By 16 racers secured at least one race win on Boxing Day at the Cemetery Circuit Races including of course 1000cc machinery pace setter Damon Rees and Team Rees stablemate Zak Fuller.
Although just missing out on the feature race crown, Suzuki Tri Series Superbike Champion Mitch Rees Mitch Rees had the honour of retaining his title as the ‘Southern Hemisphere TT’ fastest rider in history, by setting a new outright lap record of 48.370 seconds.
Kawasaki’s last success within the blue riband Robert Holden Memorial feature race remains from 2013, when renowned event expert Nick Cole triumphed.
Yamaha’s most recent Robert Holden Memorial feature race triumph arose in 2011, when Dan Stauffer retained the coveted race crown.
Seven of the 11 finishers in the latest Robert Holden Memorial feature race, lapped under the 50 seconds barrier.
In total on Saturday ten racers managed at least one sub 50 second lap. The top ten quickest ‘Southern Hemisphere TT’ competitors from 2020 in descending order is as follows:
1 Mitch Rees 48.370
2 Damon Rees 48.468
3 Scott Moir 48.525
4 Jayden Carrick 49.093
5 Adam Chambers 49.250
6 Daniel Mettam 49.424
7 Richie Dibben 49.453
8 David Hall 49.534
9 Zak Fuller 49.628
10 Dale Finch 49.629
Famous names you might not have realised that have competed around the Cemetery Circuit over the years have included ex World Superbike, Grand Prix, TT stars Aaron Slight, Simon Crafar, Graeme Crosby, Hideo Kanaya and Randy Mamola.
It’s six years since TV personality, eight times Steve Henshaw International Gold Cup winner, 19 times International Road Race winner Guy Martin joined the Cemetery Circuit winners circle.
From 1953-1957 feature race Champion’s at Whanganui were AJS 7R mounted, with Rod Coleman, David Murphy taking respectively three, two premier class victories.
Were just one year away now from the Cemetery Circuit Races celebrating it’s 70th anniversary, since it first cropped up onto road racing calendar in 1951.
Words by Stevie Rial
