TYLER KING CLAIMS CLEAN SWEEP AT MOTOFEST

The New Zealand Sportbike Championship continues to heat up with Aprilia’s Tyler King making a dominant statement at MotoFest – Round 3 of the NZSBK Championship.

With the Aprilia RS660 Extrema entering its debut season in the New Zealand racing championship, King started the weekend as he meant to go on, claiming pole position ahead of championship leader Zac Fuller.

Saturday’s Race 1 saw King launch off the start line to finish in first place, while also setting a new lap record of 1 minute 41.294 seconds.

Sunday’s racing saw King continue his dominant form, comfortably taking victory in Race 2 before completing a clean sweep with a win in the third and final race of the weekend.

“Most of the races I led from the start,” King said. “Sometimes they could come past me off the start because we’ve been having a few troubles with our starts, but once we got going the bike had really good drive.”

King said the Aprilia RS660 Extrema’s performance out of corners played a key role in the results.

“Off the corners it’s got a bit more punch in it, more torque and stuff,” he explained.

The result marks another major step forward in a development season for the new machine, with King and his team continuing to refine the bike each round.

“We’re still changing little things every weekend,” King said. “From Round One compared to where we are now, it’s just getting better and better.”

King also acknowledged the people behind the scenes who helped deliver the strong performance.

“Without Robert Taylor working on the YSS suspension and Gavin Veltmeyer from GVR maintaining the bike, we pretty much wouldn’t be where we are,” he said.

With three wins from three races and pole position at MotoFest, King has significantly closed the gap to championship leader Zac Fuller and now sits just 16 points behind heading into this weekend’s series finale at Taupō Motorsport Park.