, when it’s right there in front of you, it’s confronting. Sometimes, the words are hard to find.

Flat Out. No Excuses

The question of why a person does this, why they willingly point a 220-horsepower motorcycle at a public road and go flat out past stone walls and risk it all on the edge of a mountain for 37¾ miles, doesn’t have a clean answer. The TT has been asking it of riders for over a century.

Rees gives it a try anyway.

“I guess for a lot of riders, it’s a drug. They want to be here and race around flat out.”

Is it a drug for you?

“No, I don’t need to do it, but I enjoy doing it, and I enjoy riding bikes. But if next year it’s too difficult, not financially feasible — it’s expensive to come here and do the job properly, it costs a fortune — I won’t sell everything to make it happen. I’m not that desperate.”

Most riders in this paddock would never say that out loud. The TT tends to attract a particular kind of obsession. Todd said everything feels less after you’ve done a TT. “Everything in life”.

Rees hasn’t thought about much else all year but he’s also wired differently. He loves it. He’s very good at it. But if the numbers stop working, he’ll stop.

It’s oddly reassuring.

What the TT does give him, when you press him on it, is something harder to put a price on.

“I guess it’s just the thrill and the experience and the accomplishment of finishing a lap,” he says.

“Just completing a lap is a big deal because it’s obviously a pretty gnarly place to ride around, the speeds are so fast. It’s what every motorcyclist ever wants to do is go flat out on open roads, isn’t it? That’s effectively what I’m getting to do.”

The Team & The Machines

Clive Padgett doesn’t normally take on newcomers. He took one on last year, and that newcomer won a trophy. He’s back for the famous Batley-based team, once home to 12-time TT winning Kiwi Bruce Anstey.

Two Hondas. The CBR600RR in Supersport. The CBR1000RR-R in Superstock, Superbike, and the Senior TT — the main event, the open-class race, the one that was cancelled by wind last year before Rees got a chance to start it. A mechanical cut short his debut race in the only other Superbike start too so getting a result on the big bike, cracking the 130mph mark, is a quiet goal.

He comes back knowing things the newcomer version of himself couldn’t have known — not just the circuit, though that’s deeper now too, but the bike at specific points.

What it does through the jump at Ballacrye. How the front comes up in fourth and fifth and sixth gear on Sulby Straight. What it costs you physically over the Ginger Hall to Ramsey section, where the road is so violent you ride standing on the pegs for two minutes because sitting down means you literally cannot see.

“If you sit down on the seat, you’re just getting bucked around, and you literally, physically cannot see because of the vibration. Your brain’s getting juggled around. Your eyes are getting juggled around your head. All you literally see is a grey blur of the road and the curbs. And then you see a green blur, which is the trees…”

Knowing what’s coming, does that make it better or worse this time?

“It makes it better, for sure. You know, it’s a funny one. Like, a lot of guys, they’re all in, they’ll do the homework and stuff like that. Do one lap, and they go, ‘No, it’s not for me.’ They pull the pin.

“They just go, ‘This is f….. stupid. It’s mental.’ Yeah, everyone wants to do it but I don’t know that anyone wants to do it in race condition. But for me, it’s nice coming in this year and knowing, okay, I know what the bike’s going to do in key places. So you’re not having to learn that, and it takes a lot of the unknown away.”

Flying Kiwi

Free practice starts Monday, 9.45pm NZT for those with a TT+ Live pass. Racing begins on Saturday with the showcase Senior TT on Saturday week.

The motorhome is parked on a sealed strip of tarmac on a small island in the Irish Sea, and outside it the weather is forecast to hold for at least the first week of practice and qualifying which will make a nice change from last year.

Davey Todd, Pete Hickman and the Morecambe Missile are nearby. They’ve passed on nuggets. Tony Rees has the makeshift tented garage for the #29 bike running shipshape. Mihi and Mum are there for every heart-stopping moment too.

Mitch Rees — mechanic from Whakatāne, TT newcomers award winner, the flying Kiwi — is ready.

