Fast times on all Fronts
Taupo Extravaganza
The Taupo Club has once again hosted its annual Labour Weekend event. It was cold in the morning with fresh snow on the mountains but the wind dropped, it became lovely and hot and an awesome day unfolded on the Saturday for the first of the two day Taupo MX Extravaganza.
Neil Ritchie calls him the “lean mean Merriman machine” but can remember him hurtling around the tracks on his 50cc Honda and single-handedly and successfully battling against the KTM 50 invasion.
Which Merriman is he’s talking about ?
It is young Tauranga rider Chris Merriman (above), of course, who followed up last year’s win in the 65cc class on a KX with a 2012 top podium in the 8-11 Years 85cc class. A number of the opposition fell off at the right time – for Chris – but Chris himself came off as well – notably in the last race when he was leading – however, at certain points it all came together and he made the others look like they were standing still. Chris finished 2/1/2 for 1st overall. Harrison Forrester-Moore (10/8/DNF) was 12th and Trent Duggan (12/ 17 / 13) 14th.
Jovhann Phillips might just as well have stayed in bed. A flat tyre in practice is a nuisance but you can live with that. A rock jammed between the gear lever and the frame in lap 2 is more than a nuisance. It means that you have to lose your wicked start, pull off to the side to un-jam it, and then work your way back up the field. A blown engine in lap 4 and DNF DNS DNS on the result board for the 12-14 125cc class is an absolute disaster. There is nothing else to say.
Cam McCaskie (7/6/5) felt some self-imposed pressure at the start of race 1– the 14-16 250cc class was a pretty top field – but he got smoother and faster as the day progressed. His last race was his best. Cam was running 4th until he fell off but got back up to come 5th and take 6th place overall.
Courtney Duncan is back competing and made a clean sweep in the Junior Women’s class She also competed in the 15/16 125cc class where she again had a clean sweep for first followed by 2nd Hadleigh Knight (4/2/2), 3rd James Anderson (3/4/3), 4th Aaron Wiltshier (2/5/6) and then 6th Matt Kenyon (10/6/5).
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Aaron (pictured left) had a
new bike and the first race went okay but, in an echo of Ryan Dungey’s Saturday
problems at the Monster Energy Cup, his gear shift jammed ! and he had to pull
over to un-jam it. Aaron was pretty chuffed about his speed.
With a borrowed gear shift, Aaron came back on Sunday for the National 125 races and flew like a rocket. He’s been working on his fitness to cope with the 25 minute races. He was tied first after the second race on the Sunday but a bad start in the last race meant he finished 3rd overall behind Hadleigh Knight 1st and Courtney Duncan 2nd. Matt Kenyon was 7th.
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Sunday was a
big fast day and the track cut up quite a lot. The lines through the sawdust could change from one race to the next
with previously good lines becoming quite treacherous. When the torrential rain
began, however, the track became an absolute bog but all in all it was a good
weekend. It was great to see the likes
of Ben Townley, Cody Cooper (pictured) and Kayne Lamont etc competing at a local
event.
Ben Townley took the MX1 followed by Cody Cooper 2nd, Brad Groombridge3rd, Jesse Donnelly 4th, Mitch Rees 5th, Nick Saunders 6th, Campbell Bailey 7th and Roydon White 9th. The MX2 class was won bythe eternal Daryll King, followed by Rhys Carter 2nd, Kayne Lamont 3rd, Scott Columb 4th, Ethan Martens 5th Shaun Fogarty 6th and Campbell King 7th. The Vets 35-44 class was won by Darryll King with Whakatane’s Darren Capill 2nd.
Mini riders were part of the Extravaganza programme on the Saturday.
Tyler Wiremu qualified 2nd for the day after a casual start in the cold, got shut down at the start of race 1 but pushed hard to get back to second place. From then on, however, there was no stopping him. He rode like a man possessed, winning the last two races, race 3 by a margin of 14 seconds! Tyler set the fastest lap for the mini intros in Taupo this year and he was certainly on form for the Extravaganza. His 2/1/1 results gave him the top spot on the podium for the 4-7 Years Intro 50cc MX KTM class. Next on the agenda will be the Auckland Champs and Summercross.
Kristian
Crane (pictured left) was pretty rapt with his second
place behind national champ Nikita Goodwin (Hamilton) in the 4-8 Years Intro
50cc Japanese. Kristian picked up his pace as the day went on and pulled out
his fastest lap time ever on the Taupo mini track in race 3. No crashes so it
was an awesome day. (He's already boasting he's got more trophies than Dad!)
Sam Meredith scored second place in his last ride on a 50cc in the 6-8 Years MX 50cc class. However, he showed he had definitely learned the lesson that you never give up, no matter what racing throws at you.
He was riding like a bomb and had won the first two races when disaster struck in race 3. Sam clipped another kid’s wheel and there was a big pile up at the start with Sam at the bottom. But he gritted his teeth, got back on his bike and from 18th place hunted the riders down one by one and got back to 8th gaining enough points to salvage second place overall. Well done Sam!
Wade Meredith achieved his goal of a top 10 finish with 6th place in the same class. He had a fantastic 3rd race demonstrating that the speed around corners that he’s been practising with Broxy has now been sussed. He was also pretty proud to have finished in front of his brother! Luke Fraser-Brown wasn’t at the top of his form and finished 16th overall.
Tauranga rider Shelby Catley was another podium finisher coming 3rd in the 7-11 Trail class.
In the 9-11 Years 65cc class, Jacob Hunt (12/8/8) was the top local rider in 9th place. Spectators were impressed with Jacob’s overtaking – he was even doing it on the corners. Jacob's lap times are fast but he is still having a few issues getting off the start line. Sean Callinan (14/13/15) in his first foray into this class didn’t break any records but coped well with the big leap up finishing 15th overall out of a field of 25. Alex Fraser- Brown and Jontae Carroll also rode well but need to have more confidence in their own skills.
Full results for both days are available on My Laps
Cody Cooper photo: Mad Max Photography
