Results from the Extravaganza
North Island Mini Champs - Juniors - Seniors
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Tauranga has two new North Island mini champions. The organization of the Mini Champs was taken up by the Taupo Club after Masterton’s cancellation and the mini champs were incorporated into this weekend’s Labour Weekend Extravaganza.
In the 4-7 Years 50cc MX class, Jacob Hunt, pictured at left holding his trophy with Tauranga KTM dealer and sponsor Matt Kneesch, made it 1-1-1-2 to clinch the title ahead of his friend and rival Jontae Carroll (2-2-2-1). According to Jacob the track was rough at the end. “There were really big bumps after the 65ccs had been around,” he says. Jacob will be riding the same bike at the Huntly Mini Nationals in November and again at the Sumercross in December. Then he will start riding in the 65cc class while at the same time continuing in the Division 2 50cc class.
Jacob crashed in the last race at Taupo which meant a happy Jontae Carroll was able to collect on the new pair of shoes his dad had promised him if he won the last race. In the 6-8 Years 53cc MX, Luke McClymont, perhaps inspired by his future status as a Factory Rider, held off strong competition from fellow Tauranga rider Trent Duggan and topped the podium. Harrison Forrester-Moore won 3 of his 4 races to take the 7-11 years Trail title. Josh McClymont finished just off the podium in 4th in the 7-8 years 65cc class.
The 65cc class is the biggest group by far with close to 60 riders in the 9-11 years class. Jack McClymont (6th) and Chris Merriman (10th) were top 10 finishers along with Connor Hawkless (6th) in the support class. Further back, Connor Lucas and Xavier Anderson battled each other for 16th and 17th places respectively.
Congratulations to all the riders and in particular the new champions. The Mini Nationals are coming up fast - Huntly is on the 14th November - so go hard guys!
The Junior races at the Taupo Extravaganza were also held on Saturday on a track that was “groomed to perfection with jumps that were nice and big”. Cameron Forlong (see race report) and Logan Blackburn (see race report) were the top local performers.
Logan qualified second fastest, got three awesome hole-shot starts but wasn’t helped by a “down” in the back sawdust plus a front wheel washout so finished second overall behind Dion Picard in the 15-16 years 125cc class.
Cameron Forlong had a clean sweep in the 12-13 years 85cc class. In timed practice, Cameron top qualified by a little over 2 sec a lap ahead of the 2nd qualifier and so had 1st pick of the gate all day. He followed this with 3 very good starts resulting in 3 holeshots and from there went on to pull a very large gap by the end of the first lap in each race, controlling it from the front and ensuring 3 consecutive wins. It was a great day to see him ride this well and to hear Neil Ritchie (the commentator) giving him credit for an outstanding achievement.
In the same group, Matt Kenyon made the top 10 (10th) with Evan Hawkless finishing mid field out of 34 riders.
In the 125cc 12-14 years, Aaron Wiltshier was 4th, Cam McCaskie 9th, Max Emett 12th and Matt Kenyon 13th. In the 8-11 years 85cc class, Tyler Steiner was 13th, Jovhann Phillips 14th and Trent Haywood 18th. In the Junior Women’s races, Casey Waterhouse just missed the podium, finishing 4th, whilst her sister Jessie came home 11th.
The highlight of the senior programme was the quality contest between Ben Townley and Cody Cooper. Ben took the first win, Cody the second so the pressure was on in the last race. Cody Cooper finished in first place and topped the podium for the day. Can we claim them both as locals?
For comments on the senior races, go to the blog pages dated 24th October 2010 or to www.bikesportnz.com or www.mnz.co.nz . Full results for all races are on www.mylaps.com