The Final Sector is covering the 2025 Isle of Man TT throughout race fortnight. Watch for our companion piece: “A lap of the Isle of Man TT in Mitch Rees’ own words”. That’ll drop on Saturday to help get you in the mood for race week.

In old money, it’s 37.73 miles. For us speed freaks Down Under, 60.72km.

Combined, there are more than 200 corners with curbs, stone walls, trees and even the front doors of local houses within a gnats whisker of the racing line. At full fang, we’re talking speeds approaching 321kmh (200mph). On bumpy public roads.

Welcome to the 115^th edition of the iconic, incomparable Isle of Man Tourist Trophy Motorcycle Races.

For two weeks, this is motorcycle mecca, the ultimate test of man and machine minus run off areas and gravel traps. It promises a unique test of skill and bravery that simply wouldn’t get past health and safety if it were started today. Thank goodness they thought of it in 1907 and have resisted calls for it to be banned since – despite the TT claiming the lives of 270 riders, eight of them Kiwis.

Whakatāne mechanic Mitch Rees is back for a second crack at the infamous Mountain Course after claiming the Vernon Cooper Trophy as the top solo newcomer on debut last year.

The three-time NZSBK, five-time and reigning Suzuki International Series champion and serial Cemetery Circuit winner is again racing for the Batley-based Milenco by Padgett’s Racing Team.

He’ll campaign Hondas in the following classes:

• Milwaukee Senior TT
• RST Superbike TT
• RL360 Superstock TT

All on a Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SC82, “…and that’s on just a Superstock bike, even in the Superbike and Senior TT,” Rees said.

• Monster Energy Supersport TT (Honda CBR600)

That’s potentially five races across the six official race days from next Saturday, plus practice and qualifying throughout the first week.

Rees suffered a mechanical DNF early into his debut IOMTT race last year, the RST X D30 Superbike TT opener. But he recovered to place 23^rd and 19^th in the two Superstock TTs, recording a best lap of 126.8mph.

The magic 130mph (209kmh) mark is a goal in 2026, he told BikeRider recently, as is getting to race the Senior TT which was cancelled last year due to unsafe wind gusts following earlier rain.

“Last year was a massive learning curve. The TT is unlike anything we have back home in New Zealand. I felt we made solid progress despite the conditions, and now I know what’s required.

“The goal is to move towards that 130mph mark…if I can get close to that on the big bike, I will be happy.” - by Kent Gray.

The Format

First Week
Starts with a single untimed session on the opening night, Monday, then every session that follows counts as timed qualifying. The week is essential for tuning of the bikes and gives riders a chance to reacquaint themselves, not just with the course but the speed and endurance required. During the first week, for practice and qualifying, superbikes share the track with Superstock machines, Supersport run together with Sportbike and Sidecars have standalone sessions.

Week 1 - Schedule

All local times (NZ is 11 hours ahead of Isle of Man Time)

Monday, May 25
UNTIMED FREE PRACTICE
10:45 – Newcomer Speed Controlled Lap (Solo and Sidecar)
11:00 – Supersport / Sportbike
11:45 – Sidecars
12:40 – Superbike / Superstock

QUALIFYING 1
14:15 – Supersport / Sportbike
15:00 – Sidecars
15:55 – Superbike / Superstock

Tuesday May 26
QUALIFYING 2
18:30 – Superbike / Superstock
19:20 – Supersport / Sportbike
20:15 – Sidecars

Wednesday, May 27
QUALIFYING 3
13:00 – Supersport / Sportbike
14:00 – Sidecars
14:55 – Superbike / Superstock

QUALIFYING 4
18:30 – Superbike / Superstock
19:20 – Supersport / Sportbike
20:15 – Sidecars

Friday, May 29
QUALIFYING 5
10:30 – Superbike / Superstock
11:25 – Sidecars
12:20 – Supersport / Sportbike

QUALIFYING 6
13:15 – Superbike / Superstock
14:20 – Sidecars
15:10 – Supersport / Sportbike

Second Week
The top 20 competitors from the solo classes and top 10 pairings from the sidecars are all given pre-determined race numbers based on previous experience and results.
The fastest combined qualifying results determine the start numbers for the remainder of each field.

