Tauranga based Superbike Team M1Motorsport’s rider, Australian; Linden Magee suffered a horrific crash at Round two of the Suzuki Series.
With the Valvoline sponsored BMW extensively damaged, it was all hands on deck at furious pace to get the BMWS1000RR into shape.
Flying back into New Zealand this week and racing with both a broken collarbone and fractured wrist, tenacious Linden “Magoo” Magee proved that qualifying in 13th position on pole isn’t quite so unlucky (for the superstitiously inclined), despite conceding that “It was hard to string a decent lap together in qualifying, I made a couple of mistakes.”
Securing 9th in Race One on Saturday, Linden expressed “I feel much better knowing I was able to put the “demons” from the Suzuki Series Manfeild crash, behind me. With just a couple of minor changes to the BMW, hopefully I can charge forward and improve on today’s results”
On Sunday morning – Race Two, Linden came from behind again – 13th on pole and deftly crept his way through the Superbike pack swapping positions with former M1Motorsport rider; Sloan Frost, manouvering around the outside of Frost in the second to last lap, to secure his first NZ race podium finish, in 3rd.
Later in Race two, Linden “caught a bad start as the lights weren’t working and spent 8 or 9 laps playing catch-up and spent a bit of energy, Sloan and I diced, we touched, I ran out wide, then we diced again in the final lap but I held him off, it was a tough race!”
Linden secured 4th behind Dennis Charlette [Suzuki], Suzuki Series champ; Nick Cole [Kawasaki] and Scotty Moir [Suzuki], the weekend’s results place M1Motorsport currently third over-all in the 2014 New Zealand Superbike Series.
“To be leaving Round 1, 3rd in the New Zealand Superbike Championship is well beyond my expectations and I’m really looking forward to Round 2 at Timaru next weekend.
Big thanks to M1Motorsport and all our supporters and sponsors in getting us back on track!”
Round two of the New Zealand Superbike Series is at Timaru International Motor Raceway (formally known as “Levels” Raceway) 11 – 12 January, 2014.
Top Ten Points as of Round One
Dennis Charlett 75
Nick Cole 60
Linden Magee 36
Sloan Frost 32
Tony Rees 31
Scott Moir 27
Ray Clee 25
Craig Shirriffs 24
Jaden Hassan 20
Hayden Fitzgerald 17