Yamaha Riders Dominate At Nationals Opener

Yamaha Riders Dominate At Nationals Opener

FEBRUARY 12, 2013: It was a Yamaha festival at round one of the New Zealand Motocross Championships near Timaru on Sunday.

Riders of the distinctive blue and white bikes finished the day top of two of the three championship categories and in a strong runner-up spot in the third after a brutal afternoon of unforgiving race action.

It finished a Yamaha 1-2-3 at the top of the 125cc class as Otago's Courtney Duncan dominated, leading home fellow Yamaha stars Cameron Vaughan, of Rotorua, and Logan Blackburn, of Te Puke.

Yamaha also finished 1-2 at the top of the MX2 (250cc) class with Queenstown's Scotty Columb edging out Hamilton's defending national champion Darryll King.

In the MX1 (450cc) division, flying Scotsman Billy MacKenzie got stronger as the day wore on and the New Zealand championships first-time became more familiar with the track, finishing the day runner-up to class leader Cody Cooper, of Mount Maunganui.

The most impressive individual performance of the day was that of Columb, the 29-year-old finishing 1-2-1 in his three MX2 races to construct a solid 10-point lead over veteran King.

His fight-back from a first-corner crash in race two was the stuff of legends, Columb powering his way through almost the entire field to reach the leading bunch just a couple of laps later.

The JCR Yamaha Racing team rider eventually forced his way through to second spot.

It was almost a similar story in race three where Columb found himself outside the top 10 at the start. He pushed past nine riders to claim the win.

"My conditioning is great and the bike is fantastic. I have a great team behind me, my mechanic is awesome and (former GP star and current Australian MX1 class champion) Josh Coppins is a brilliant team manager.

"I can't wait for round two at Patetonga (in two weeks’ time). Bring it on."

Columb's MX1 class team-mate MacKenzie showed exceptional ability to improve with each outing. He finished 5-3-2 at Timaru to place himself solidly in second spot in the championship chase, nine points adrift of class leader Cody Cooper, of Mount Maunganui.

"I'm absolutely pumped with those results today," said MacKenzie. "I thought I was going to hit the wall (pain and fatigue barrier) in that last race but I just kept pushing."

JCR Yamaha Racing Team boss Coppins said he was "extremely proud of all the boys".

"A special shout out to Billy. The improvement he showed during the day was sensational. I am thankful to Yamaha and to all our supporters. It's a good start to the series and we just need to keep focussed now."

The JCR Yamaha racing team is supported by Yamaha Motor New Zealand, Yamalube, GYTR, Josh Coppins Racing, Yamaha Motor Finance, Star Moving, Holland’s Collision Centre, Fox, Alpinestars, Atlas, POD, Racetech Plastics, Renthal, DID, NGK, Pirelli, Motomuck, ilabb, Factory Effex, Boyesen, Pro Circuit and Matrix.

Queenstown's Scotty Columb (JCR Yamaha Racing YZ250F), on his way to victory at Timaru on Sunday. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

ENDS

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