Perfect Conditions

Dirt Rider Crosscountry Round 1

maddix park mx

The area between Tokoroa and Taupo known for “the old Roger White rides” played host to the first round of the 2013 Dirt Guide Cross Country Series held last weekend. 

The track was a new one and involved 17km of tight bush riding.  There is a lot of volcanic soil as well as clay so, even in wet weather, it all holds up well.

More than 140 riders took part in the 3 races for minis, juniors and seniors.

The Overall was won by tough full throttle rider Jason Davis from Whangamata ahead of Chris Power from Paeroa and Tauranga’s Reece Burgess.

Chris and Reece took first and second respectively in the Expert 4 Stroke Over class.

“Second in the overall probably isn’t what I wanted but I did have a pretty good day” says Chris, “the conditions were near perfect - moist, little dust and no bog ”.

Reece enjoyed his bike and enjoyed the race. “There was no look lap at this track”, he reports, “ so it was a race to the line on what was a tight start area with  only 1 straight to sort out the order into the trees.  A good start was essential but even without  the best spot on the line, I still got out in the top 10. There were a few safe places to pass so I did what was required and just waited for the excitement to wear down and make clean passes.  The track was tight and line choice was important with many bumpy ruts to get stuck in. You had to choose the ones you needed, which meant it was a bit hit and miss to start with. On the last lap I wanted to turn it up a notch if the energy was there and it was but I found this led to a number of small errors which cost as much time as I saved due to the tight line choices, so I had some fun and backed off.”

The Expert 2 Stroke Over class had another Tauranga rider on the podium.  Scott Barr-Smith finished 3rd (11th overall) in a comeback to cross-country after 3 years away. “I was really excited to get back out on the trails but it came as a bit of a shock to the body,” he laughs. “The track was heaps of fun being as it was tight, rutty and fairly technical with a mixture of mud and would you believe it some very dusty sections!“  A slight slip on a tree root sent Scott into a tree smashing his helmet peak and breaking his roll offs. He used his head to save his previously injured shoulder and ended up a bit dazed so, with a few minutes to go, he opted out of the 5th lap. “However”, he concludes, “I was happy to get some points on the board and will continue the training to try to move up a few places at the next round in a month’s time”.

In 2nd place in the class was Trials champion Jake Whitaker from Wellington with Tom Evans (Hamilton) and John Haynes (Rotorua), also trials riders in 8th and 9th.  There is a trend for the young trials riders to move over to cross country and enduro.  They are following in the footsteps of Chris Birch and Paul Whibley who started their motorcycling careers in a similar fashion.

Sandwiched between in 6th place in the class and 23rd overall was Tauranga’s Dion Sheely, who didn't have a particularlygood day because of vision issues. He kept hitting things and falling off and lost 4 minutes on his last lap.

In the Expert Vets, Andrew Schuit from Whakatane missed out on 3rd place by 1 minute. The class was won by Dougy Herbert followed by Shane McDonald and Mark De Lautour.

Young Tauranga riders were well placed in the Intermediate 2 Stroke Under class, which was won by Ryan Scherer from Putaruru. Aden Sheely had a fairly good day and finished 6th while the battle for bragging rights between Reuben Steens and Leo Van Lierop  fired them into 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

This friendly cross-generational rivalry carried over to the Intermediate Vets 50+ class where their Dads Marcel Steens and Pieter Van Lierop finished 6th and 9th

"Brilliant ! Awesome ! Loved it !" says Marcel. "I had a good start, 7th into the trees but my fitness lets me down, I can't sustain the pace. The weather was a bonus. Not much eveidence of the heavy rain they'd had the night before."

Murray Jensen took 2nd place in the same Vet class ahead of eternal foe Gordon Brooker but behind Brenton May from Auckland.

Eldon Frost (Tauranga) was 4th in the Intermediate 2 Stroke Over class.

Scott McGregor (Te Puke) was 1st in the Intermediate4 Stroke Under. 2nd was Jacob Heath (Whakatane) and Tauranga’s  Bradley Thomas was 11thBrett Costello (left) from Tauranga was 10th in the Intermediate 4 Stroke Over class.

Drisana Sheely was 4th in the Intermediate Ladies behind Rotorua’s  Sarah Fox and Edwina Wooderson. Natasha Cairns (Thames) was 54th overall and the convincing winner in the women’s  class. Drisana was leading at the beginning but a series of late nights meeting study assignment deadlines meant her energy level ran out.

Round 2 will be held on Tar Hill, just south of Tokoroa on May 18 and the third and final round back at Ohakuri on june 15th.

Full results are on Silver Bullet http://www.silver-bullet.co.nz/news.php?id=4781

 
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