Bako, Manuel clash at D/Brook
THE battle for supremacy in the Bogwheelers Club’s club championship continues tomorrow when two of the country’s most exciting young motocross riders Emmanuel Bako and Daiyaan “D” Manuel clash in the 65cc Class at Donnybrook in Harare.
Bako (10) and Manuel (12) will return to Donnybrook tomorrow just a week after having competed in the penultimate round of the 2017 South African National Championship Series in Harrismith at the sandy Holeshot Harries track in Free State.
And the two young riders are set to resume their Battle Royale in the 65cc Class during tomorrow’s club championship in which Manuel, a Grade Seven pupil at St John’s Preparatory School in Harare, is currently leading in the standings ahead of Bako.
Manuel is fighting for the top position in the South African Nationals in which he is lying in second place in the 65cc Class Standings behind Tyler Tarantino of South Africa going into last weekend’s penultimate round of the series.
Tomorrow, he will face Bako, a Grade Six pupil at Mai Grace Mugabe Junior School in Mazowe, Lee Chigumba, Big “BJ” Chitima (Jnr), Dillan Faasen and Tristan Versfeld in the the 65cc Class.
Manuel is also expected to compete in the 85cc A Class which is likely to feature other talented young riders such as Kuda Mhene (Jnr), Cameron Mellor, Sam Wheeler and Russell Hawkins.
It could not be established yesterday whether two other young riders Tristan Grainger and Ricky Whyte have fully recovered from collar bone injuries they sustained during the 2017 FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations Championships in Gaborone, Botswana, two weeks ago.
Grainger and Whyte also race in the 85cc A Class.
Former Zimbabwe’s champion rider Ashley Thixton should have a field day in both the MX1 and MX2 classes where he has been blowing the opposition away this year.
Thixton is firstly expected to face the likes of Warren Thorne, Phil dos Santos, Frik Prinsloo and Luke Wheeler in the MX1 Class before he races against Josh Goby, Tafadzwa Mawarire, Wheeler, Ryan Webb, Jacques du Plessis and Liam Robinson in the MX2 Class.
The country’s top female rider Tanya Muzinda will not be in action tomorrow at Donnybrook as she is currently away in England where she is taking part in this weekend’s British Girls National Motocross Championships at the famous Wroxton track in Oxford.
Muzinda (13), who left for England on Wednesday, is expected to compete in two or three more national events in England, including the East Anglia Schoolboy Scrambling Club’s event at Wakes Colne in Essex on September 17, before returning to Zimbabwe.
“We intend to stay in the UK for at least a month as we have also been invited to Ireland where we are likely to meet some potential sponsors for Tanya as we are looking at joining the British Women’s Motocross Association (BWMA) next year.
“We think this will give Tanya the chance to become the British Women’s Motocross Champion and this will also give her the opportunity to compete in the GB European IMBA team and compete against the best girl motocrossers in Europe,” Muzinda’s handlers.
Muzinda’s international manager, Italian Stefy Bau, a former threetime World Women’s Motocross Champion, is reported to be working behind the scenes in seeing to it that the Zimbabwean rider gets some professional help during her stay in the UK.