Resilience / Fun
Patetonga on the Peat School MX
Resilience had to be the word of the day at last Thursday’s Patentonga on the Peat School MX.
Organizer Amanda Fitzpatrick from Hauraki Plains College apologized for not finding the right weather switch but the close to 180 riders who battled in the rain, wind, cold and slush plus the intermittent patches of bright sunshine still had smiles on their faces. Black smiles, but definitely smiles.
Teams ranged in size from the 19 strong Tauranga Boys’ College and 16 strong Hauraki Plains College teams to the one man teams like Harrison Still from Bethlehem College, Sam Kiltscher from St Kentigern School, along with Daniel Speck from Lynfield College. The teams came from 37 schools as far reaching away as Gisborne, Te Kauwhata and Kaipara.
Otumoetai College won first place in the top school
competition and there were individual class trophies as well but all the riders
who slipped, slid, ate dirt then resolutely lifted up their peat-caked bikes
and soldiered on – often several times in a lap – were winners too! Lucky there
were no hills.
Goggles or not was something of a dilemma. With goggles meant limited vision because of non-stop mud splattering; without goggles meant limited vision because of squinting to stop “stuff” getting in your eyes.
School MX days bring together both the dedicated MX riders and the trail riders. Thursday was a good day for the trail riders to shine. They were the ones standing up on their bikes and coping well in the mud.
Reuben Steens (Tauranga Boys’ College) was a prime example. The
soil was a different colour and texture but the mud-caked-face feeling was
familiar. Still on a high from his GNCC win on the Saturday prior, Reuben really “smoked
it” at Patetonga, topping the podium and winning 2 of his 3 races in the
Int 125 class.
Mitchell Bond, also on the Tauranga Boys’ team, had a really cool time, was going just “awesome” and did amazingly well. He did encounter a hiccup when he fell off in the pouring rain and was penalized when, after picking up his bike, he headed the wrong way and cut out a section of the track. But Mitchell says he really had a ball and it was more about the whole day, and “he came home in one piece” adds his Dad.
Daniel Molloy (Tauranga Boys’ College), in only his second school MX, found the conditions slippery but fun. “It helps you improve”, he says, “you learn in the wet and the slush”.
Harrison Still (Bethlehem College) agrees. He set the 4th fastest time in the practice but when the wet came he was “pretty useless” plus he was handicapped by a faulty transponder. His best ride was a 4th, despite one lap of the race spent virtually on the ground disentangling a bike from a pileup with himself at the bottom. “Great character building” was his Dad’s comment.
Toni Nelson is a trail rider from the small 5 person team from Katikati College. “The practice was good”, she reports, “but on the start line of the first race, it started to rain and was so cold I thought it was going to hail. But the day was great fun even though it got really, really muddy, it was sometimes difficult to see and I fell off an average of once a lap.” Toni is also very proud to have finished all 3 of her races. She came 4th, one point off 3rd, in the Women’s section.
.JPG)
Shayden Candy (Tauranga Boys' College), pictured at left, is quite at home in the mud. As
a newbie to racing, he started the day in the novice section but his way-out-in-
front win and fast lap time meant he moved up to the Intermediate 125 class for
races 2 and 3.
But, in race 1, his 14 year old bike had blown a big hole in the expansion chamber and nearly melted the piston. He finished the day on 1/3 of the power and with an 8th place for 2 starts. He absolutely loved it.
Not all MXers found the mud and the flat track ultra challenging. The Otumoetai College team has a stable of regular MX competitors.
Cam McCaskie was one of two riders who had clean sweeps in
their classes – the other being the Women’s winner, Dana Andrews, from
Gisborne. Cam was first in the Pro 250cc
class but Matt Kenyon won bragging rights for the fastest lap time as well as
first place in the Pro 125cc class. It didn’t matter that Matt Kenyon and his bike parted company
in race 3 (photo left) , his wins in the first two races and then his 3rd was a
big factor in Otumoetai College winning first place in the team event. Their
wins plus podium finishes for Brad Holmes riding a
totally new bike and taking second in the intermediate 250, new member to the
team Evan Hawkless with his third overall 125cc pro finish, Matt Nielson’s
second in the 150 Beginners and Tristan Tolley leading out two of his races and finishing sixth overall
plus great finishes by Cameron Farley, Adam Greenslade, Jayden Rodgers (another new rider) and Chris
"p chicken" Pederson all contributed to the Otumoetai College
success.
.jpg)
“It was a great day by all the team
yesterday,” Coach Cliff Tolley states proudly. “Some really fantastic stuff. It’s
the team effort that counts and we had Christina Cameron there in her wheel
chair cleaning mud off the bikes and sharing her own riding gear, Margaux
Tolley helping with fuelling and riding gear and also taking videos and also
Stepfan Dwayne on photography. We mustn’t
forget either all the parents efforts for getting bikes built and ready
for battle, putting up tents and feeding the troops plus all the lead up
efforts and training by Eric Farley and Juli Anne Tolley for the photos and
behind the scene stuff. But what really stood out was that our Otumoetai Team was
recognized both on the track for the racing but also off the track for our
positive attitude, politeness and helpfulness.”
Team spirit is a vital element , too, for Amanda Fitzpatrick- it
was great to see her team, Hauraki Plains College, sporting their pink mohawks
in the mud.
“Great teams are built on respect” she reiterates “I am passionate about building MX in schools for the main reason of keeping boys interested, on the right path and at school, for me our Hauraki Plains College team has never been about how good you are on your bike it’s about wanting to ride no matter what level you are, giving it a go with our “HPC Never Give Up attitude” – we are resilient and ride with respect. Highlights for me are seeing kids grow from trainings and their confidence building. An awesome attitude will take them anywhere.”
“MX in schools is so positive”, Amanda continues. “ You could ask any number of teachers at our college about the difference it has made in a number of our boys to get them on track with their school work – if they want to ride their bikes, the school work comes first and they all understand and agree to that.
It is also about trying extremely hard to run Fun and Fair and Safe tournaments. We did have a hiccup at the end of the Peat Day but that will not happen again. The rules will be set in concrete next time.”
Amanda also wishes to pass on huge thanks
to all the sponsors, staff, parents who said “Yes, no problem, we can do that”
but especially to the Wenn Family. and Jason in particular for the total flexibility
re setting up the paddock and also for towing cars out and the ice cream truck
in and out!
Check out the photos on the Maddix Park Gallery page but please note; the black specks on the photos is mud, not an invasion of birds in Hitchcockian proportions.
Full results are here.
Check out the video clip of the action at Patetonga on the Peat.
