KIWI RIDER MAY 2018 VOL.1 | Page 21

the future. Rees won the weekend overall at Taupo, celebrating his first ever Superbike class win in the weekend’s first Superbike race on the Saturday, backing that up with a solid third in race two on Sunday morning and then mounting a thrilling charge through the field to win the final race of the weekend late on the Sunday afternoon. Glen Eden’s Daniel Mettam (Suzuki GSX-R1000A) rode consistently throughout the series – although he only finished sixth overall at Taupo – to claim the No.3 spot in this class. “It feels like more of an achievement this year than my other win,” said Frost afterwards. “I was so nervous. My qualifying times were really good, but, as soon as we got to racing proper, I was riding tight while the other riders had nothing to lose, so they were pushing hard. “There was a lot of pressure coming into this final round. To coming so close last year to winning the title… all those emotions were coming back to me. The first person to come up and congratulate me was [injured 2017 champion] Tony Rees and that was really nice. That was really special, showing great sportsmanship.” One of Frost’s biggest threats Scotty Moir battled all season Avalon Biddle took her maiden 600 class win this season had been his own Suzuki team-mate, Taupo’s Scott Moir. “It’s a shame Scotty had such a bad run at the South Island rounds of the nationals. It affected his championship,” Frost acknowledged. Christchurch’s Alastair Hoogenboezem (BMW S1000RR) was also impressive this season, but, like Moir, the victim of too many crashes – especially in a short 12-race series where even one crash can KIWI RIDER 21