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NZ School MX 2014

maddix park mx

 

School Motocross is up and running with the first secondary school race event in the 2014 season hosted by the Rotorua Motorcycle Club on Friday and fielding full gates in most of the classes.

 

 

 

Secondary Schools: Friday 14th March

Tauranga Boys’ College won the overall school trophy ahead of the Hauraki Plains College team and Trident High School from Whakatane.

Click here for the full results (My Laps).

Click here for a clip from the event (Josh Leopold).

Click here for Tristan Tolley's Video Report 

Tauranga Boys’ College:

 As only the points from each school’s top three riders in the licensed classes are counted, the Boys’ College win was largely thanks to  Trent Haywood’s 2nd place in the 13-14 125cc class, Jovhann Phillip’s 3rd place in the 15-18 Years 250cc class and Reece Garrett’s 5th place in the 13-16 Years 85cc class.

Trent got good starts –  holeshot photo above – and rode hard for a win and two seconds behind Fielding rider and class winner Tony Cvitanovich. Tauranga Boys’ rider,  Josh Tredinnick, in the same class, qualified 11th but upped the ante at race time and finished 6th.

Jovhann has just moved up to a 250 and this was his first race meet with the new bike.  He loves the power and it suits him down to the ground but he still has some set up issues to work through. Class winner, Josiah Natzke, was impossible to beat but Jovhann had a 2nd,  5th and 3rd place in spite of having to cope with a “slapping rear” when the throttle went on.

Reece liked the track and liked the “pretty mean” competition.  “I got good starts”, he reports, “which is great as I’m not keen on the chasing game!”  He rode consistently for 6/6/7 finishes and 5th in his class.

All three riders rode brilliantly for their team, however team manager Tony Heyblom is equally proud of the other 20 riders from Tauranga Boys’.

 “It was a really good day for us”, states Tony, ”and a really good start to the season.  The new team is young and did exceptionally well.  There were only a couple of injuries. We are over the moon. We certainly didn’t expect to get the top trophy two events in a row!”

Otumoetai College

The Otumoetai MX team lost several key school leaver riders at the end of 2013 and is in the process of “reforming” with a number of newer riders joining the ranks. The team missed out on an overall podium place for the school but was full of praise for their newbies, acknowledging on Facebook that:

“The Otumoetai team has a big thank you to the Rotorua Motorcycle Club for a well-run and organized event today. We want to recognize one of our newbies in the team, Kane Harland. He placed 4th overall in the Novice class and received his first trophy. Well done! Excellent show by Joe 90 Rowe who really demonstrated how well his skills have grown. Good recovery by Ricky Doran after a brutal fall in practice, he pulled it together and by the third race showed us his skills. Ben Hegarty had a bit of hard luck with a possible blown engine in practice, but it's clear he'll be something to contend with when he returns. Great to see Evan Hawkless, Matt Nielsen, and Brad Holmes back on their bikes representing our team. Evan brought in good points with 5th and 7th place finishes, Brad had a valiant return after getting nailed on the first turn. I (?) had consistent finishes. It was awesome to have our team represented!  Congrats to Tauranga Boys, Hauraki Plains College Motocross Team, and Trident High School for the top 3 placings! “

The usually prominent Evan Hawkless (#337 pictured) says it wasn’t his day. “I wasn’t in the right head space”, he acknowledges. “I qualified 5th but only did two races. I had gearbox problems and mucked up my jumps”. He finished 11th overall in the 250 cc class.

Mount College

Connor Lucas, Brad Cameron and Raquel Leopold made up the Mount College team which finished 14th in the school section.

Connor really enjoyed the event and had an awesome day finishing 23rd in the 13-15 Years 85cc class. Raquel had some great battles with Shelby van Beek from Whakatane to end the day 8thin the Women’s class.  Brad Cameron was the top place getter for the Mount with a 7th in the 13-16 125cc class.

The usual 4th team member, Josh Leopold, did not race but is responsible for the photos and video clip shown here.  Thanks Josh.  Click here for Josh's album of photos, you might spot yourself.

 

Bethlehem College, Katikati College and Te Puke High School had small teams competing also. Great to see.  Well done and congratulations to all the riders.

Also to Ben Broad whose first place points in the 15-18 125cc class anchored The Hauraki Plains College’s position on the podium and to Chris Merriman who contributed his 3rd place points in the 13-16 Years 85cc class to Western Heights High School.

Chris has just moved up to the 13-16 age category so his 2nd and 3rd places were a great confidence boost.  Unfortunately, in race 1, he got tangled with another rider and fell off but managed to get himself back to 14th. 

 
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