Two years ago he announced his retirement from motorcycle competition but in December, ever green New Zealand Champion Andrew Stroud will saddle up on a GSX-R1000 Suzuki to take a shot at what could be his tenth national Superbike Championship.
But before that, US race fans will have the opportunity to see the 47-year-old father of ten in action on the legendary Britten V1000 at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama from October 8-11.
Joining Stroud on another Britten V1000 will be fellow New Zealander Stephen Briggs. The pair of Kiwis will turn demonstration laps on the same two bikes they raced to a 1-2 finish in the 1995 World BEARS Series in 1995.
Their appearance at Barber will help commemorate the achievements of John Britten, who died from cancer 20 years ago. In addition to Stroud and Briggs demonstrating the bikes, there will be several other Brittens on display in the paddock at Barber and on Friday night (October 9) An evening with Britten will honour the bike’s designer. Members of John Britten’s family, including his wife Kirsteen, will be in attendance.
Stroud, who was very close with John Britten, still rates winning on the V1000 in the Battle of the Twins race at Daytona as his greatest single achievement. “John’s main goal in building the bike was to win at Daytona. We won there four years running, from 1994 to 1997. Going on to win the World BEARS Series in 1995 just three weeks before John passed away was extra special,” Stroud says.
“Being a New Zealander and winning on a New Zealand-built bike at Daytona unbelievable. That year, we had the fastest bike through the speed trap of all the bikes, Superbikes included, at Daytona in 1994. We were clocked at 189 mph.”
Stroud says he knew the V1000 had potential the first time he raced it at Daytona, in 1992. Prior to that he had ridden just 15 laps on the bike at Ruapuna, near Britten’s Christchurch home.
“We cracked a cylinder in Daytona practice and did not get a lot of laps in on the bike. We ended up qualifying way down the grid, ten seconds off pole position for the Battle of the Twins race. That was probably the bike’s biggest test because Pascal Picotte was racing the factory Ducati that had won the Superbike World Championship the year before. He used the same bike to qualify third for the Daytona 200 behind Scott Russell and Doug Polen. It was a full factory effort but in the race I felt I had him covered. It was incredible really for a bike to be built in New Zealand and turn up at Daytona with virtually no testing and lap within a tenth of a second of the outright lap record in the Battle of the Twins race. But the battery went flat and we stopped with two laps to go.”
Winning the race the next four years running was very sweet indeed for Stroud.
Demonstrating the Britten at Barber will mark Stroud’s first appearance in the USA since he contested the Laguna Seca round of the Superbike World Championship on a Kawasaki in 1998. Prior to that he raced a Honda CBR900 for Erion Racing in the US, winning the AMA Formula Xtreme Championship in 1997.
Stroud got his start in US racing in 1988 racing for Team Hammer, and in 1992-’93 he also raced endurance events on a GSX-R1100 Suzuki for Dutchman Racing.
His long career also includes 20 World 500 Championship races, several Suzuka 8-Hour races, with a best finish of eighth in 1995.
He also has nine New Zealand Superbike Championships to his name and this coming southern hemisphere summer he is aiming to make that a perfect ten.
For more information on the Barber event, click here.