nz kiwi

Craig Pendlebury now lives in Perth, Australia.

I think I can answer some of your questions, I am living in Auckland. Speedway here is dominated by car racing which unfortunately means heavy and sticky clay track surfaces for the bikes. This means that unless you are watching at a bike only track you are unlikely to see much good bike racing. There are a huge number of tracks here but most of them don't run bikes. Auckland, Invercargill, Christchurch and Napier all have good bike tracks. There is no league racing as such. There have been some good attempts at getting a league started but costs have been prohibitive. You will get to see the GP's eventually on SKY. The first ones will not be shown here until well into the European season. Some people do have them taped and sent over so they may be available that way with a contribution towards postage perhaps. Do you know where you will be living here? I can then let you know the tracks nearest to you although a lot of them have finished their fixtures for this year. I can then also give you some website addresses to have a look.

No, Andrew Aldridge didn't ride as he is from the South Island of NZ and this was the North Island Final.

I love this magazine and living a long way from the UK I get to see all your comments on each issue before ours has arrived. I enjoy the "where are they now" type articles (and perhaps also what do they look like now). I was a Reading girl in the 80's until I moved to NZ in 89 so features on anyone from that era would make great reading to me. Keep up the good work. Better than the speedway star in my view.

The winner take all final was outstanding. He did have to work hard for it, the title looked like it was going to Italy but Bunyan found some dirt and some speed and in an amazing show rode what looked like a couple of inches from the fence to go round the outside of the Italian. Second was Mattia Carpanese, third was Daniele Tessari who just pipped Andrew Bargh on the line. Great stuff in front of the biggest crowd Rosebank Road has seen for a very long time.

Phil is fine, nothing is broken. He went to hospital as a precaution and is now taking it easy at home.

The meeting at Ruapuna, Christchurch was rained off this evening. The boys all head for home (Auckland) tomorow. Our next meeting is at Waikaraka Park on Saturday night and then at Rosebank Domain on Sunday afternoon. After I get home tomorrow I will calculate the series points to date and post them on here. Thanks to all the other people who have posted results on here over the last week, our schedule has been rather punishing.

BUNYAN WINS SUNDAY NEWS INTERNATIONAL SERIES IN NEW ZEALAND Jason Bunyan took out the last meeting of the Sunday News International Series at Auckland's Rosebank Road yesterday. This means he is again the Sunday News International Series Champion for the third year in a row, beating Glen Phillips by just 5 points. The winner of the series came down to the last race of the last meeting before Jason claimed victory. Both Jason and Glen qualified for the A Final and Glen only had to finish third or better to take the Series. Despite being unbeaten before the A Final, this just wasn't to be. Jason raced away to win the race and Glen just couldn't get around Andrew Bargh despite trying every way possible. That wraps up another successful international series in New Zealand for another year covering 15,000 km and 15 meetings from Auckland in the North Island to Invercargill at the very foot of the South Island.

Lukas didn't actually ride in Napier as he was leaving Auckland the following day. There is nothing wrong with Lukas, he was always going to be leaving before the end of the series. The rest of the boys are now in Napier where they will stay until they next ride in Wellington on Friday. They will then drive home to Auckland through the night to ride at Waikaraka Park on Saturday. The following weekend (5th and 6th Feb) sees the end of the 2005 series with meetings at Waikaraka Park on Saturday and Rosebank on Sunday.

Jason Bunyan is New Zealand Champion.