Whibley Wins

GNCC Round 4

maddix park mx

 

A very successful round 4 of the GNCC was held at Maddix Park on Saturday.    Mike Sheely and his team had opened up brand new tracks and technical  sections and linked them into a new loop which kept all riders on their toes. Because of the dry conditions, competitors in the three races had to contend with a very dusty start on the MX track before heading off into the bush. At the end of each lap the Expert Pro Elite class also had to contend with an obstacle enduro cross  course of logs, tyres and tight turns.  This section was optional but popular with the Clubmans & Rookies class as well, much to the delight of the spectators who saw a variety of techniques used with varying degrees of success. 

Paul Whibley may have been a little in holiday mode at the beginning, sitting in second place behind current class leader Chris Power.  However when he decided to put on a spurt, he certainly did so and all of a sudden had a one minute lead and demonstrated the class and quality of riding that has made him the USA GNCC champion. Chris, who did the fastest lap in 19.18 mins, ended the race in 3rd position, sandwiched between 2 local riders, the up and coming Scott Barr-Smith who took advantage of a Power mishap to come second and the well known Reece Burgess who was 4th.

Tauranga riders, in fact, did extremely well at the event. Congratulations to them all. Danny Merriman easily won the second race outright, completing 7 laps of the course to the other riders 6.  The Waterhouse sisters Jessie and Casey took 1st and 2nd places respectively in the Senior Ladies' class. Drisana Sheely had been  leading this class at the first lap but a crash and a wrong fuel mistake at the pit stop cost her dearly. In the respective Clubmans age categories, Savannah Blake had a 4th placing, Shirley Sheely a 1st, Bryce Fisher a 5th, Jeggs Ryder a 2nd, Danyel Griffin a 2nd with Chris Foster  6th, Derek Griffin a 2nd with Neville Trow 3rd, Gavin Weston  2nd with Ross Hawke 3rd and in the Clubmans 21-34 age group Craig Ryder was 1st and Phil Shilton a creditable 5th. Phil has been a national trials champion and it was his first cross country race.

The Youth classes raced a shorter but equally challenging course.  Successful riders included Jordan Milsom 1st, Chris Merriman 3rd and Max Wealleans 4th in the 7-9 years and Max Emmet 7th and David Moloney 8th in the 12-13 years.

Anyone wondering about the identity of the superfast steward who cleared the logs and tyres with ease then was gone should know they had seen  Jason Davis. Jason is currently on antibiotics and could not race so helped out as a steward for a couple of laps.

The final round of this GNCC series will be held at Maramarua on February 6th 2010.

Check out the full results on www.silver-bullet.co.nz or www.poweradventures.co.nz

 
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