Keiran Mair's motorcycle success

On the first week of February, Keiran and his family travelled to the world's most southern race circuit to compete in the first round of the New Zealand SuperBike Championship hosted by the Burt Munro Challenge group at Teretonga in Invercargill.

Unusually, the weather was extremely settled and there were great track conditions. Keiran is competing in the most hotly contested class in New Zealand - the 300 Super Sport - on his KTM RC390 bike. He is also competing on his Suzuki SV650 in the Superlite/Formula 3 class for larger capacity bikes. Both of these classes hold National Championship status.

 

Teretonga is a unique circuit with a very long front straight, the highest speed and longest first turn in New Zealand and is extremely exciting to ride. The smaller 390cc bike achieves a top speed of 190kph here and the 650 closer to 215kph.

 

At this round Kieran and his team methodically worked on his bike setup and on Keiran's riding style. He qualified 7th out of 22 competitors in the 300 Supersport class He also qualified 6th out of 28 entries in the Superlite class.

 

In the three races for each class, Keiran enjoyed very close battles against much more experienced riders at the front of the field. He finished all three 300 Super Sport races in 8th place. In Superlite he recorded 5th, 4th and a DNF due to an electrical fault on his bike.

 

The following week was spent travelling to Timaru and servicing both race bikes to compete at Round 2 of NZSBK at Levels.

 

Last year Levels was Keiran's most challenging track. This year, armed with a positive mindset and proper set-up on the bikes he hoped for solid results. Keiran's team also had the benefit of an extremely experienced racer, Jay Lawrence, joining to help mentor Keiran with making bike changes to suit what he needs to be able to compete at this extremely high level. This proved to be invaluable as Keiran systematically improved on his best lap times each practice session in each class, eventually qualifying 8th in 300 Super Sport and 5th in Superlite.

 

In the 300 races Keiran posted a career best for the class finishing 5th, 7th and 6th across the three starts to finish the weekend 5th overall on points. Keiran's family were ecstatic with this result given that last year this event was the toughest challenge and Keiran proved to everyone he has the skills to run right at the front of this field. Keiran now sits 7th overall in the 300 Supersport Championship.

 

For the three Superlite races on the larger and faster 650cc bike, Keiran recorded two 4th places in Races 1 and 3 but put in an incredible performance in the 2nd race to win the class. This particular race also had the prestige of being the New Zealand Superlite Grand Prix! Keiran left Levels as round winner and is now 3rd overall for Superlite in the New Zealand Championship.

 

Keiran now has a very short break before the Championship resumes at Hampton Downs, just south of Auckland on March 7th, 8th, 9th before the series final at Taupō on the 14th, 15th, 16th. The whole team is looking very forward to these North Island rounds where the tracks are a lot more familiar to Keiran and he’ll be looking for more great results.