Such was the conundrum facing New Zealand Superbike Championship series points leader Mitch Rees of Tauranga, when his Honda CBR100R-R superbike developed a major engine problem just as the green flag dropped at Ruapuna in Christchurch today.
Despite inclement weather soaking the track during qualifying earlier in the day, Rees was on pole for the first race of the third round of the series, but when the flag dropped he found his machine running intermittently.
"We don’t know what happened," Rees said immediately after the race. "Your guess is as good as mine as to what it was."
He said no fault code came up on the dash as it should do with all modern race bikes which tells the riders what went wrong.
By continuing to circulate with his dodgy, misfiring engine, Rees eventually finished ninth overall in Saturday’s race, keeping a firm grip on the series lead.
He says he will now be looking towards Sunday's two races, which includes the NZ Superbike Grand Prix title, before the series continues onto round four at Teretonga next weekend.
Rees’ misfortune opened the way for a maiden NZ Superbike Championship race win for Christchurch’s Dale Finch riding a Kawasaki ZX10R.
Finch, 32, of Bishopdale, Christchurch, was billed as the one rider who would have kept the very fast British Superbike series rider Rees honest in Saturday's wet race, as his long career in speedway and motocross made him a wet weather specialist.
"It’s good to finally get one on the board," he said.
In only his third start on the bike in his first superbike series, he says he is very happy with how the race went, overcoming the pressure to lead while riding in very tricky track conditions.
"Three quarters of the track were drying fast but a couple of the corners were still very, very wet. We had rain tires on so I had to look for puddles to ride through to keep the tires from overheating and destroying themselves while maintaining a good pace.
"This is my home track so I go pretty good around here in the dry as well, so tomorrow we will see what happens in the Grand Prix," Finch said.
He said at the start he was a bit confused for a couple of laps because everyone else including race favourite Rees were suddenly far behind him and Finch.
"We both got on the gas and suddenly I thought 'where is everyone?' Were they waiting for their tires to heat up or were they just waiting for me to destroy my tires on the drying track?"
He says he settled into a rhythm and was very happy with second place in the tricky conditions.
Fellow Kawasaki teammate Dave Sharp, of Auckland, lead home a strong challenge for third in front of Cantabrian racer Alastair Hoogenboezem (Yamaha YZF -R1).
In the first of the weekend's three National Supersport 600 races, Ashton Hughes of Bulls (Triumph Daytona 675) dominated, easily holding off pole sitter Wanaka’s Seth Devereux (MV Agusta) and fast charging Jake Lewis (Yamaha) of Rangiora, who was making up for being blocked in by slower riders at the start by passing many to reach the podium on the rapidly drying track.
