Heat on in Harrisville

NZ MX Nationals Round 3

maddix park mx

The action was full noise at Harrisville last weekend for  the NZ MX Nationals.

A hot day, a host of talent and heaps of exciting racing made round 3 a hit with riders and spectators alike.

The Bay of Plenty once again supplied several race and class winners.

Logan Blackburn (Te Puke) felt comfortable and confident, had awesome starts, found his rhythm quickly and won the first two races in the National 125 class but race 3 was a bit of a disappointment.

“I got another awesome start,” he reports, “slotted into 3rd and managed to take the lead by the 2nd corner.  Then I made a mistake and went down. Being at the front meant that I had the pack behind me and some of them just couldn't dodge my bike. A few ran it over and it took me a long time to get on and get going.  I was a long way last!  But I pushed the hardest I have ever ridden.  I needed to get to 6th place to still take the win for the day.  I made it up to 5th!!!  Wow what a race!”  

Logan took the overall for the day by 1 point and is now a mere 4 points behind series leader Cameron Vaughn from Rotorua heading to the final round in Taupo.

In 3rd place on the day and in the 125 National series is Tauranga’s Aaron Wiltshier. Aaron was the top qualifier in the class at Harrisville and pleased with his lap times but the first race didn’t go to plan. “I had a shocker of a start but from dead last I got myself up to 13th and then to 5th. I was having a good battle for 4th when I came off so ended up 6th. I got a real rarck up about that one! It seemed to work. In race 2, I got the holeshot and lead the race until I got passed by Logan,” he says. “Then, in race 3, I was second behind Cameron after Logan had his highside.” Aaron, too, is looking forward to the final round at Taupo.

“It was hot and I just didn’t get it all together, “ says Ryan Metz, Tauranga, of his day at Pukekohe. Ryan had 7/8/10 finishes and is in 10th position overall for the series.

In spite of the temperature, Roydon White’s day was not so hot. “I felt good in the first race but then I got a flat tyre,” he reports. “In race 2, I crashed 3 times. Race 3, the start was okay but by then I wasn’t feeling well so I struggled and came in 17th.  Everyone in the MX1 class is just so fast.”

And the fastest of them all was, of course, Cody Cooper  from Papamoa who dominated the MX1 class with a hat trick of wins and goes into the final round with a 31 point lead.  

“This was one of my best day’s racing ever,” says “Coops”. “The work I’ve been doing with John Appel, my new trainer, is starting to pay off. My upper body strength has improved and it’s all coming together nicely now.  I’m all set for the final round at Taupo now and the Australian Motocross Champs series to follow that.  I’m really hungry to win and my confidence is really high.”

Cody effectively kept the Australian based McKenzie/Waters/Gibbs contingent from off the top of the MX1 podium while his Suzuki team-mate Rhys Carter tried to do the same against Australian  Ryan Marmont in the MX2 class.

However, Rhys had a tough afternoon. He won the day’s first race but was then involved in several handlebar-banging incidents and had to settle for seventh and fifth in his next two races. However, Rhys remains third overall in the championship standings and even improved his position to now be just 13 points behind the No.2 ranked rider, Australian Brock Winston.  

Peter Broxholme was in winning form for race 2 but had a time-consuming crash early in the final race. He is in 6th position for the series.

Matt Kenyon was testing the dirt in his first event since Woodville where he suffered an encounter with concussion.  Faced with the aggressiveness of the MX2 class ,in the first two laps in particular, Matt was perhaps was a little “gun shy’ but he enjoyed his day.

In spite of the Carter/Broxy wins, it was Ryan Marmont who finished first for the day. Marmont will not be a challenge as far as the series is concerned because this was his first appearance at the NZ nationals

Click here for Race Highlights MX1 & MX2

National 125:

Race 1: 1st Logan Blackburn, 2nd Sean O’Connor, 3rd Cameron Vaughn, 4th Jacob Kneebone, 5th Cohen Chase, 6th Aaron Wiltshier, 7th Ryan Metz, 8th Nathan Sharland, 9th Nick Hornby, 10th Sam Greenslade

Race 2: 1st Logan Blackburn, 2nd Aaron Wiltshier, 3rd Cameron Vaughn, 4th Jacob Kneebone, 5th Cohen Chase, 6th Cameron Negus, 7th Sam Greenslade, 8th Ryan Metz, 9th Nathan Sharland, 10th Brad Morris

Race 3: 1st Cameron Vaughn, 2nd Aaron Wiltshier, 3rd Jacob Kneebone, 4th Cameron Negus, 5th Logan Blackburn, 6th Cohen Chase, 7th Sean O’Connor, 8th Sam Greenslade, 9th Blair Holdt, 10th Ryan Metz, 11th Nathan Sharland.

Overall:  1st Logan Blackburn, 2nd Cameron Vaughn 3rd Aaron Wiltshier, 9th Ryan Metz,  10th Nathan Sharland (See picture at top).

MX1

Race 1:1st Cody Cooper, 2nd Billy McKenzie, 3rd Todd Waters, 4th Kirk Gibbs, 5th Brad Groombridge 6th Michael Phillips, 7th Nick Saunders, 8th Daryl Hurley, 9th Justin McDonald, 10th Damien King, 15th Campbell Bailey.. 17th Scott Barr-Smith…23rd Roydon White.

Race 2: 1st Cody Cooper, 2nd Billy Mackenzie, 3rd Kirk Gibbs, 4th Todd Waters, 5th Daryl Hurley, 6th Justin McDonald, 7th Brad Groombridge, 8th Jayden Jessup, 9th Damien King, 10th Nick Saunders…12th Jesse Donnelly..15th Campbell Bailey.. 17th Roydon White.

Race 3: 1st Cody Cooper, 2nd Todd Waters, 3rd Billy Mackenzie, 4th Kirk Gibbs,  5th Darly Hurley, 6th Justin McDonald, 7th Michael Phillips, 8th Nick Saunders, 9th Jayden Jessup, 10th Jared Guthrie…12th Jesse Donnelly,…16th Campbell Bailey, 17th Roydon White.

Overall: 1st Cody Cooper,  9th Michael Phillips, 15th Campbell Bailey, 18th Roydon White, 19th Scott Barr-Smith.

MX2

Race 1: 1st Rhys Carter, 2nd Ethan Martens, 3rd Darryll King, 4th Scott Columb, 5th Peter Broxholme, 6th Brock Winston, 7th Kieran Scheele, 8th Ryan Marmont, 9th Ryan Thompson, 10th Jay Wilson, 11th Scott Canham… 15th Campbell King, …29th Matt Kenyon,  32nd Joel Wanhill, …

Race 2: 1st Peter Broxholme, 2nd Ryan Marmont, 3rd Ethan Martens, 4th Brock Winston, 5th Darryll King, 6th Scott Columb, 7th Rhys Carter, 8th Kieran Scheele, 9th Jay Wilson, 10th Campbell King…15th Scott Canham… 28th Matt Kenyon, … 31st Joel Wanhill

Race 3: 1st Ryan Marmont, 2nd Darryll King, 3rd Brock Winston, 4th Scott Columb, 5th Rhys Carter, 6th Ethan Martens, 7th  Jay Wilson, 8th Kieran Leigh, 9th Matt Hunt, 10th Scott Canham… 14th Peter Broxholme…27th Matt Kenyon,  30th Joel Wanhill … 33rd Campbell King.

Overall: 4th Rhys Carter, 7th Peter Broxholme, 13th Scott Canham, 16th Campbell King, 27th Matt Kenyon, 29th Joel Wanhill.

For full round 3 results go to the MyLaps site

 
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