NZ Motocross Nationals - Round 2

 
NZ Motocross Nationals - Round 2

VOL.37 - 12 OCTOBER

NZ Motocross Nationals - Round 2 at Rotorua this weekend. I am told the narrow parts of the track has been widened to bring it up to 'national' standards. Damien King will switch from the Subway Yamaha YZ250 two stroke to the YZ250F. Shaun Fogarty is back riding the Team West Racing KXF450 then the weekend after at Taupo's Extravaganza in both classes - MX1 and MX2. Cheyne Boyd will not be there due to a dislocated shoulder and Jonathan Llewellyn who has a fractured femur. Unconfirmed but believe Troy Carroll has also been injured.

After the first round of the Motocross Championship held in Timaru, there has been a change of programme for Round Two. The main difference is that Qualifying and Practice have been separated and noise testing has been moved 30 minutes earlier.

The programme will be as follows:
Saturday. Noise Testing 7.30 - 10.00am. Sign On 7.30-10.00am. Riders briefing 10.05am. Practice immediately after sign on. One session per class 15 minutes. It may be necessary for each class to be split into A & B Groups, riders will be notified of this at sign on.
Qualifying. One session per class 20 minutes.
Race One. Women 15 minutes + 1 lap. A Grade 12 minutes + 1 lap. B Grade 12 minutes + 1 lap

Sunday
Riders Briefing 8.30am. Practice 10 mins 9.00am. Racing 10.15am
Race One. 500cc, 125cc and 250cc 20 minutes + 1 lap
Race Two. 500cc, Women, 125cc, A Grade, 250cc, B Grade. National classes are 20 minutes + 1 lap, Women 15 minutes and A & B grade 12 minutes.
Race Three - repeat of race 2.
Presentations: Track side presentations will be made after the third round of racing on the Sunday.

A & B Grade will be a bit thin based on entries but not as thin as the Women (no pun intended) with only 11 entries. I have a suggestion to boost the numbers for the next two rounds. Invite the 14-16yrs Junior Women as well. I can think of five girls who would be on the pace - Alicia McLauchlan, Casey Waterhouse, Nikita Knight and the Greenslade twins Julie & Kate.

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There are 31 entries in the National 125cc - 3 from the South Island.
There are 59 entries in the National 250cc - 4 from the South Island.
There are 31 entries in the National 500cc - 4 from the South Island and 6 from Australia - now down to 4.

The following comes up in conversation many-a-time. Without going back into the numbers most of those riders went to Timaru at considerable personal cost. Take out the Aussies and only 8.7% of Rotorua's entries come from the South Island. Why not have all rounds in the North Island and the North Islanders all pay an additional amount to subsidise the cost of travel of those South Islanders ? Say free Cook Straight passes and a nominal dollar amount for petrol/diesel to get to Picton. From Wellington everyone has to pay their own way. If there was a round in the Wellington area the 'northerners' would have to pay their own way anyway. Yes, I appreciate that does not help the South Island's motocross cause but.....

Oceania and the NZ team: I have been advised that Nikki Scott has withdrawn from the NZ Team. It is also brought to my attention that Emma Davis was selected to represent NZ at Oceania but a slipped disc means an enforced two months layoff. Emma has also received another University Sporting Blue which assists her financially at the Waikato University where she studies engineering.

Gossip. Daryl Hurley and long time partner Jo are engaged to be wed - congratulations to you both.

My comment in Vol.35 re Brisbane M2R Supercross where I said "Matt Moss (CDR Yamaha) - Yamaha bids farewell to Moss who has a ride in the USA." Matt Cousins, Media Manager for Yamaha Racing in Australia pointed out that Matt is in fact leaving CDR for Suzuki and Jake Moss is already in the USA riding for the Lucas Oil Yamaha Lites Team.

Latest DRD magazine has an 'exclusive' on the retirement of Darryll King. DK has just had his foot 'fused' and I am willing to bet that he will make a come-back !! - for the 2009 FIM World Vets Senior Cup (40-50yrs inclusive) which is an FIM World Championship.

The US Open starts in Las Vegas today and Ricky Carmichael will not be there, nor will he be at the Bercy Supercross in November as planned. RC has been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Carmichael's condition was more than likely brought on by his recent intense schedule of motorcycle and car racing, his training regime, and possibly a shortage of rest with the arrival of their newborn twins. Suzuki had stepped up the testing on the new fuel-injected RM-Z450 in order to premier it at the Open. CFS is a debilitating and complex disorder characterised by profound fatigue that is not improved by bed rest and that may be worsened by physical or mental activity. CFS affects more than one million people in the United States.

