New Zealand Tri Series win for Moir and GSX-R1000

Suzuki’s Scott Moir dominated the final round of the New Zealand Suzuki Tri- Series Formula One Championship taking the series title and also celebrated a start-to-finish win in the coveted Robert Holden Memorial feature race.

The 33-year-old arrived at the Boxing Day third and final round on December 26th at Whanganui’s famous Cemetery Circuit with a slender seven-point lead over his two key rivals, Daniel Mettam and Mitch Rees, and kept a cool and sensible head under the pressure, racing his new Suzuki GSX-R1000 to fastest qualifying in the premier Formula One class. He then won the first of the day’s two F1 races, his start-to-finish win bolstering his points advantage to 10 points over fellow Suzuki Team rider Mettam, who finished runner-up and kept his chances of snatching the crown alive.

But Moir’s runner-up finish in the day’s second F1 race, passing the chequered flag just 2.6 seconds behind fellow Suzuki GSX-R1000 rider Jay Lawrence, the crown was his. Mettam finished fourth in the second F1 race and secured second position overall.

All that remained to make it a perfect weekend for Moir would be for him to win the stand-alone multi-class ‘Champion-of-Champions Robert Holden Memorial’ feature race and that is what he did, crossing the line 1.5 seconds ahead of Lawrence.

Said Moir: “I’ve never won the overall here at the Cemetery Circuit before, but to do that, win the series, and take the Robert Holden trophy as well is just fantastic feeling. I’ve won one race here in the past and finished runner-up a few times, but never this. I even managed to set my personal best Cemetery Circuit lap time in the Robert Holden race.”