NZ Insider No.8: Racing All Over

The New Zealand TT Champs took place near Kuratau over the weekend, with something for everyone, with Juniors and Senior classes as well as Veterans, Vintage, and ATVs. It was a massive two days of racing! The weather wasn’t the best, but the racing certainly made up for it, with action aplenty.

In MX1, Brad Groombridge and Ethan Martens traded wins, with BG coming out on top by five points, doing enough to head off the challenge from his Yamaha rival over the course of the weekend. Third was a consistent Bjarne Fredricksen (Honda). Groombridge then switched from his RM-Z to RM-X450 to sweep every moto in the enduro class.

In MX2, it was a clean sweep of five wins for KTM’s Hamish Dobbyn. Dobbyn has been absent from the races for a while, and revealed that he took a serious head-knock, forcing him to abandon his 2014 Aussie MX Nationals campaign, and take some time off. Definitely good to see him back! Second was Cam Dillon, showing he’s still got what it takes to run up front after also taking considerable time away from the scene. Third went to a strong Anthony Parker.

Newly crowned 15-16 year Junior 125cc champion, Dylan Walsh, almost fell at the final hurdle with four out of four commanding wins going into the final moto, then had to scramble after missing the start of the final moto, managing to catch up to seventh and scrape through for the Overall win by one point, ahead of Taupo’s Aaron Smith. Kurtis Lilly was third.

It was another up and down day for the Kiwi contingent at the latest round of the Oz MX Nationals at Conondale. Ben Townley, in his fill-in role at Penrite Honda aboard the sweet retro CRF450R, was sixth Overall, having qualified 11^th, then finishing the three motos with a 5-6-11 scorecard, with limited bike-time and fitness letting him down in the end.

Team Motul Suzuki’s Rhys Carter ended his day in seventh, just behind Townley, with 8-9-7 results across the three motos. Rhys is enjoying his time on the 450 after spending a number of years on a 250, and has been improving throughout the season. Many doubted he’d make the top 10 at the start of the season, but he has gladly proved them wrong!

Takaka’s Hamish Harwood started the day as top qualifier in the Lites class, then went 2-12-5, for fifth Overall, and still remains second in the points, 16 points behind, within striking distance of Luke Clout with three rounds remaining. Kayne Lamont began the day sixth fastest in qualifying, then smashed a wheel over the big Suzuki leap, and had to DNF the opening moto. He came back with 2-3 in the remaining motos to end the day in tenth.

The boys will head home for a three-week break before the series resumes at Raymond Terrace on August 3.