Wow ! What a Sunday !
Woodville Day 2 - Seniors
Full gates, high quality local and international riders, ultra-close racing, spread out wins with every class almost anybody’s for the taking – all the ingredients for an awesome, exciting, crowd-thrilling "Wow ! What a Sunday !" motocross event. The success of Woodville 2014 augers well for the NZ MX Nationals that are due to start in February.
Click here for a clip of Sunday's racing.
Cody Cooper and Aaron Wiltshier brought double honours back to Tauranga with local riders Julie Managh, Ben Townley and temporary resident Laurent Fath achieving podium placings.
Cody Cooper
rode his Honda to a 2/2/1 victory in the MX1 class followed by Brad
Groombridge and then two Australians,
Kirk Gibbs and the very fast Ford Dale.
His starts may not have been ideal, but a bike set up in the later races more adapted to a slower track, a full on attack plus good old consistency paid off for Coops and he won the Grand Prix Invitation Feature Race as well.
Read The Honda Shop Racing Team Report here.
Senior 125
Aaron Wiltshier brought home the National 125 Grand Prix title and also the Neil Ritchie Trophy for the Most Outstanding MX Rider of the Past Year. They are well deserved honours. Aaron has the speed and the head space thanks to fundamental coaching from Mason Phillips plus recent mentoring from Brad Groombridge. While the GP title was won on the day at Woodville, the Neil Ritchie award also took into account Aaron’s success as a junior, teamed with Hadleigh Knight, in the 2013 6 Hour and 4 Hour events.
With at
least 6 strong contenders in his class, Aaron had to work hard and “use his
scone” but it was all “Good, great and he loved it !” Aaron had the hole shot
by 2 bike lengths in race 1 but slid out on the last corner of the 1st
lap. He caught up, then dropped it again
but caught up again to finish 3rd. Race 2 he was second behind Logan
Blackburn and in race 3, Aaron was right on Logan’s tail pipe when the latter had a bike issue.
Riders with similar pace made the racing in the 125 class particularly intense and exciting. . South Island rider Dylan Walsh was absolutely flying but Josiah Natzke (Hamilton) finished 2nd and Ben Broad (Ngatea) rode amazingly well to 3rd place. Ben has only recently moved up to the 15-16 Year 125 class and is already competing in senior events.
Te Puke’s Logan Blackburn did not have a good day. In race 1 he was involved in a first corner pile up but worked his way back from 28th to 9th. He won the 5 lap race 2 but, while leading in race 3, his bike stopped and Logan was left out of podium contention and in 8th position overall.
In the same
class Tauranga’s Ryan Metz finished 10th overall, in spite of a DNS
in race 3.
He fell off a few times in the first two races but fought back to 6th and 7th place respectively -race 1 was a fight back from 26th! Good practice for the Nationals.
Unfortunately, the falls aggravated a prior knee injury and Ryan opted out of race 3 in order to safeguard the knee and his chances at the upcoming nationals.
Good practice for the Nationals.
MX1
Several local Tauranga riders were on the same line as Cody Cooper in the MX 1 class.
Roydon White had no crashes, felt strong, his bike went well and, in general, he had a really good day. He was hoping to be around the 11th/12th mark but wasn’t too unhappy with 14th place. “The track was very different and shorter” he says, “and for me, the best it’s ever been -I really enjoyed it. The day was sunny, the dirt was nice and the bit of drizzle near the end kept the dust down. I finished 11th and 12th in the 11 lap races and was happy with my lap times. However, in the 5 lap sprint, I was right behind Campbell Bailey, but not able to quite get round him, when I stalled, dropped a place and ended up 14th”. Roydon will be on the start line for the NZ MX Nationals and is hoping to carck the top 10. It will be tough as he is one of those riders who squeeze in practice during their working week before fronting the pros on the weekend.
For Cam McCaskie, it was his first “big one”, a really good intro to the MX1 class and a great weekend. He did get stuck in a bog for 4 laps in the qualifying and 38 unyeilding bikes heading for the holeshot can be daunting but he built in confidence over the 3 races going from 31st to 20th and finishing 24th overall.
Dion Picard finished 9th overall.
MX2
This is another high calibre, highly competitive class - great for all the riders as, with good competition, you can only improve.
Rhys Carter
rode really well with some great battles with overall winner Kayne Lamont in
particular. “I was pleased with my starts”, says Rhys, “but I rode a little
tight all day. Still, it is the best
finish I’ve ever had at Woodville”. Rhys finished 3rd equal with
Hamish Dobbyn but missed out on the podium on countback. John Phillips was 2nd in the
class.
Peter Broxholme always answers present, and once again rode solidly with three 6th place finishes and 6th overall.
Part-time local Campbell King would have liked to have finished a little higher up than 10th. However, he caught his leg in a rut and popped his knee and twisted his ankle. He didn’t fall off so gritted on but with a bit less energy than before.
Laurent Fath, the New Caledonian rider currently based in Tauranga, did not have a wonderful day. The track was very different to what he is used to, but the main issue involved the DNFs. In race 1 he became entangled in the first corner pile up that claimed, amongst others, defending champion Scott Columb. Click here for the clip. In race 3 he had a cartwheel crash that twisted his bike and gave him a leg gash. But in the race 2 sprint, he showed the speed he is capable of when, from an average start (38th gate pick is not ideal), and in the 5 allotted laps, he moved up to 13th . Laurent’s speed was confirmed when he competed in the Roddy Shirriffs race coming 2nd to Kayne Lamont.
Women
Veteran Julie Managh was 3rd in the women’s class behind up and coming “grand-daughter age” riders Taylar Rampton from Opunake and Nikita Mudford from Otorohanga. “It was hard tough”, says Julie, “but I’ve learnt to ride smarter not harder “. Whakatane’s Shelby Van Beek was 7th.
River Race
Those who were wanting to see riders splashing their way in head to head sprints were a little disappointed. This year the course tended towards the endurocross with tight turns into and out of the river plus wet logs and other obstacles to negotiate. Ben Townley has now ticked his “River Race” box but came second to the unbeatable Paul Whibley. Third equal at the end of the 2 races were Charles Alabaster and Mitch Rowe. Click here for a clip of 1st river race and 2nd river race.
Click here for the full Sunday results
