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124 riders contested the event sponsored by Otorohonda, King Country Honda, Honda First Taumaranui and The Rock 93FM
I was committed to the Toyota Racing Series at the V8 Supercars so could not be there but received input from three that were. Namely, Wayne Gillard, Chris Bailey and Shayne Rice, all in that order.
The event was hosted by North King Country Motorcycle Club and the Otorohanga course was all natural terrain. On the Saturday it roughed up and became very gnarley and because of the tightness of the course there were a lot of pegs being cut out. The riders were not getting out of third gear. After a riders meeting and to their credit, the Club changed the layout for Sunday.
The soil was loamy and powdery and momentarily hung in the air so unless you had the lead it was hard to see the ruts.
230cc - 300cc. As you can see from the points below there was nothing in it. Damien King (YZ) had a good Saturday where-as Mason Phillips (KTM) had a better Sunday. King is very good in the rough and it showed. Mark Penny (RM) was, as per usual, not far from the action. Jesse Wiki (KX) had good starts but !
401cc - 450cc. Michael Cotter (KX) rode "out of his skin" to take the win from Darryl King (YZ) by the narrowest of margins. Damien King (YZ) was riding two classes but was not getting good starts on the YZ450. There was never much between Jayden Jessup (YZ) and Jesse Donnelly (YZ) and 6th placed rider Nick Saunders (KX) who was also riding two classes. Nick went down in Race 5 and withdrew. Damien King won Race 4 which could be seen as costing DK the overall but it was good to see he did not 'gift it' to DK. Excellent racing - fast and aggressive. Well done Mike Cotter.
Juniors 14-16yrs 250cc. Like he did at the Junior Nationals in Mosgiel, Luke Temple (YZ) went better as the races wore on and the rougher it got. Aaron Stone (KX) had the better of him on the Saturday but there was not a lot in it. If you were not in the lead you were sucking dust. Ricoh Flavell (CR) actually won the first race but it was a one and only.
Womens. Katherine Prumm (KX) ran away with it as expected and was also in the 250cc class where she came home 14th. With respect, there was no real surprises in the following placings.
Vets 35-39yrs. Amusing comment I got was "DK smoked 'em" but of course that was entirely predictable. Kevin Archer (CR) rode well and had the benefit of an electric start. There are quite a few bigger KTM's with them now.
Vets 40yrs+. I had reported in the preview that Tony Cooksley had entered but he had forgotten he had a wedding to go to. I had a look at the results on Saturday night and saw Mitch Rowe had won all three races. To my surprise I saw him at the V8's on the Sunday amongst some 50,000+ others. He had 75 points to carry him to 6th place.
The 451cc Open Class only had two entries so they ran with the Vets. Speaking of Vets, why are they only a Support Class at the 4 Strokes ?
Apart from the dust I am told it was a great event and the Club and MNZ Stewards should be acknowledged for acting upon the riders request and changing the tightness of the track.
