As the Castrol Power 1 Superbike Championships come to a close this weekend, March 7/8, at Pukekohe Park, just South of Auckland, the Aussies again look strong to take the Silverware across the Tasman, Reigning Superbike Champion, Australian Robbie Bugden (Suzuki) on 176 points holds a 19 point lead over, Hamilton’s father of seven, Andrew Stroud (Suzuki) on 157, with fellow Australian Gareth Jones (Yamaha) 10 further points adrift on 147. The 28 year-old has not had the clear run he did in 2008, when he won nine out of ten starts. This year the racing has been so close than anyone of the five front runners could have won on any given day. At the last round at Manfeild three weeks ago, Stroud took race one while Bugden came back to take race two. Three weeks prior, 21 year-old Jones won the Superbike Grand Prix at Ruapuna. At the fast Pukekohe circuit it will be anyone’s guess who will take the New Zealand Tourist Trophy and the “Geoff Perry’ Memorial Trophy. Bugden will have his sights set on three consecutive Championships, while everyone else will be fighting to spoil his day. The 600 Sports Production class will be a repeat of the “Smith & Jones” show, between the young Australian and his Christchurch rival. Jones, riding a Bernard Racing Yamaha R6 holds a commanding 40 point lead over the hard charging Jones on his TripleR Suzuki. At the last round Smith was forced to borrow a spare machine from rival Suzuki rider Auckland’s Karl Morgan, after his Suzuki GSXR600 developed problems on the Saturday. The racing during the Series has been hard, fast and extremely close and Pukekohe should be no different. But we will be on home turf for the likes of 2007 600 SP Champion Sam Smith (Yamaha) and 2008 Pro-Twin Champion Karl Morgan (Suzuki), now riding a 600SP, so things will be at the very least interesting Formula Three saw an upset at the last round, when local Palmerston North rider Glen Williams (Suzuki), clinched the title for the second year, but following some technical checks, he and second placed fellow Suzuki pilot, New Plymouth’s Terry Fitzgerald, lost their points for the round and will now need to contest the final round to put their championship positions beyond doubt. Tauranga’s Sam Love holds a 53 point lead in the 650 Pro-Twins class over Dannevirke’s Geoff Booth both are riding Suzuki. Love will be settling for the points, rather than the win in the first two races this weekend, but when the Tourist Trophy is up for grabs things will be different. We also have a Trans-Tasman battle in the sidecars, Wanganui’s Steve Bron and Australian Stacey Sellar, both on LCR Suzukis, are chasing Auckland’s Lawrance Brothers on the Anderson Yamaha. The Lawrance Brothers are 25 points ahead of Bron, with Sellar 15 points further back. Reigning Champion Bron needs to win all three races at the weekend and have the Lawrance Bros finish no better than third to retain the Championship. Speculation is rife in the sidecar camp, considering Bron actually owns Sellar’s machine, but we are told there are not team orders once the flag drops. The smallest class, the 125cc Grand Prixs, has had just as much excitement as the big boys, with 16 year-old Avalon Biddle (Orewa) taking a win and two seconds on her Honda RS125 at Manfeild to add to her 125cc Grand Prix win at Ruapuna. Dunedin’s Tim McArthur leads the series with 233.5 points with Biddle second on 197 and West Melton’s Alastair Hoogenboezem third on 168. McArthur like others will be riding for a Championship win, while the likes of Biddle will be looking to make 2009 a Silverware double, the GP and the TT trophies.