Cam cuts to the Chase
Valley Champs Results
The Valley Champs was one of several events last weekend attended by local riders. This was a 2 day event with Juniors and Vets on the Saturday and Seniors, ATV and Women on the Sunday. Great weather and great track.
Cameron Forlong had an outstanding day in the 27 field 13-16 85cc class. He set the fastest 85cc lap time and, despite wheel spin problems on the concrete start pads that gave him plenty of catch up work to do, came second in the first 2 races behind Chase Smith. In the last race, Cameron really put the pressure on Chase, one of NZ’s top young riders and known for his aggressive blocking moves, and when Chase made a mistake in the very last lap, Cameron “blew by him” and won by a small margin. It was a very exciting race for all with everyone around the finish line cheering and clapping, with Cam getting many high fives as he came off the track. Cam is obviously delighted with his achievement as he has only been back on his bike for 2 ½ weeks and his right leg is still very weak after 9 weeks in a cast.
Lee Ormsby, in the same class, came home midfield in the first race but moved up the rankings with each successive race and finished in 13th place.
5 locals were in the top 10 of the 12-14 125cc class. Kurt Langford (2/10/3) had a “bummer of a day”, he says, but he made the third step of the podium ahead of Aaron Wiltshier (5/3/5) 4th, Matt Kenyon (9/7/8) 8th, Max Emett (9/8/10) 9th and Cam McCaskie (11/9/9) 10th.
Kurt qualified 2nd, managed good starts, but then race 1, made a mistake and hard to work back from 10th to 3rd, race 2, was taken out by a bike that he got all caught up with and had to work back from dead last to 10th, and, race 3, got T-boned and to push back from 7th to get 3rd and the 3rd overall.
Garth Amrein had 4/3/3 placings and came 3rd for the day in the 14-16 250cc class behind Jacob Kneebone and Brandon Tipene.
Jovhann Phillips and Thomas Forlong finished 6th and 16th in the 11-12 Years 85cc class which was totally blitzed by Josiah Natzke. Jovhann was pleased with his results as his lap times are improving and he is getting closer and closer to the target rider he wants to beat. Tyler Steiner DNFed.
The mini 65cc class had 2 Tauranga riders on the podium, Chris Merriman (2/2/5) in second and Jack McClymont (3/3/3), who was doing some wicked jumps, in third. Josh McClymont made the top 10 in 8th place whilst Xavier Anderson’s DNF in race 3 meant he finished in 12th position.
The Vets races saw fierce battling between 1st place-getter, Tauranga’s Keith Paterson (2/1/2) and runner up from Whakatane, Darren Caphill (1/9/1).
Logan Blackburn had a successful Saturday coming second to winner Kent Morley in 2 of the 15-16 125cc class races and beating him in the other. Not sure what happened to Logan on the Sunday. He was one of 7 riders in the Senior 125cc class who did not finish. Ditto for Roydon White and Scott Barr-Smith.
Riders were thin on the Senior Day. Cody Cooper swept the board in the MX1 ahead of Michael Phillips and Shaun Fogarty. The MX2 had Darryn King, Damien King and Rhys Carter on the podium and the Senior 125’s successful riders were Shaun Fogarty, Dion Picard and Tom Managh.
Full results are on www.mylaps.com