Racing is run under a time trial format with riders called up in numbered order, starting from 1-20. Once teams have done their last minute prep on the grid, riders head through what is known as “no man’s land” before the infamous tap on the shoulder sends them on their way. Riders start at 10 second intervals, making the TT a race against the clock, the course and themselves, as much as their rival competitors.

Up to 60 starters in each class, and three, four or six laps depending on the class.
There are 10 races scheduled with the Milwaukee Senior TT the most prestigious and traditionally run as the last race of week. The fastest total race time decides the winner.

Week 2 - Schedule

All local times (NZ is 11 hours ahead of Isle of Man Time)

RACE DAY 1 - Saturday, May 30
10:45 – RL360 Superstock TT Race 1 (3 laps)
13:30 – Motul Sidecar TT Race 1 (3 laps)

RACE DAY 2 - Sunday, May 31
13:30 – RST Superbike TT (6 laps)

RACE DAY 3 - Tuesday, June 2
10:45 – Monster Energy Supersport TT Race 1 – (4 laps)
14:15 – Carole Nash Sportbike TT Race 1 – (3 laps)

RACE DAY 4 - Wednesday, June 3
10:45 – Motul Sidecar TT Race 2 (3 laps)
13:30 – RL360 Superstock TT Race 2 (3 laps)

RACE DAY 5 - Friday, June 5
10:45 – Monster Energy Supersport TT Race 2 (4 laps)
14:00 – Carole Nash Sportbike TT Race 2 (3 laps)

RACE DAY 6 - Saturday, June 6
11:00 – Milwaukee Senior TT (6 laps)

Superbike and Senior TT: 6 x laps = 226.38 miles.
NB: Average time just under 1h 45mins. Bikes require two pitstops for fuel and tyres (as required)

Supersport: 4 laps = 150.92 miles
NB: One pitstop.

Superstock, Sportbike and Sidecar: 3 laps = 113.19 miles.
NB: One pitstop barring Sidecars which have enough fuel to run without a pitstop.

Pitstops last between 40 and 60 seconds. Crews of three or four in pit lane. Pitlane speed limit is 60km/h. Strict time penalties enforced for any rider that exceeds this limit.

The Course

The Isle of Man situated in the Irish Sea and is centrally located between Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland. A lap of the Snaefell Mountain Course is a test of precision, consistent speed and unerring courage.

The fastest riders complete a lap in under 17 minutes at speeds averaging over 130 miles per hour.

For context, the largest purpose-built track in the British Isles is Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit which measures 3.66 miles, has 18 corners and laps speeds averaging around 110mp/h.

Unlike purpose-built tracks, the Mountain course has no run-off areas or gravel traps. These are public roads closed for two weeks where riders must contend with changing surfaces, elevation changes, different cambers and grip levels, all with little margin for error. Not only do they have to navigate the corners, they also have to master the bumps, jumps and elevation changes that make the Isle of Man roads a unique physical test “where road maintenance, weather and everyday traffic subtly reshape the course from one year to the next,” the official TT website says.

The Mountain Course is split into six sectors, each holding its own distinctive characteristics:

Sector 1: Runs from the start-finish line at the TT Grandstand in the Isle of Man’s capital city of Douglas, and continues through the towns of Union Mills, Glen Vine, Crosby and Greeba, finishing in the tree lined valley of Glen Helen, a fraction under 10 miles. Known for its number of 5^th and 6^th gear corners and popular spectator vantage points at Brae Hill, Crosby and Gorse Lea. Takes around 4 minutes at race speed.

Sector 2: Climbs from Glen Helen onto Cronk-Y-Voddy straight, the fastest part of the course across 7½ miles to Ballaugh Bridge. This section crosses open country side with long rural straights and flying corners at sustained high speeds, from bottoming out in Barregarrow to flying over Ballaugh Bridge. A test as much as machine as it is on man and approximately 3 minutes at race pace.

