Success for Sam

NZ Mini Nationals 2014

Congratulations to Sam Meredith, who returned from the South Island with some extra luggage – a second place trophy for his podium place finish  in the  9-11 Years 65cc class at the 2014 Mini MX Nationals. He didn’t manage to beat Invercargill’s Jack Symon who clean swept the class but he rode consistently and well to keep at bay the rest of the very serious competition which included Luke Freemantle (Napier) and Lewey Bell, top 5 riders he has been battling since they all started racing on their 50cc machines.

For Sam, this was probably his last champs on the 65 as he is anticipating a move to a bigger 85cc bike in the near future. For younger brother Wade, however, it is just the beginning.  He turned 9 in July so competed at the 2014 Nationals mainly for the experience. He is really happy with his results – a 17^th place overall but with two 14th places on the second day – and already looking forward to the 2015 champs which will be held in the North Island.

Ex Tauranga rider, Tyler Wiremu had a fall in the first race which knocked him back a little. He finished 7th overall with his bestfinish a third.

Congratulations, too, to the Southland Club who ran a very well organized event and were very lucky with the weather. Brilliant sunshine counteracted the overnight rain and the track was “rad”.  The majority of the riders were, for obvious reasons,  from the South Island but there were smatterings from the North in all the classes.  The racing was very close and, in several cases, podium positons and placings had to be decided on countback.

Mum, Nicki,  reports that were “spot prizes for every kid that rode at the event. Sam and Wade's names were both drawn pretty early on and they were so lucky - both picked the mystery KTM bags which had brand new sets of Thor racing gear inside so awesome spot prizes for them!”

Nicki also reports that MNZ were there doing bike checks. “Wade's was one of the bikes randomly chosen for checking.  I don't think they found any bikes that had been modified (well, we didn't hear about any) so that was good news that all the kids were racing on a level playing field.”

The Merediths took advantage of the school holidays to take the break in the South Island.  They ferried across the Cook Strait, went down the West Coast, walked up the Franz Josef Glacier, visited Queenstown and took in all the gorgeous sightseeing and scenery the South Island has to offer before ending up in Invercargill.  It was a 3,300 odd km round trip that they accomplished in a week.

The main aim of the trip, however, was the participation of Sam and Wade in the Nationals. The Merediths were the only Tauranga family to make the trek but at the track they formed a small Bay of Plenty enclave, pitting between the Owen family and the Dodunskis from Rotorua.

Full results are on MyLaps  and Andy McGechan has presented a report.