Son of a Gun
The teenage talent catching up to his legendary NZSBK dad. Fast.
Dad Dennis Charlett is a legend of the New Zealand Superbike Championship paddock with so many titles to his name he’s genuinely lost count. His 15-year-old son Hunter? Catching up. Fast.
Every nook and cranny in the team van not taken up by bikes, spares and sweaty gear was needed for trophies when the duo finally rolled out of Taupō Motorsport Park for the long-haul home to Christchurch following the final round of the NZSBK Championship.
With due deference to Upper Hutt’s freshly-minted Superbikes champion Rogan Chandler, who edged away from Whanganui’s Luca Durning in the premier class during a dramatic final round, it was the Charlett show in Taupō.
Dennis wrapped up the 650 ProTwin title with two seconds and a third, the 57-year-old’s trademark consistency meaning he’s now won every national road race title available – save for sidecars. The veteran racer plans to put that three wheel resumé anomaly right some day too.
“It’s either 16 or 17 titles,” Charlett Snr said unconvincingly. “I honestly don’t know…I’ve lost count.”
For now though, the focus is very much on the rise of young Hunter who captured his second and third NZSBK titles this season, including the Supersport 150 class in Taupō with two races to spare, just like Dad in the 650s.
The Papanui High School Year 11 student is jetting back to Australia this weekend to prep for the second round of the Yamaha R3 Blu Cru Asia Pacific Championship, a stepping stone to the WorldSBK Championship.
To say Charlett Jnr is heading to The Bend in heady form is an understatement.
The teen didn’t so much win the NZSBK Supersport 150 and Supersport 300 titles as obliterate his competition in 2026, many of them much older riders.
He wrapped up the 150 title in style with three victories across the Taupō weekend for a series tally of 11 wins from 12 starts. It was his second 150 title after first clinching the development class in 2023… as a 12-year-old.
His dominance was even more comprehensive in the Supersport 300s, a perfect 12 from 12 across the four-round championship which opened at Ruapuna in late January. Not only that, he also achieved a unique “Double Treble”, winning the three prestige races over the series – the NZ Grand Prix, Aaron Slight Trophy and NZ TT – in each class.
Charlett Jnr clinched the 300 title at Hampton Downs but didn’t relent in Taupō, again qualifying on pole and riding clear in every race on the bigger machine to underscore his talent.
That cool-headed consistency hasn’t gone unnoticed by Slight who won 13 WorldSBK races and racked up 87 podium finishes in 229 starts in the 1990s.
“The thing I like about watching Hunter is he’s on the pace the whole time,” the Masterton legend said. “He gets out in the lead, and he keeps stretching the lead…a lot of people get in front and just try to maintain it but he’s on lap record pace every lap.”
The Yamaha R3 championship will be decided over six rounds across Australia, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand from late March-November. The winner earns a fully supported ride in the Yamaha R3 Blu Crus FIM World Cup, which runs on WorldSBK weekends in Europe.
“Hunter’s going to need to make another big step, but he’s gone to Australia before and actually won, so a big pat on the back for that,” Slight continued. “Usually, people try and change too much, try to move on too quickly… he’s just got to keep it simple, progress step by step and I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Charlett Jnr’s idol is Spain’s seven-times MotoGP championMarc Márquez. He’s also keeping close tabs on Kiwi Cormac Buchanan in Moto3 and looks to have an even calmer determination about him than the Southlander.
“I think every motorcyclist’s dream is to be a MotoGP world champion,” the young Redwood rider said.
“If I was going for my perfect [career], I’d want to be more than Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi and Giacomo Agostini, yeah, just have more titles than them. Being a Kiwi, it’d be pretty darn good to get that.”
It seems Charlett Jnr’s lofty goals mightn’t just be the stuff of teenage dreams either.
An interested spectator in Taupō was Peter Clifford, director of rider development for the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, a cut-throat series that helped send Buchanan on his way. Secure one of those 26-highly coveted seats and there’s only two more rungs – Moto3 and Moto2 - up the ladder to road racing’s promised land.
“Hunter’s doing fantastically well, it’s been an incredible season for him and I’m sure he’s going to do very well on his trip to Australia,” Clifford said. “He’ll learn a great deal there, new tracks, new competition and that sort of thing, allow him to make another step forward. I really look forward to the day when we can see him in Europe, hopefully as part of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.”
Dad’s experience can’t be underestimated in the ascent of New Zealand road racing’s next big hope. Charlett Snr’s not only fastidious chief mechanic but also the purveyor of 42 years of race craft, hard-earned across Australasia.
The key message? Titles are won with consistent points accumulation, not crashes. It seems the “keep it smooth, son” mantra is finally sinking in after Charlett Jnr suffered more than a few spills in recent seasons.
“Hunter started out on a Kayo 150 and even from when he first rode out from pit lane, he’s been watching me since he was a baby, he’s seen me for all those years and you could see when he went out on the Kayo that he was already doing the right lines and looking nice and smooth and very consistent,” Charlett Snr said.
“In the last year, travelling to Australia and doing what we’ve been doing with OJC [Oceania Junior Cup] you can see him growing up from a boy into a man. He’s really matured a lot in the last year, understanding what’s going on with his bike, he can give me a lot of feedback.
“He’s eager to go [full throttle all the time] but with my experience, I might hold him back a little but I think that’s conspired into him becoming very consistent and very fast. If he’s got to come second or third or fifth, and that’s the best he can do, then that the best he can do with the championship in mind.”
While he struggles to remember how many titles he’s won, one number Charlett Snr was firm on was the ‘15’ that adored the front fairing of his Yamaha R7, a nod to the age when he started racing. That was until he sealed the ProTwin title last Saturday and Slight peeled off the ‘5’ in parc fermé just before the podium interviews, leaving the number ‘1’.
It was another special moment for what NZSBK media manager Peter Donaldson describes as the “Royal Family of South Island motorcycling”; Charlett’s wife Ange and daughter Emma were missing in Taupō but also race regularly.
Dad’s coronation will be complete with that elusive sidecars title (he’s finished 3rd previously) but you can bet Charlett Snr would forsake it all to see his son make it to the top.
So far, young Hunter is finding all the right lines towards that destiny. Next stop, The Bend. - By Kent Gray
Ed’s Note: This feature originally appeared in The Press. Hunter Charlett heads into The Bend 7th in the Yamaha R3 Blu Cru Asia Pacific Championship standings.