Consistency Pays Dividends

Whakatane Final Round

maddix park mx

Several Tauranga riders who have been regular competitors at the Bay of Plenty Motorcycle Club’s MX  Series held during this year’s rain-plagued winter at Awakaponga were rewarded at the final round last Sunday .

The rain did prove a nuisance. Kurt Langford (pictured) initially found the track looking good. “It had been raining on Saturday so it was wet but not too bad as they had ripped the track. It was slushy in some places but others were looking real cool. But after practice, the rain came.  The track turned to slush.”   “It was a bit of a bog at the beginning”, adds another rider, “but it did dry out.  Those that  packed up and left missed out on a great track at the end".

Whatever the weather, consistency is definitely the key to success in a series.

Cam McCaskie rode this way throughout the series and won the Junior Open Class from Kurt Langford who had missed out on points when he was sidelined with injury. The order was reversed in the Junior A 125 Class with Kurt coming 2nd overall and Cam 5th.  Cam started the series on an 85cc bike so had missed out on points in the 125cc races.

Kurt was pleased with the Junior open 2nd race. “I got an ok start, I was around the 1st corner in 10th, by the end of the 1st lap I was in 4th, I pushed hard, but not too hard as it was really slippery and slushy.  I worked my way up to 2nd but made a small mistake and dropped it in the rut. I got up but I had lost a spot. I knew I could catch him again if I stayed up right. I caught and passed him with 4 corners to go, I finished 3rd for that race”.  

In the Junior B 125 class, Stan Oliff and Jake Whyte had top equal points for the day but Stan, who has been improving round by round, was 3rd overall and Jake, handicapped by a series of DNFs, was 5th. Taylor Trott came 6th overall because of 3 missed rounds.

Ethan Harihari won 2 out of 2 races on the day in the Novice 125c class and won his class in the series.

Max Emett came 5th overall in the Junior A 85ccs but missed the last 2 rounds. In the 85ss B grade Haydn Rumble came 3rd for the day ahead of Tyler Steiner with these results being reversed in the overall series points. Haydn was stoked with his first race on the day but came off 5 times in the mudbath that was the second race so just missed out on a podium place for the overall. Jordan Milsom and Lee Ormsby both raced for limited rounds and  finished 10th and 14th respectively.

Amongst the seniors, riders also missed out on podium places because of missed rounds. Casey and Jessie Waterhouse had a win each on the day but came 5th and 6th overall behind Julie Managh in 4th.  Ian Conway was third overall and Brian Breingan 4th in the Senior B Open class but neither were at the final round.  The most consistent rider was Te Puke’s Robby Stewart who came 2nd overall in the senior Open and 3rd in the Senior A Open.

For the minis, Harrison Forrester-Moore was the most successful.  He won 3 of his 4 races on the day and, through consistent top placings, was the overall winner in the 9-11 Years Trail class.  Xavier Anderson rode to 4th place overall in the 65cc 7-11 Years Novice class whilst the 65cc MX Expert class saw Trent Duggan in 5th and Connor Lucas in 6th place.  Chris Merriman only completed one race on the day so dropped to 3rd place overall. Sean Callinan was totally overjoyed to take home a trophy for his 2nd place in the 6-8 years MX 50cc class. 

Most of these riders will be in action at Maddix Park on Sunday when the Tauranga Motorcycle Club holds round 3 of its Spring MX Series.  Spectators and new riders are most welcome.

 
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