Galway well placed for triple crown tilt

Nathan Crombie | 27th January 2010

Masterton motorcyclist Jamie Galway today sits at number four on a national superbike table ahead of a final round for a triple classics crown.

Galway, 20, has been racing for a little over three years and took two fourth places in the 600 Supersport class during the second round of the New Zealand Superbike Series at Teretonga Raceway in Invercargill on Sunday.

The young Masterton rider is also on the eve of winning three New Zealand Classic Motorcycle championships - in the 350, 500 open and modified, and pre-1963 open and modified classes - at a festival at Pukekohe early next month, which is the final round in the classics series.

He said he has on points already taken the 350 and pre-1963 classes and must only complete a single race in the remaining class to clinch all three titles.

During the classic series Galway races under the Classic Cycles banner out of Upper Hutt, he said, and aboard a Honda CBR600RR for the Wolfpack Team in the superbike series alongside team-mate Jamie Rajek.

Besides a shove from a rival in the pits at the end of racing at Teretonga on Sunday, he said, all went well for the Honda, running Dunlop tyres on what was a wet track.

He is confident moving into the next round at Timaru this weekend and said the track is short "and tight with heaps of corners", which will favour his machine and style of riding.

He finished 10th overall in the superbike series last season and at Ruapuna Park in Christchurch a week ago Sunday finished third-equal on the table in the opening round of the 2010 series.

There are two more rounds in the series this year after Timaru, he said, at Manfeild racing circuit in Fielding in the last week of February and at the new Hampton Downs track in Auckland in the last weekend of March.

Galway races with father Terry and younger brother Jadin as pit crew and began his career after tagging along with his dad to classic motorcycle racing events and eventually taking up the sport himself and capturing a championship in the pre-1963 class in 2008.