Team Honda’s First Outing. Feilding’s Craig Shirriffs and New Plymouth’s Hayden Fitzgerald fired their first shots in anger on their new Honda CBR1000R8s last Saturday at round one of the ProMoto Tri-Series at Manfeild. In the first of the ‘F1 Supers’ race, while the track was dry, the pair came home second and third respectively behind a hard charging Andrew Stroud (Suzuki). As the rain came in and the meeting was declared wet, the weather conditions began playing a part in the event. Race two was run in changing conditions and saw a tight hard battle develop between Stroud, Shirriffs and Yamaha’s Gareth Jones. Fitzgerald had drop off the leaders, while he was testing some changes they had made to his bike. The battle continued till the last lap, with Stroud coming out of ‘Dunlop Corner’ in front and holding a determined Shirriffs at bay to take the win. “That was a great race,” said Shirriffs back in the pits, “I still had a little left and I am sure Stroudy did too.” he added. Fitzgerald’s machine is again painted in his sponsor, Castrol’s distinctive Red, Green and White livery, while Shirriffs’ CBR1000R8 is still white, but by next meeting, the Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day, it will be in the New Honda Racing “Red Black Beauty Zebra” colour scheme as seen on Team Honda’s motocross machines. The colour scheme is Red for Honda and Black for New Zealand, hence the name “Red Black Beauty”. Both riders are really looking for to racing on the Streets of Wanganui on December 26th.