Sector 3: Measured from Ballaugh Bridge to Ramsey Hairpin, covered again in around 3 minutes across just over 7½ miles. Well known as the roughest and most undulating section of the entire track. You’ll see plenty of coverage from Ballaugh jump, Quarry Bends and Sulby Straight where riders reach speeds of 321kmh (200mph) before reaching Parliament Square in the northern most town of Ramsey.

Sector 4: Starting from Ramsey Hairpin, the riders begin the section that gives the Mountain course its name. The Gooseneck, Joeys, Guthrie’s, Mountain Mile, Mountain Box, Verandah and checkpoints up to the foot of Snaefell at The Bungalow, one of the most popular spectator spots. Snaefell is the highest mountain on the Isle of Man, measuring 2037ft above sea level. It’s just under 6½ miles and is regularly completed in just over 3 minutes.

Sector 5: Almost 5½ miles long, Sector 5 begins at The Bungalow and climbs up to the highest point of the course at Hailwood’s Rise at 1385 feet above sea level. Then begins the decent down the mountain section to Cronk-ny-Mona with the sector ticked off in a little over two minutes.

Sector 6: The final sector is also the shortest. At just under 1½ miles long, the leaders will cover this in under 60 seconds. Signpost Corner, The Nook and Governor’s Bridge whiz by as glory beckons at the TT Grandstand.

The Classes

Superbike: The fastest and most powerful of all of the classes. On paper. Based on 1000cc production bikes, extensively modified for the TT course. Producing over 200 brake horsepower, capable of reaching top speeds in excess of 200mph. Must maintain the same profile as their dealership showroom equivalents, as seen from the front, rear and sides of the bike. BMW, Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha models dominate the class with teams able to fine tune engines, electronics, suspension, brakes and swing arm. The current lap record for the Superbike class stands at 135.970mph, a 16:38.953 effort set by Michael Dunlop on a Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SC82 in 2024.

Superstock: The outright TT lap record was set in the Superstock class, a 136.358mph lap recorded by Peter Hickman on a BMW M 1000 RR in 2023. His time was 16:36.115.
The Superstock class also incorporates 1000cc production sport machines but the technical regulations are even more restricted than the Superbikes, keeping the bikes closer to the showroom equivalent. Limited modifications are allowed for safety reasons but the engine, frame and electronics must remain standard. The ultimate proving ground for production-based motorcycles.

Supersport: Lighter and less powerful than Superbikes and Superstock, Superport bikes can however be extensively modified. The current Supersport lap record stands at 17:21.605 and 130.403mph, set by Michael Dunlop on a Yamaha YZF-R6 in 2023, a 600cc, four-cylinder machine. A recent evolution in the class has seen the inclusion of 750cc, 765cc three-cylinder and 955cc two-cylinder sports bikes. You’ll see MV Augusta and Triumphs running alongside the titan brands in Supersport.

Sportbike: Newly renamed Sportbike, previously called the SuperTwin class and also know as the lightweight category. Derived from middle weight road-going machines, tuned into racing bikes with extensive adaptions for the TT course. The lap record for this class stands at 18:23.791 at an average speed of 123.056mph, set by Michael Dunlop on a Paton SR-1 in 2025. Aprilia, CFMoto, Kawasaki, Paton, Suzuki, WK Bikes and Yamaha dominate the class.

Sidecar: While the engine capacity is based in the solo Supersport regulations, sidecars feature a purpose-built chassis and owe more in design to open wheel car racing than that of a two-wheel racing bike. Stationed in a kneeling position over the bike, the rider controls speed, steering and braking while the passenger moves around in the adjacent plaform to aid steering and traction. Powered by 600cc 4-cylinder, 675cc- 3-cylinder and 900cc parallel-twin engines. The lap record is Ryan and Callum Crowe’s 18:42.350 at a 121.021mph average on a Honda LCR-powered outfit in 2025.

NB: Information for this feature was compiled from the excellent ttplus.iomttraces.com

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By Kent Gray
The aim, as ever, is to nail your set-up but Mitch Rees already knows there is no such thing as the perfect bike for the Isle of Man TT. The Whakatāne rider admitted as much after his brilliant, debut fortnight on the fabled Mountain Course last year.

