Whanganui motorcycle riders win Paeroa street battle

UNBEATEN: Whanganui's Richard Dibben remains unbeaten this season after winning the super motard class at the Paeroa Battle of the Streets on Sunday.
PHOTO / Andy McGechan

The chequered flag fell for two Whanganui crews at the Paeroa Battle of the Streets race meeting on Sunday.

Former WHS student Richie Dibben remains unbeaten this season in the super motard class on his trusty old Honda CRF450, while Dwayne Bishop continued on his winning way in the Bears division in his Italian-designed Aprilia RSV4-RR 1000.

Both riders had already won the annual Suzuki Series in their respective classes where Dibben went through unbeaten at Taupo, Manfield and Cemetery Circuit in Whanganui on Boxing Day, while Bishop dropped only one race during the season at Manfield. He did, however, finish second that day.

Dibben then raced and won on the rain-soaked streets of Nelson in January before gearing up to Sunday's Paeroa races.

Every meeting features two races for every class.

"Everything just seemed to go to plan," Dibben said.

"I had no problems with the bike and Paeroa's been a pretty good track for me. I think I've only dropped one race here in the three or fours years I've been coming here. I hit the hay bales one year before remounting a coming fourth.

"There were a few accidents in the morning, so they canned the qualifying races using Cemetery Circuit placings and previous Paeroa results to determine grid positions, so I was on pole."

Dibben, in his usual style, raced straight to the front adopting catch-me-if-you-can tactics and while racing was tight, none of his rivals found a way passed him.
Bishop also had a dream run at Paeroa on his relatively new machine.

"I won the 2013 Suzuki Series Bears title on an Aprilia, but this bike is a new one and it went well. I've had a really good season so far and I just hope it continues," Bishop said.

Sponsored by Whanganui firms Mitre 10 Mega, DML Construction, Hardy's Construction and CRV Equipment, Bishop also raced in the Formula 1 class finishing 7th and 8th respectively in the two Paeroa races.

Meanwhile, Mike Paul had his first serious hitout on his Suzuki GSXR1000 Anderson Special sidecar finishing second overall at Paeroa to former Whanganui racer Adam Unsworth.

"The rig is a John Anderson-built unit and we've had a few problems getting it running right and we were still working on it at 1am the morning of the races," Paul said.

"Thanks to the hard work put in by my crew we managed to get to the starting grid, although with no lead up form and qualifying cancelled we had to start at the back of the pack. We managed to weave our way through to fourth in the first race and then finished second in the last race to take second overall."

Paul was without regular swinger Paul "Blink" Blinkhorne who stood down preferring to remain one of the mechanical crew over the weekend.

"I think he's starting to feel his age so I raced with a passenger I knew from Tauranga," Paul said.

By Iain Hyndman
Wanganui Chronicle 21/2/18