2012 NZ Motocross Nationals - Round 3 - Pukekohe

Monday 05 March: Harrisville had 28mm of rain on Friday when the weather bomb hit. Scattered showers on Saturday with very high winds. Sunday was the complete opposite, no wind and developed into a hot sunny day.

A section of the large crowd after the start of the last race.

The base costs of running such an event are big and the Pukekohe Motorcycle Club put 19 year old Commerce Student, Scott Henderson, in charge of the project (yes, our son!) His business model and budget input to MNZ was praised by MNZ and resulted in the Club being appointed to run the Championship for three years. Together with a band of workers, both Committee and non Committee, they set about building the event and making changes to the MR Motorcycles Raceway. Tony Cooksley and Scott were in charge of track changes. The 'supercross section' was subjected to the skilled talent of Greg Atkins in a 15 tonne digger kindly loaned by Porter Hire. Carl Sorenson's tracked BobCat finished off the detail as did Neil Edgecumbe, once Greg vacated the digger and departed for Belgium via the USA.

Too many 'workers' to mention and Scott was assisted with much of the 'co-ordination' was done by Club President, Stuart McCulloch. That included modifications to the Medic Room run by Dr Rosie Kingham - the South Island's Off Road Commissioner, Chris Broadhead was also there and liked that facility.

As late as Saturday afternoon irrigation changes were still being made because of the track's directional changes.

MNZ had the big 5 manufacturers on board for the series, plus ilabb, so the Club sought 'fresh' sponsors. Ward Demolition took the 'presented by' rights. Cyclespot Honda had MX1, Metalman MX2, Cyclespot Euro 125 Class and Metrotile Roofing Systems MX3. Motomuck, Treescape, Porter Hire, Elf Lubricants and Hygiene Systems were also sponsors in various ways. Monster Energy came and gave away lots of product.

Boston Digital (vehicle wraps and graphics) are a division of Image Centre Group who sponsored the programme and they organised Spicers Paper to sponsor the programme's paper. Boston Digital also helped with all the supersized roadside signage. Even Franklin County News part sponsored the media.

Despite the dramas of the weather bomb (bunting was destroyed), Sunday dawned a beautiful day. Signage erected and bunting replaced whilst sign-on was on from 0630 to 0730.

The racing was great, the crowd huge. The large crowd actually caught the Club out in both catering and car parking. The crowd at the International at Taupo in 2006 was huge as was Summercross late last year. The Club have yet to put numbers on it but it would rate up there with Summercross 2011.

First time I have ever witnessed it, there was a Rider's Briefing dispute over race length. The Supplementary Regulations state 20 minutes plus 2 laps. At Patetonga that resulted in 27-28 minute races. In the weekly conference call the host clubs representatives were told that the total elapsed time was to be 20 minutes in total for Puke and Taupo. The Clerk of the Course was to set the laps after Qualifying - Puke did not know it's new average lap time. MNZ's Representative Steward, Tommo, vocally objected. The Club's Steward for the day, Andrew Roigard, reminded him that "it was at the discretion of the COC." Tommo continued to object until he was most firmly put in his place by the day's COC - Craig Brown.

Ben Townley supported the call and commented to me: "At Patetonga my total elapsed time was 1 hour 45 minutes of racing. 30 minutes Practice/Qualifying plus 3 motos. If I was the fastest and raced 1 hour 45 mins, what were some of the others total elapsed time. There are very few professional riders here and most of these guys have to go to work tomorrow. That is too long, too tough on them."

The crowd attraction was of course the 'superstars'. Ben Townley was superb as was Josh Coppins. On the day Cody Cooper had problems but was certainly up there. In the same class 19 year old Hamish Dobbyn is certainly back - and he works 50 hours a week as an Apprentice Builder - and then goes riding until dark.

MX2 was a full gate and the racing intense. First time in a long while that we have had 'freight train' of riders especially the Top 10 with lap by lap changes - really exciting stuff with the mid-field crowd running from the supercross section to the back section. John Phillips was certainly back.

