Buchanan (16) dominated his category in the first round of the New Zealand superbike championship at the Manfeild circuit at the weekend.
The Yamaha Racing Development Team rider won all three races in the Supersport 300 class he won last year.
He also made a promising debut on the more powerful Yamaha YZF-R6 in the Supersport 600 category.
Yamaha Motor New Zealand motorsport manager Josh Coppins was delighted with Buchanan’s performances.
"It was a pretty tough weekend for us and Cormac’s results were the highlight," Coppins said.
"It’s great to see him leading the Supersport 300 class by 16 points already.”
Buchanan described the weekend, on the whole, as a positive experience.
"I felt good from the get-go, even in the sketchy wet conditions on both bikes," Buchanan said.
"I wasn’t expecting to feel as confident as I did on the YZF-R6 straight away in the wet. It was a bit nerve-wracking riding a 120-horsepower, heavier bike around in wet conditions and I’m proud of how I handled it."
In the Supersport 300 qualifying session, Buchanan got himself into pole position.
"The first two races, I had big battles with Jesse Stroud and we broke the lap record in both races, going 1.3sec quicker than the previous Manfeild 300 times.
"That was a big check off my goal list for the weekend.
"I enjoyed having the big battles where we were getting very close and having contact a few times, which produced probably some of the best 300 racing at Manfeild in many years. It was good to be a part of that."
The Yamaha team made changes to Buchanan’s YZF-R3’s suspension for the last race.
"The bike was on rails and I was able to win by 7sec. It was my favourite victory in the 300 class.
"I was happy with how I handled my Supersport 600 races and I learned lots. In the second race, I finished up only 0.2sec off the podium."
The next round of the championship is at Ruapuna on January 7-8.
By: Staff reporter
