Vintage Motocross Series rolls on
Taranaki weather was not kind to the drivers and crews who contested the Club Championships on Sunday as the heavens opened and made for fairly unpleasant conditions.
Apart from some spins and offtrack excursions, all drivers had smiles on their faces at the prizegiving.
First away were the cadet drivers, from six to 10 years of age.
The racing was always close, with the ever-improving Bronson Pierce edging out the more experienced Dwyer brothers, Hamish and Euan, respectively with a great display of maturity, patience, and skill in the trying weather.
The vortex mini ROK class was another class with some good racing, with Thomas Boniface taking the title over Logan Smith of Hawera.
Nathan Cox secured the for- mula junior title after another good day behind the wheel.
As always, ClubSport 120 was well supported with 12 drivers turning out to race.
Eventual winner Derek Lawrence did a lot of passing during the day to win four of the five heats, but was passed by his own rear wheel after it departed the axle in heat four, creating some havoc for following drivers to avoid the errant wheel. van Smith and Stuart Frew completed the podium respectively.
Hawera’s Jayden Smith secured the rotax max heavy title from Lauren Thompson.
Rotax max light was hotly contested with Inglewood’s Logan Boyde battling Campbell Jamieson of New Plymouth all day but not able to reel Jamieson in.
The open class was a great spectacle, with Hamilton’s Aaron Marr travelling back to his home club for the championship meeting.
He faced off with Brendon Jury of Bell Block and came away the victor, his 125cc gearbox kart proving just too powerful for Jury to contain.
The Sutton Speed Trophy was contested during the lunch break, which was a timed flying lap.
This was won by Marr with a time of 31.184seconds, at an average speed of 70.2kmh.
At the end of the meeting the 25-lap Champion of Champions race for seniors was run and won by Marr following Jury’s engine expiring after five laps, allowing Campbell Jamieson to grab second and Jayden Smith to snag third. They might be considered museum pieces, but they are still capable of producing armwrenching horsepower and provide thrills – and quite possibly a few spills – to match.
The fourth round of eight in the popular Vintage Motocross Series is set for Taranaki on December 3, with bike categories to cater for everything from 1975 twinshockers to big-bore four-stroke bikes from the 1990s and everything else in between.
Lovingly preserved and restored, most of the antique bikes look as though they might just have come straight off a 1970s production line or perhaps just been rolled out of a long-forgotten warehouse. But don’t let appearances fool you, because the racing is fierce and many of the competitors are past and present champions in the sport.
The venue for Saturday’s racing is 215 Oxford Road, Otako, and spectator entry is free.The next round is set for Aria, South Waikato, on February 18.