Now the 33-year-old is discovering there may be no such thing as a perfect buildup either, even if you’re having plenty of fun all the same.

An “awkward”, weather-disrupted weekend at Donington Park brought the curtain down on the Kiwi’s British Superbike Championship (BSB) preparation before he boarded a ferry to the Isle of Man on Wednesday for his second TT campaign with the Milenco by Padgett’s Racing Team.

The Kiwi’s result from Sunday’s Pirelli National Superstock race at Donington didn’t leap off the page with Rees finishing 23rd, 32.803 seconds behind Northern Ireland’s David Allingham after crashes, a red-flag and rain interrupted the battle in England’s East Midlands.

But the result was secondary.

The three-time NZSBK Superbike champion made no secret of the fact the opening two BSB Superstock rounds at Oulton Park and Donington Park were never really about championship points. They were about laps, learning and fine-tuning his Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade before the most dangerous motorcycle meeting on earth.

“I was mainly going there to try and improve the bike a little bit before we head towards the TT, just a few little things to see if we could make some stuff a little nicer,” Rees told The Final Sector.

That mission was complicated almost immediately.

Friday’s dry running at Donington allowed the Kiwi #92 to work through setup changes, but Saturday qualifying wasn’t till 6pm and arrived with rain — limiting the usefulness of any data gathered for the ultra-fast (“fast, so fast…” as he said last year) and notoriously unforgiving Mountain Course.

“Anything we wanted to really try for, that was going to be helpful for the TT, didn’t really point us in the right direction because obviously it was then wet,” Rees said of Saturday’s qualifying.

Sunday brought more frustration.

When the superstock racing resumed after the red flag under declared wet conditions, much of the grid dived into pitlane for wets while others, including Rees, gambled on minimally-treaded (hypersport) tyres as conditions hovered between damp and dry.

It was exactly the kind of risk-reward calculation that becomes magnified with the TT looming days away.

“I just didn’t want to take any risk heading into TT,” Rees said.

“It was sort of a damp track, it was sort of showering [light rain], but it wasn’t like full wet, so it wasn’t really worth putting wets in. So just took it easy really and rode around, and then the last sort of two laps were dry, so managed to get a little bit in.”

That late-race improvement was reflected in the numbers.

Rees’ fastest lap — a 1:33.678 on the 7^th and final lap — came as conditions improved, trimming the gap to the front-runners after a cautious opening phase. For perspective, race winner and championship leader Allingham clocked a best lap of 1:30.651 while 3^rd placed Simon Reid produced the fastest circuit at 1:30.611. Remember, those riders are focused on BSB points, not solely the TT.

The Donington result followed a similarly difficult opening BSB round at Oulton Park where Rees qualified 22nd and finished 23rd.

But between those two short-circuit weekends came the performance that really mattered.

At the Northwest 200 on Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast the previous weekend, Rees continued his rapid rise in international road racing with top-10 finishes in both Supersport (6th) and Superstock (10th), while also banking gritty 12th and 15th placings in the premier Superbike races against some of the biggest names in the sport.

Those results reinforced what last year’s TT debut had already suggested.

Rees is no longer simply a curious Kiwi newcomer trying to survive the roads. He is becoming a genuine contender on them, helped in no small measure by close friendships with the likes of two-time TT winner Davey Todd and Isle of Man legend John McGuinness, the latter third on the all-time list of behind Michael Dunlop and Joey Dunlop with 23 wins.

Last year Rees claimed the Vernon Cooper Trophy as the Isle of Man TT’s top solo newcomer while also becoming the fifth-fastest debutant in TT history. It was a remarkable achievement given the scale, complexity and mythology of the 60.7km Mountain Course.

After that rookie campaign, Rees offered a line that now feels equally relevant to his imperfect buildup this year.

“You’re never going to have a perfect bike around the TT course.”

What matters is arriving ready enough when practice begins on Monday. It helps being able to chew the ear of Todd and stay at McGuinness’ Morecambe “ranch”, as Rees did for a couple of nights post Donington and before catching the ferry from Heysham.

