Castrol Honda Red Riders On The Podium At Taupo

Castrol Honda Red Riders On The Podium At Taupo

It's not a national championship event but the very best of New Zealand's junior, women and senior motocrosser riders descended on Taupo over Labour Weekend for the Taupo Motorcycle Club's 22nd Motocross Extravaganza.

Saturday was for the juniors and women and Honda Racing was there on Saturday with New Zealand Junior 125cc and 150cc Champion, Cameron Dillon.

The sun was out at 6.30am melting the heavy frost covering the pit area. By 7.30am it was overcast and that southerly was straight off the mountain.

Dillon did not disappoint, for in the 12-14yrs 125 Class, he came home first in all three races so had the perfect score of 75.

Saturday night was wild and windy and in the morning it had not abated, hence no frost, so the temperature was more comfortable. The wind however was a threat to rider safety especially on the big jump Energy Centre Point. Being a southerly the chances of a rider being blown onto the tyre wall, on the hill side of the landing ramp, were too high so it was Plan B. That meant they would now ride the centre sawdust section as well - in a northerly direction, then left up to the DAM jump.

Extravaganza is different in that it runs to the European MX1 and MX2 format. Practice consists of 15 minutes then the green flag is out and riders have another 15 minutes to set their qualifying time.

MX1 was 37 entries so only one qualifying session to find the top thirty riders and at the end of the 30 minutes four Castrol Honda Red Riders filled the top seven spots. Fastest was Cody Cooper on 2:14:181 some 2.821 seconds faster than Suzuki's Daryl Hurley. 3rd was Peter Broxholme on 2:17:511 continuing the good form he had shown at Rotorua. 4th was Justin McDonald back on the big bike with a 2:18.359. Shayne King was 7th with a 2:21.692.

MX2 consisted of 49 entries so they ran in two sessions to find the top 30. There were no Castrol Honda Red Riders in this class but several riders from satellite dealer teams. Those making the top 20 were Wellington's Tommy Madams (8th) riding for Corrie Sargent's Team with backing from T&T Honda. In 16th was Masterton's Mason Wilkie backed by Honda dealer Motomart.

The crowd lined up for the first MX1 race and they were not disappointed. The Cooper v Hurley battle was on for 8 laps with both riders showing great respect for each other. At the flag it was Cooper by 3.79 secs with Justin McDonald 46 secs back. Peter Broxholme was only 6 secs behind and Shayne King was 6th.

In Race 2 it was role reversal with Hurley to the flag by a mere 1.776 secs. It is the advantage of the start. Hurley had a bike length on Cooper at the holeshot and that is the way it stayed. McDonald was 3rd, King 6th and Broxholme 7th.

Overall points were 47 each for Hurley and Cooper so under the rules the winner of Race 2 taking the winnings - yes, prizemoney ! McDonald was 3rd on 40, Broxholme 5th on 32 and King 7th on 30. After two rounds of the National Championship and two to go the standings are also very close: Cooper 141 and Hurley 135.

Also on Sunday there was three races for Junior 14-16 yrs 250cc four strokes and Cameron Dillon was back on the podium with a 2-3-2 for 2nd overall. Cameron is off this week to Australia where he is one of three juniors selected to ride for New Zealand at the Oceania MX at Barrabool in Victoria. There were also races for the Support and and a big line-up of Veterans.

In the MX2 races the 'satellite' riders Madams was 14th and Wilkie crashed out when exited the centre sawdust section - a collarbone by the look of it.

A feature of the Extravaganza is the Nicky Smith Memorial Race between the top 20 MX1 and top 20 MX2 riders. They not only race for the glory but significant prize money. Hurley went down in the holeshot and withdrew with brake problems. Cooper was literally 'flying' and won it by 23 seconds from Broxholme with McDonald 5th. King punctured his rear tyre in lap 5. It was interesting in that three of the lesser horsepowered MX2 machines filled 3rd, 4th and 6th places.

Finally, we had previously alluded here to the fact the Ben Townley was going to Honda USA in 2008. Ben was at the track on Saturday and flew back to Florida that night. We did not need confirmation - he was wearing a Honda Racing jacket. The American media are saying that his team members are Ivan Tedesco and Andrew Short.

Alan Henderson HH Media

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