 | From Bernard Racing
 The season has begun!! The Bernard Yamaha Team has started its season with a fine bunch of wins, backed up with a few 2nds and 3rds!! Manfeild Dec 20 was the opening round of the Tri-Series. From there, it was the infamous Cemetery Circuit followed by the Taupo round.
Manfeild.
This was to be Gareths first time on the Teams new Yamaha R1 and R6. Friday testing went well, ironing out some of the new bike bugs! Race day saw Gareth qualify on pole on the R6 and 4th on the R1. The R1 proving more difficult to find a good set up. Race 1 for the 600 was a “Gareth” show, as he went out and won the 6 lap race by almost 7 seconds!! A clear sign that he means business. The second 600 race was wet and Gareth decided to get used to the new bike and wet conditions at a safe pace. Having said that, he led until the last lap when a desperate move by 2nd place man relegated him to 2nd at the chequered.
The Superbike race saw Gareth dice for the lead in both races, finishing 3rd in one race and mistaking a waving white flag as the chequered in the other race, retiring 1 lap too early!
Cemetery Circuit.
Boxing Day is a busy one for everyone. Practise and qualifying are short, but this didn’t stop Gareth from again getting pole position on the R6 and 2nd fastest on the R1 Superbike. In the 600 race, he again showed that he means business, with 2 convincing wins!! The first race on the Superbike and Gareth diced with the track favourite, Craig Shirriffs, with Gareth getting the victory. Race 2 and Gareth had a clear lead but pushed a little too hard in the esses and crashed heavily. It was back to the pits for an evaluation of the damage. It didn’t take long to discover that the bike wasn’t repairable on the day, so Gareth was left to ride the feature race, Robert Holden Memorial, on his fast R6 against the hordes of Superbikes. This didn’t seem to worry Gareth at all, as he diced again with Craig Shirriffs for the lead and leaving the rest of the field behind!!! The race ended with Gareth 2nd and a great performance for the day. We packed up that night and headed for the next round at Taupo.
Taupo.
The first day at Taupo saw Gareth riding his R6 for a couple of sessions while the crew worked all day on the crash repairs. The next day both bikes were ready to go. Gareth was again on pole position on the R6 and 2nd on the SBK. 2 more clear wins in the 600 class, a 3rd and two 2nds on the SBK. Incredible results yet again, especially as Gareth only got 4 laps of practise on the SBK before going out in the races and dicing with Andrew Stroud immediately!!
Now the Team heads south for the first 3 rounds of the NZ National Championships.
The Team would like to thank sponsors, friends and family, who all help to make it happen.
Cheers.
Brian Bernard.
 Gareth Jones - Bernard Racing Tri-Series Race Report () 01/07 02:27 PM 
. . Re: Gareth Jones - Bernard Racing Tri-Series R (CC 16) 01/11 11:18 PM
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