Tauranga's Robbie Shorter and his side car partner, Auckland's Colin Buckley, have had the perfect start to their New Zealand Superbike Championship.

Robbie says it was a great way to start the season.

Robbie Shorter on his old bike. Photo: File.

'Yeah, we'll take that aye. We qualified on pole, three race wins including a New Zealand GP and a lap record. I don't think we could have done much better.”

He says the reason for the result was a change of bikes.

'We got rid of our old formula one bike when we went to the world championships in the Isle of Mann last year and we left the bike in the UK and we bought the ex-world championship bike by a guy Tim Reeves. He's five time world side-car champ.”

Although it's still early into the season, Robbie is happy with how the bike handles.

'It's a pretty good start to the season but it's a long way to go. We're back down to Invercargill to do the national round there at Teretonga.”

The pair were one of a number of class winners at Ruapuna at the weekend.

Also showing great form was Canterbury's Cameron Hudson who described his start to 2016 as "pretty close to perfection".

A dominant performance in the ferocious 600cc supersport class meant the 20-year-old Christchurch student was able to shake off his many challengers and end the opening weekend of four in the series with a solid 21.5-point lead over his nearest championship threat, Glen Eden's Daniel Mettam.

Without any pre-season clashes with the men who would possibly become his championship rivals, Cameron lined up to race his Yamaha R6 at Christchurch's Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna, on Saturday and Sunday with nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Cameron had finished national No.4 in the 600cc class in 2015 and the three men who had finished ahead of him – Christchurch bothers Alastair and James Hoogenboezem and Manukau's Toby Summers – were not lining up in the 600cc class this season, so Cameron was realistic to believe he should have high hopes for his 2016 campaign.

In the end, Cameron's first race win, 3-2 result in the split race two and 1-1 result in the split race three were enough for him to win the event and give himself an excellent foundation on which to build the rest of his campaign.

"I could not have asked for a better weekend. It was pretty close to perfection, I suppose," Cameron says. "I won the NZGP title in the streetstock class in about 2009, so I obviously like this track.

Other class winners at the weekend were Wellington's Sloan Frost (superbike); Tirau's Dillon Telford (superstock 1000); Christchurch's Dennis Charlett (pro twins); Upper Hutt's Rogan Chandler (125GP); New Plymouth's Shaun Harris (superlites); Rolleston's Tim McArthur (lightweights); Ashburton's Lewis Dray (250cc production); Christchurch's Gordon Wilcock (Bears F1, non-Japanese) Greymouth's Ashton Hughes (Bears F2, non-Japanese bikes).

The four-round championship now heads to Teretonga, on the outskirts of Invercargill, for round two next weekend, with a third South Island round a week later at Levels Raceway, near Timaru, on January 24, and the final round is scheduled for Hampton Downs, near Huntly, on March 5-6.