James Stewart will ride the U.S. Open, his first race since recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. After a couple of weeks off the bike for rehabilitation, Stewart made a quick recovery and has been putting time in at the team's test track in Corona, California. "Since James hasn't raced since the end of July, we wanted to use this race as a warm-up for next year," said Team Manager Mike Fisher. "Three months is a long time to not race, so we want him to go out there and get a 20-lap race under his belt. If we didn't ride here, it would be a very long time between races."

L&M/San Manuel/Yamaha rider Chad Reed will line up as one of the favourites to take out event honours. Reed will square off against James Stewart in a continuation of their Supercross duel which raged for much of last season. The 24-year-old Australian went back to back in 2003/04, and feels as his form and fitness will help him to contend for his third event victory, equaling the record set by rival Ricky Carmicheal. The Aussie has been putting in the hard yards in training over the past few months, which included a positive showing at the MX des Nation's at Budd's Creek. Reed wasn't able to convert his opening moto second place to an overall result, taken out of contention by another rider in the final moto, but feels as though he has the necessary momentum to challenge this weekend. "The U.S. Open is a great event," said Reed. "It's a two-night race with such prestige and history. When I moved to America, it was a race I really looked forward to competing in. It receives great publicity, so after winning the race in '03 and '04, it helped boost my profile in this sport."

The event consists of a series of practice sessions, followed by heats, semi-finals, a LCQ and the 20-lap main event with the victor taking a US$100,000 in prize purse.

32 years old legendary rider Norifumi 'Norick' Abe, one of Japan's most successful motorcycle road racers, collided with a truck while riding a scooter in Kanagawa and died from the resulting injuries last Sunday afternoon. Local police say the collision occurred on a four-lane municipal road, when the driver of the truck made an illegal u-turn. Abe won his first Grand Prix title 1996 and went on to conquer the title twice more.

Talking Vegas, I know that is the next stop for the MIND THE GAP 'boys' who we have not heard of since MXoN.  contact with Tim Gould and this is an 'edited' update.

"After driving for 4000 miles and spending US$ 1000 on petrol we finally made it to Washington DC for the Des Nations. We picked up our Swiss mate Alan Boechat from Washington Airport and then headed to Buds Creek on Friday night.

We were over 5 guys all staying in hotel Ford E350 so we went to Walmart and splashed out for two new tents, only to find when we went to put them up that they were mini junior tents, so they were bluddy useless.

Saturday was practice and qualifying, the track was mint, it had been deep ripped and mixed with saw dust. Townley was on a mission, he came out and went nuts from his 1st lap, there was nothing between him and Villopoto. Half way thru the practice he ate it hard coming down Henry's Hill, he sat in the mechanics area for about 10 minutes then did a few more hard laps. Turns out he did his AC joint in the crash so he was out.

Hurley was up last for practice, he looked a bit rusty, then about 10 minutes into his practice he got out of control over sum roller bumps, his legs came flying off and he slammed into the up face of a uphill triple. He was out cold for about 15 seconds, he was out for so long that he started to slide down the hill. He tried to say that he was just winded but they didn't believe him so with him and Ben out we were all over.

Saturday night everyone was getting on it in the camp grounds, Cooper was trying to see how far around the track he could get on one of the Red Bull golf carts, unfortunately he got stopped before he got to the track.

Sunday the place was fully packed, Villopoto fully dominated the racing, its hard to say how dominate he was. In the 1st race he was 3 sec a lap faster than Carmichael! RC grabbed the holeshot in his last race, however he didn't check out anywhere as fast as Villopoto.

Sunday night we crammed all six of us into the E350 and drove all night to Ohio to got on the worlds biggest rollercoaster, when we got there in the morning they said it's not open on Monday's, so we were bumbed! We drowned our sorrows and continued driving all day and night and arrived at Denver Colorado Tuesday morning. I jumped out of the van in my t-shirt, board shorts and jandals that I was wearing when it was hot when we left from Washington, went into Starbucks for breakfast and everyone thought I was retarded, they were all wearing shoes, flash pants and jackets, it suppose it was a bit cold.

We stopped off at Vail Colorado and checked out some beaver work they made - dropped sum huge trees and made some sick dams in the river. Me and Dev went for a swim in one of their dams, was sum of the coldest water I ever been in. Had a few beers at the pub that night then continued on driving home, we stopped off at the Grand Cannon, which isn't as exciting as it looks on Joe Dirt. We finally made it home 1am Thurs morning, so took us a solid 3 days straight driving to get back, think the whole trip was 7600 miles.

We worked out that over the last two weeks we have been solid driving for about 7 days, and also been sleeping in the van and been living on American fast food every meal, so feeling as fat and unfit as I have ever felt before, the van inside of the van needs a good air out as well !!!!"

Ends

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