Summercross 2010 Day 2

Seniors, Vets & Youth MX

maddix park mx

Day Two of Summercross had a lot less summer and a lot more rain, most of the day in fact, which made the track a mess.  Part way through the day machinery was brought in to clear the sludge and part of the track was cordoned off.  There were lots of hard to spot holes and ruts.  “One minute you were going the right way, then suddenly you were in the wrong rut” said one rider.  Bikes were clean on the start line but unrecognizable after the first corner.

The top guys were still going pretty fast but didn’t have their dry day speeds. The key to winning was firstly to get a good start and secondly not to fall off. There was no room for error.  If you fell, if you made a mistake, it was pretty difficult to gain it back again. But even the good guys fell off.

In the MX 1 class, Michael Phillips owes his success to a couple of good starts; he even had a 30 sec lead at one point. Josh Coppins did not have a great day; he seemed to struggle with the track conditions. The positions changed with each race but the top 5 ended up with 1st Michael Phillips (1-1-5), 2nd Justin McDonald (2-4-1), 3rd Cody Cooper (5-2-2), 4th Josh Coppins (6-3-3) and 5th Shaun Fogarty (4-6-4).

Local rider Scott Barr-Smith, only 3 weeks back from injury, stayed upright and finished in 7th position (12-7-8) whilst Robby Stewart from Te Puke was 16th (21-20-18). "I qualified 14th which meant a gate pick of 14th for the rest of the day," says Scott,  "but as the gates were so wet I wasn’t too worried. Starts on the four strokes are something I have always struggled with. In all three races I consistently got outside the top 20 but by the first lap was back in the top 12. I had some very good battles with Blake Gillard and Bjarne Frederiksen. Overall the day was a lot of fun and I enjoyed being back on a moto cross track".

The MX2 class races were even more of a mix. Kayne Lamont, Damien King and Jonathan Martelli each won a race but, with DNFs in race 3 from both Kayne (bike trouble) and Damien (shoulder injury?), the title honours went to Brad Groombridge (2-8-2), with Peter Broxholme 2nd (6-2-4), Martelli 3rd (8-9-1), Jayden Jessup 4th (7-3-4) and Nick Saunders 5th (5-5-6). Broxy had been leading but fell in race 3.

The weather and track conditions helped to lessen the gap between the pro elite riders and the next echelon. Ryan Metz likes the wet and even after an off in race 3 managed to come back and end the day in 8th position (10-11-13). Danny Merriman had problems with track gunge jamming his front brakes in race 2 but finished 12th (12-19-9). Both these young Tauranga riders are pleased with their results in a class that began with over 70 riders. Tory MacRae was 11th in the MX2 Support class.

The Vets and the Youth MX were the classes to show consistency in the racing results.

In the Vets 35+, Darryl King once again showed he is a force to be reckoned with, winning all 3 races ahead of Mike Cotter with three second placings.  Then came Cameron Negus, Daniel Scrimgoeur and Darren Caphill (Whakatane) who spent the day swapping 3rd, 4th and 5th positions.

The first Tauranga rider was Keith Paterson (6-8-8), then Scott Atchison (27-11-11) and Brian Breingan (18-19-DNF). Keith, as promised, rode his vintage 1986 Honda 500. “It was probably too hard to ride for the conditions”, he says, “I nearly went over the handlebars, it wanted to kick me off, but I didn’t fall”.

Tauranga rider Rob Sutherland took second place for the day and his first race win prevented Tony Cooksley from getting a clean sweep in the Vets 45+. Third place went to Rotorua’s Mark Patterson.  Tauranga’s Tim Peebles came in 12th.

Ethan Martens dominated in the Youth MX class.  Dion Picard’s bad last race left him 4th behind Ryan Thompson and Jacob Kneebone.  Local rider Logan Blackburn finished 13th.

The weather perhaps made the day frustrating  for the riders who felt handicapped by the track conditions but hey, that’s the luck of the draw and that’s racing.

Full results are on www.mylaps.com . Andy McGechan has an article on www.bikesportnz.com .

 
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