Team Suzuki riders dominated the New Zealand Superbike, 600 Sports Production and Formula Three Championships at Christchurch at the weekend and took the top four positions in the premier class aboard their GSX-R1000s. Andrew Stroud had led the class heading into the final round of the SsangYong-sponsored series but fellow Suzuki kingpin Shawn Giles – on a virtually identical GSX-R1000 – was just 10 points behind and very much in the running for the top honour with 75 points on offer over the weekend’s three races. Stroud threw down the gauntlet and easily won the day’s opening race, showing he was determined to finish the season the way he’d started – on top. But Giles’ response was typically resolute and he accepted Stroud’s challenge by winning the day’s next Superbike race as Stroud struggled with a slippery tyre, due to an incorrect air pressure setting, and battled home in an unaccustomed seventh spot. With that swing of the pendulum, 35-year-old Giles ate into Stroud’s lead and stormed one point clear at the top of the standings, setting up a nail-biting final race. Said Stroud: “Shawn leapt away at the start and I was probably two seconds a lap slower than him. I had just raced the smaller bike in the 600 Sports Production class and it usually takes me a couple of laps to adjust to the different bike and I don’t like to push too hard. “But once I had settled in, I soon caught him up and followed him for about half the 15-lap race. I wasn’t too concerned and soon worked out a couple of places where I could pass and got past him with about six laps to go. “I put in a hot lap to try to get a break on him but Shawn wasn’t giving up. He started coming back at me and I had to really put my head down for those last few laps,” he added. In winning that final race, Stroud re-took the points lead and claimed the crown, finishing the series just four points ahead of Giles, with fellow Suzuki men Ray Clee and Scott Charlton in close formation behind them. “It’s brilliant to have Suzuki finish first, second, third and fourth. We were so dominant,” said Stroud. “I think Jared Love was the only non-Suzuki rider to get a podium all season in a wet race in Invercargill. Being on the right brand of bike certainly makes my job a lot easier.” Suzuki riders had already wrapped up both the 600 Sports Production and Formula Three titles at the previous round at Timaru’s Levels Raceway, but that didn’t make the action any less intense at Christchurch’s Ruapuna finale. Craig Shirriffs (Suzuki GSX-R600) continued to dominate the 600cc class, running off with three more wins at Ruapuna, but hounded all the way in each race by Stroud. “Craig was awesome,” said Stroud, last year’s 600 Sport Production Class Champion. “He deserves the title this year; he’s ridden very well indeed. To tell the truth, I knew Craig had already wrapped up the title, so I was just out there enjoying myself. I wanted to save a bit of energy anyway for my Superbike races.” Terry Fitzgerald (Suzuki SV650) had scooped the Formula Three title the previous weekend at Levels but the 47-year-old was determined to go out with a bang and he finished one-two-two at the final round, locked in a battle with Andy Bolwell (Kawasaki ZXR400) who won the day with two-one-one results. “I finished first or second in every race this season,” said Fitzgerald, making a startling comeback to the track this season after a cancer scare 13 months ago. “I was pretty happy just to be out there racing and I didn’t think I’d be at the sharp end of the results. “Winning the title has been great but there’s still the Street Series race at Paeroa to go and that’s pretty important to me.” Fitzgerald won both races at the first round of the series at Wanganui’s Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day, but says he does not have the same fondness for the bumps of Paeroa’s main street. “I’ll need a good day at Paeroa,” he added. SsangYong New Zealand Road Race Series (Final Points): Superbikes: 1 Andrew Stroud (Suzuki) 276. 2 Shawn Giles (Suzuki) 272. 3 Ray Clee (Suzuki) 219. 600 Sports Production: 1 Craig Shirriffs (Suzuki) 335. 2 Andrew Stroud (Suzuki) 240. 3 Derek McAdam (Kawasaki) 187. Formula Three: 1 Terry Fitzgerald (Suzuki) 340. 2 Andy Bolwell (Kawasaki) 258. 3 Jason Easton (Yamaha) 200.