“We’ve got a Wednesday morning ferry to the Isle of Man and then we’re setting up the team truck and accommodation living, got a motorhome over there, so you’re in the paddock for the TT two weeks. And then yeah, on track next Monday.”

Rees will campaign Hondas across five classes at this year’s TT — Superbike, Superstock, Sportbike and Senior TT on the CBR1000RR-R, and Supersport on a CBR600 and — before returning home to New Zealand where his domestic ambitions remain just as significant.

The reality of international road racing for a Kiwi rider is brutally financial, making riding at home easier.

“Unfortunately I don’t have a big sponsor, heaps of money that helps pay for it all,” Rees admitted.

“But there’s a bunch of small guys, friends that help put in, and we’ve done a bunch of stuff with our raffle and everything this year that made it happen.”

Once the TT concludes, the focus quickly swings back to the Team Rees dealership in Whakatāne and another New Zealand summer campaign, starting with December’s Suzuki International Series and the 75th anniversary Cemetery Circuit races in Whanganui on Boxing Day.

Rees will arrive home as the reigning Suzuki International Series Superbike champion after claiming a fifth consecutive title in 2025, while also dominating the iconic Cemetery Circuit with victories in the premier Formula One/Superbike class, the New Zealand F1 TT title and the prestigious Robert Holden Memorial feature race.

For now though, the Mountain Course calls again. And it demands nothing less than total focus.

By Kent Gray
Pedro Acosta’s KTM suddenly dies beneath him at a speed approaching 225kmh. Head down and in the hottest of all pursuits of the race leader on lap 12 of the Catalan Grand Prix, Alex Márquez looks up from his tucked aero position to find nowhere to go.

The Spaniard instinctively swerves but the glancing blow off Acosta only serves to sends his baby blue Gresini Ducati careering onto the grass in auto-pilot mode.

Márquez is suddenly a passenger on his own machine not long after safely negotiating turn 9 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. By turn 10, grass has given way to gravel and the inevitable transpires, the bike digging in before taking flight on a series of violent somersaults that shot-gun bike parts and bodies every which way.

Not long afterwards, medical personnel scramble to detangle Johann Zarco’s left leg which has been freakishly wedged in the rear tire of Pecco Bagnaia’s Ducati at turn 1 of the red flag restart. The gruesome scene plays out with Márquez’s ambulance barely out of the gate.

Dead air. That’s what broadcasters call it. TNT commentator Gavin Emmett was filling it as a long range helicopter view tried to put distance between the viewer and a fresh moment of uncertainty below that would see the Frenchman soon following the Spaniard to hospital.

Emmett asked the question that begged as a second re-start loomed.

“How honestly, how as a rider do you refocus? How do you do that?”

After all this.

“Because you’re so incredibly selfish,” Neil Hodgson said, cutting the tension with unexpected candour.

Amid the chaos, with bikes in bits, riders strewn in gravel traps, limbs akimbo, life uncertain, it took someone with a road racers’ DNA to make sense of it all.

The 2000 British Superbike and 2003 WorldSBK champion, TNT’s excellent lead pundit, knew exactly why.

The Answer

“This is your world, it’s all you focus on. I mean, if you were afraid, if you had fear about racing motorcycles, you wouldn’t do it,” the Brit said.

“You are well aware that racing motorcycles is dangerous. Of course you are. You have suffered injuries all throughout your career. It’s part of the job, and…”

Emmett interjected.

“As a retired rider now…has that changed your perspective on it?”

Hodgson’s response was part young racer with more trophies than scar tissue, part 52-year-old with a life lived outside of leathers.

“Massively now. I look back and think it’s crazy. You can’t believe it, like now, the rational side of my brain’s thinking, ‘oh, shall we just not bother racing?

“But I remember sitting there [in similar situations] thinking, ‘Right, great. I know I’ve got a new rear tire and a new front. My opponents might not.’

“That’s how your brain’s working, and you’re pumping yourself up to, ‘Right, just 12 laps [in the second restart]. Be aggressive.’ They’re the sort of thoughts going through your head.”

