Superbikers from the past and present will be descending on Timaru in February for the 2025 New Zealand Superbike Championship.
The February 14-15 event at Levels is the second round of the championship and the country’s leading riders will also be competing for prestigious New Zealand Grand Prix titles across six classes of racing, including sidecars.
The championship opens on the preceding weekend at the Burt Munro Challenge in Invercargill.
Uniquely, the Timaru meeting runs over a Friday-Saturday format and the promoters have designated the first day of racing as “Free Friday” for spectators.
Tickets are now on sale for Saturday’s action.
Honda rider Mitch Rees is a pre-season favourite for superbike class honours, though he can expect strong opposition from his father and multi New Zealand champion Tony, along with Yamaha racers Al Hoogenboezem (CRT) and Dale Finch.
Promoters are also awaiting confirmation of an entry from at least one leading Australian superbike rider.
An off-track feature of the meeting is the Legends Garage, where Kiwi World Superbike Championship star Aaron Slight will be joined by his former Australian Kawasaki team-mate Robbie Phillis.
Slight was twice runner-up in the World Superbike Championship, in 1996 and 1998, while multi-Australian champion Phillis was third overall in 1991 and 1992.
The pair will be reunited one of their former factory team bikes, a Kawasaki ZXR 750, which has recently been restored by Dunedin motorcycle dealer Kevin Dougherty.
The ZXR will be among several rare and collectable motorcycles on display and making demonstration appearances on the track.
Among other former stars mixing with fans in the garage will be New Zealand mortgage and real estate entrepreneur Mike Pero, who won six national title during his motorcycle career. Pero will have a selection of his former race bikes on hand.
Ex-Dunedin rider and now Lawrence camping ground owner Gary Goodfellow, who earned his biggest payday in racing when he gave the Suzuki factory their first win in the World Superbike Championship in 1988, is another who will be in the garage.
Header Caption: Team-mates reunited . . . Former World Superbike Championship riders Australian Robbie Phillis and New Zealander Aaron Slight will be reunited with the recently restored factory Kawasaki ZXR750 they raced in the 1990s.
Caption (above): Back again . . . Mike Pero will be bringing some of his former race bikes to Levels.