Despite Micah McGoldrick's runaway win the racing was still exciting especially when they fought the muddy track in the first moto.

Cyclespot Honda and Euro were major sponsors and put up $600 for the holeshot corner. The Club also decided that MX3 should participate as well. There were differing opinions as to where the exact line should be. I 'borrowed' Ben Townley and he agreed with the final positioning.

As for the track, the riders loved it. It was very wet in places at the outset but dried off. The mulch in certain corners worked with lots of ruts giving options. The 'superstars' found the back section technical and tricky. I would have asked most of the Top 20, regardless of class, and they were in raptures and want to come to Club days. John Phillipos said it was good as any of the GP tracks he rode last year when with Dirt Bike Gym Race Team.

MX1 Podium: 3rd Cody Cooper, 1st Ben Townley, 3rd Josh Coppins. The $50 Cyclespot holeshot money per race went: Townley, Coppins, Townley.

Superb display by these three especially Ben Townley. He went down in Race 2 and caught up to 2nd in a brilliant display. The big crowd were running from side to side to view the racing. Cody went down in the corner behind the start gates and hobbled back onto the bike. Josh pushed Ben especially in Race 3 where the lead changed several times. Cody showed better form but a wood chip jammed in his front brake in R1 and he lost brakes in R3. Ben had been testing in Australia in sand and said he was physically tired and looking forward to the two weeks break before the final round at Taupo. Josh, who turns 35 this week, will be in Australia testing. Hamish Dobbyn improves every race and would have finished 4th overall by 1 point, however a broken chain, just short of the line cost him 3rd place. He dropped 4 places as he struggled to get the bike across the steep jump face to the line with lots of vocal support from the crowd. Justin McDonald and Mike Phillips battled all day. Mike had a spectacular endo when he went wide in the mud (before it was scrapped) of Race 1. He landed on his behind and quickly resumed. Interestingly both Cody and Ben were selected for drug testing by the DTA for MNZ. Both were unable to provide a urine sample until about 7pm.

MX2 Podium: 3rd Shaun Fogarty, 1st Scott Columb, 2nd Darryll King. The $50 Cyclespot holeshot money per race went: Fogarty, King and Kieran Leigh.

Full gate and full-on racing with plenty of banging bars. DK had a big crash out the back in Race 2 and that cost him the win. No Daryl Hurley who is sick. Great showing by John Phillips who led out twice. DK leads by Scott Columb by just 1 point so the Championship goes down to the wire at Taupo.

125 Class Podium: 2nd Logan Blackburn, 1st Micah McGoldrick, 3rd Cameron Vaughan. Same result for the Under 21 125 Class. The $50 Cyclespot holeshot money per race went: Callan May (photo finish from Vaughan), McGoldrick and Blackburn.

Absolutely no doubt about Micah McGoldrick's ability on clay. He won all three motos with margins of 9, 12 and 7 seconds.
Cam Negus could have had a podium but a DNF into Lap 6 of the last race dealt to that and as well as very sore ribs. Logan Blackburn was a deserved 2nd. Cameron Vaughan rode over the steep face of Jump #1 out of view and immediately the yellow flag came out. He finished 3rd but was 30 seconds behind Blackburn.

MX3 Podium: Not parked up in the podium order - 1st Tony Cooksley, 2nd Nigel Gainfort, 3rd Matt Coombe. The $50 Cyclespot holeshot money per race went to: Cooksley, Cooksley and Gainfort.

Craig Brown was Clerk of the Course and used his 'discretion' to declare that there would be no, non qualifiers as MX already had 18 entries. Cooklsey led Race 1 but went down and came back from 8th for 4th. Had there been another lap he would have won it. The PukeMX Club had decided to include MX3 in the holeshot money and were insistent that there would be a podium despite the fact it was not a Championship Class.