After Fabio Di Giannantonio had won the twice restarted race, the Italian somehow refocusing after being felled by the flying front wheel and fork off Márquez’s bike, TNT colleagues gave further evidence for the rider’s defence.

“As Neil explained in commentary so well, the riders, they are selfish,” said analyst and Moto3 owner Michael Laverty.

“They just spend that moment, obviously think about their fellow man, and hope they’re okay. And then you just refocus. You set your sights on the race ahead. You start worrying about hydrating, about what time the pit lane opens up and what tire’s going on.

“You have to compartmentalise, put that to the back of your mind, and move on. And everyone did it today, and that’s…it’s a fairly standard procedure for a rider. You are selfish. You are focused.”

The Mirror

We saw it in the gravel as Zarco lay trapped, at least till the TV cameras turned away.

Bagnaia and Luca Marini, taken down by the Frenchman’s braking miscalculation, rushed to their fellow rider’s aid and frantically waved for additional medical support. Then they sprinted back to pit lane to prep for the second restart on their reserve bikes, awful scene temporarily compartmentalised.

Selfish? Perhaps it’s more self-preservation. It’s not that rider’s don’t care, or that the fear isn’t real. The best just know they have to get back on the horse quickly because dwelling on the danger, what could happen, doesn’t bear thinking.

The Race

What is true about Sunday is that it was uncomfortably compelling viewing.

The racing before the calamity had been utterly absorbing, a masterclass in tire preservation being played out before your very eyes. Even after the red flags, it kept coming at you, like watching a car smash through open fingers when you know you shouldn’t look at all.

Jorge Martin being taken out by Raúl Fernández on the first lap of the second restart, a fifth crash of the weekend for the battered and bruised ‘Martinator’. The Spaniard physically and weirdly raging against his team in the Aprilia garage afterwards and later apologising on social media.

Acosta showing all his race craft till his tires finally screamed surrender under Digi’s late onslaught. And then, in a final twist, the young Spaniard cruelly denied points when Ai Ogura’s aggressive overtake on the final lap forced Acosta into the kitty litter.

In the end six riders penalised, three race starts, two stars in hospital, their campaigns indefinitely on ice.

Remember too that Marc Márquez wasn’t even at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the King of modern MotoGP recovering from his own surgeries following his big off at Le Mans the previous weekend. Watching his younger brother crash can’t have been easy and surely must have triggered his own “how do you refocus” after all that moment.

Di Giannantonio’s lucky escape and extraordinary courage to claim the chequered flag didn’t mean he was immune either.

The Italian kept on the glove on his injured left hand throughout the TV interviews, podium presentation and champagne ceremony. And his heart on his sleeve.

“I’m so happy but first of all I was really worried about all the riders [who] crashed, today has not been an easy day for everybody I guess, I really hope Alex is fine…we’ve been really lucky,” he said.

The appendage was so sore from the flying projectile that was Márquez’s wheel/fork that it nearly buckled under the weight of the winner’s trophy. Digi just saved it from dropping and then waved it one handed above his head with team owner Valentino Rossi watching on from below.

The champagne celebration was muted though and not just because he couldn’t open the bottle. Respect runs deep in the paddock at moments like these.

“We know our sport is amazing, we try to give an amazing show but also we are human, we are in danger so, I really hope that everybody is safe,” Di Giannantonio said before the racer within resurfaced.

“…but I am really happy about myself and my team, they have done an amazing job. We were looking for it [victory] since a long time so we must be proud and happy.”

The last word though belonged to Hodgson.

“If you ever wonder why these guys get paid so much, you watch today’s race [and] you’ll understand.”

MotoGP’s oldest truth remains its most uncomfortable one: the peril is inseparable from the awe. That’s the deal with the devil. Everybody knows the cost. Nobody can stop watching.

We certainly couldn’t look away. And we can’t wait for round 7, the Brembo Grand Prix of Italy at Mugello.

Storylines abound. Let’s just hope for a little less trauma in Tuscany.