Moto-X riders prepare for African Champs
SPILLS and thrills will once again be the order of the day when some of the country’s top junior and senior male and female motocross riders converge at Donnybrook Raceway in Harare on Sunday for the fourth round of the 2018 Bogwheelers Club’s Club Championship series.
The Bogwheelers Club run the motorcycling sport of motocross in this country and according to their secretary, Yasmin Manuel, most of the riders will use Sunday’s event as part of their preparations for next month’s FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations Championships in Kitwe, Zambia.
A strong 42-member Team Zimbabwe was recently named by the Bogwheelers Club for this year’s three-day African Championships which are scheduled to run from August 17 to 19 at Mindola Motocross Park in Kitwe.
The continental championships are expected to attract some top junior and senior riders from eight countries — Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and the hosts Zambia.
And Manuel said yesterday that most riders who were picked to represent Zimbabwe in Kitwe next month will use this Sunday’s club event at Donnybrook to fine-tune themselves ahead of the continental championships.
“This Sunday’s race meeting at Donnybrook was supposed to be a national championship event but we have changed it to a club event because some of the riders have indicated that they might be away in Zambia where they would like to have a number of practise sessions ahead of the African Championships.
“We are not quite sure how many riders are going there for the practise sessions but the majority of those who were picked for the African Championships will be at Donnybrook this Sunday competing in the fourth round of this year’s Club Championship series,” Manuel said.
Although the staging of the fourth round of the Club Championship series on Sunday clashes with the World Cup Final, Manuel said they have already made some contingency plans which will see them erecting a big screen at the VIP stand where the football fans, who will be present at Donnybrook, will also be able to watch the grand finale of this year’s global showpiece in Russia.
With racing starting at 10am, the local motorsport enthusiasts will first have the chance of watching some of their favourite local motocross riders in action before switching their attention to the World Cup Final scheduled to kick-off at 5pm on Sunday.
Manuel said riders on Sunday will compete in all the classes ranging from the PeeWees (which is designed for bikers under the age of seven) to Masters and Veterans.
And the battle for supremacy will once again be intense in the 65cc and 85cc classes which will feature a number of the country’s top junior riders such as Emmanuel and Munyaradzi Bako, Jordan Dewdney, Emile Croisette, Dillan Faasen, Daiyaan Manuel, Tanya Muzinda, Ricky White, Jamie Doran, Cameron Mellor and Tristan Versfeld.