Smart Riding = 1st Place
Dirt Guide Series Round 2
Central North Island Dirt Guide Series 28/5/2011
Situated between Taupo and Tokoroa, the soil is able to handle the wet. The track is scoria based and 100% amongst the pine trees. This is a tighter track than most with few places to rest and tree roots become exposed towards the end. If you want to succeed here you need to have your eyes peeled for good lines.
And Tauranga’s Reece Burgess did succeed. It was extremely close, but Reece won the overall and his class, the Expert 4stoke overs, and is now leading the TriSeries.
Reece filed this report.
“Coming into the race I was keen to see if this clutch was going to help my result as I was expecting and it was a prime track to find out. After walking the first 100m it was evident the soil had drained well but every single corner was still saturated. A good start would be a key here or vision could be an issue if the water gets forced into your goggles from other bikes.
After the shotgun start, the bike took 5 turns to start which is unusually long so I had 3 corners to pass as many as possible before filing into the tighter tracks. Running wide I managed to pass 3 bikes then a further 5 in the next 2 corners before the pines. This took me to about 12th.
Since I pushed a bit hard at the start of the last race and paid for it at the end, I figured focusing on keeping clean and vision clear from the other bikes, saving something for a later lap might be more beneficial. I moved up cautiously only passing when it was easy then when I cleared the main group there was a sizable gap to the final 4 so I picked up the pace a bit. Before the lap was out I had them in sight.
One straight was a bit of disaster. I was clipping the tips of the bumps when a well hidden log crossing the track and covered in soil kicked the rear wheel up. Already being high in the rev range, I could not bring the front up and it landed in the next dip doing a full “endo”. I got up fast and back on the bike before I could work out if it hurt or not. Riding off I was seeing stars for the next few km with the bars twisted and clutch lever pushed downward. It would be another lap until I would learn the cause so until then it was business as usual.
I knew if I relaxed I could skip the pits. I suspected the other riders would pit if not just to change goggles and it worked. It was thought that pitting was shorter than the bypass but they still needed to stop and I rolled straight into 2nd place.
In the last National, Adrian Smith had a 15min lead before blowing his oil line so I expected he had some pace and he was pouring it on to try to break away. I could see he was pushing hard and the pace we were running at was risky so I backed off till he was just in sight thinking that he would slow if he was not being paced but we were still going fast. You need to finish to win and sure enough Adrian was running too hot and went down so I made sure to put in a solid lap to keep the others away from me while I was in the pits.
At the end of the lap I was still in the lead and needed to pit. The pace was enough to keep the lead after an efficient pit stop. I was expecting to be passed as I had made 3 places by skipping the pits prior. I headed out in 1st place which I kept to the finish”.
Reece has now taken over the lead in the tri series so it will all come down to the third and final race at Whakamaru at the end of June. The showdown will probably be between Reece and second place getter John O’Dea. They have now won one round each.
Other Bay riders at the event included:
Joel Byrne who came 2nd in the Expert 4 stroke unders and is now 1st overall in his class.
Andrew Schuit came 5th in the Expert vet class (won by Sean Clarke) and is running 3rd overall.
Hayden McGregor came 3rd and is 5th overall – he missed the ist round.
Drisana Sheely came in 3rd to maintain her overall third placing.
Juniors Ross Cossey and Reuben Steens came 4th and 9th respectively in the 14-16 over classes. Reuben has moved into 7th place overall while Ross is 11th, having missed Round 1.
But what’s up next for Reece ?
“The next event is an Enduro at Riverhead this coming weekend and I am hoping to put in a good effort. Riverhead is well known for being a tough event. It’s usually a maze of roots and hard packed clay so let’s hope for a dry week to make life easier. Now we have a lot lower light when racing, I’m checking out the no dimple lenses”.
