Backflips NZ MX Champs – Round 1 Report

Tuesday 12 February: I was semi-watching ‘blind’ via the live-on-line link whilst in Wellington and the following is compiled from those MyLaps results and feedback from those that were there. Check back as comments will be added as they come in - in italics.

As usual the track was well prep’d with some changes from last year. Plenty of water had been laid down. In the hour break for lunch more water was applied. After-the-event I was told they could have/should have, had a 30 minute lunch then applied more water before the final round, not all in one dose before the second Motos.

The track was described to me as; "gnarley, rough and rutted hence the huge attrition rate."

It was a very hot day - as high as 36C in the early afternoon. Riders were suffering dehydration. Back near the coast it was still 32C at 5pm.

Timaru run an efficient event and the start area was said to be very well organised.

Senior 125cc Class:

Pre-event the ‘talk’ had been as to how Courtney Duncan would go in the all male class now that she was a Senior.
125s were the first out for Practice/Qualifying and Courtney went 3.4 seconds faster than anybody else in the class.
Racing’s racing and they did not wait long for the answer.
Of the 28 entered - 6 did not make the 115% of the Top 12 rule.
Moto1: Courtney won by a whopping 35 secs from Hadleigh Knight (who had started 6th) and 8 back to Logan Blackburn, who had led laps 2 and 3.
Aiden Kiff had a huge one crashing out of the event in the 9th lap and it was a long-time before the Medics got to him.
Moto2 and Hadleigh Knight started but crashed out and hurt his wrist. Strange that he doesn't show in the timing. His Mum says he will have it X-rayed in Taupo.
Courtney also went down in the holeshot corner and she was down in 20th losing over a minute to the leaders. She set about moving up through the field lap-by-lap and this is her lap-chart. She had the fastest lap by 3 secs and went on to finish 2nd, 22 secs behind Cameron Vaughan, but 4 secs ahead of Logan Blackburn.
Moto3 and Courtney led for two laps but went down and dropped two places where she stayed.
Vaughan won it by 2.5 secs to Blackburn with 3.9 to Duncan.
The ‘gossip’ was Courtney Duncan is now off to the States to ride the amateur majors under the JGR MX banner.
I asked JGR MX's media man David Evans, who is based in North Carolina, if he could expound and he said; "I haven’t heard anything on Courtney, but I am not too involved in our amateur side so that doesn’t mean much. Thank you for sharing that Ben is OK, I was worried about him and have heard very little about the crash here in the U.S. Glad to hear Coops is doing well, we enjoyed his time with us.”
Courtney has since responded to my question and said; "I don't think I'm racing for their team. They just did me a race motor that's all.”
Overall;

Courtney Duncan      67

Cameron Vaughan    64

Logan Blackburn       62

Cohen Chase        50

Cam Negus               45

Duncan had the 12th fastest time of the day out of all classes.

MX2:

I have ‘had the tip’ on a major MX2 announcement that is imminent but leaking them gets me into too much trouble so I’ll will wait it out – chicken? yes!!!
Practice/Qualifying and Scott Columb, who has been on a Suzuki for yonks, now riding for Josh Coppins JCR Yamaha, went 0.0163 quicker than Darryll King (MXDK YZ) and Rhys Carter (MotoCity Suzuki) just under a second back plus less than a sec Ethan Martens (JCR Yamaha).
With the collarbone injury to Kayne Lamont CMR Red Bull KTM brought over Queenslander Brock Winston. He Qualified 5th, just ahead of KX Queensland (Coolum) talent Jesse Dobson, who is just 16.
Moto1: Holeshot went to Kieran Leigh on what is said to be a dead stock Kawasaki. I’m told his after-race description of being out-front was most amusing. At Lap1 it was Columb, King and Leigh. Martens did not have a great start and was down in 8th. With 2 laps to go DK grabbed the lead but Columb took it back to win by 1.5 secs. Winston, Carter, Martens were the Top 5.
Moto2 and both Columb and DK crashed in the holeshot. It was Cam Dillon (CR), Carter and Winston. At Lap1 Columb was up to 9th and DK 11th. Don’t know what happened to Martens but he was down in 26th and pulled out in the second lap. Winston won it by 9 secs from Columb with Dobson only 1 sec behind. It was another 13 secs back to DK. I’m told DK ‘purple flagged’ Columb – no obvious action taken.
Moto3 and DK was gone and led for 8 laps. Carter was in 2nd and Columb was down in 6th at Lap1. Columb had DK with 2 to go and went on to win by 5.6 secs. DK had 15secs over Carter, then it Broxy (CR) and Winston (CMR KTM).
Overall was;

Scott Columb    72

Darryll King       62

Brock Winston   61

Rhys Carter       49

Jesse Dobson    47

Former Junior Micah McGoldrick (CR) was 6th on 41.
Still 3 rounds and 9 races to go – it can be anybody’s.

MX1:

Practice/Qualifying was Cody Cooper (MotoCity Suzuki) 1.254 secs ahead on Ben Townley (CarltonDry Honda) 2.5 secs back was the two KTM imports of Kirk Gibbs and Todd Waters with 1000 of a second between them. Billy MacKenzie (JCR Yamaha) was 2secs back. Justin Mcdonald (Timaru Honda) was 2 secs back and only 0.5 behind him was a surprise in 6th - Nelson’s Jared Guthrie. Back in 11th was a very familiar name – Daryl Hurley.
Moto1: Cody Cooper holeshot followed by Townley. Routine Moto with Townley taking the lead into Lap3 and going on to win by just under 3 secs from Cooper, 2 secs to Waters and 14 to Gibbs. MacKenzie was 25 back from him. Again, don’t know why but Mike Phillips (Honda) had dnf’d into Lap2 and he never re-appeared. Damien King (Honda) also dnf’d into Lap7.
I had an email from Mike Phillips at 10am today: " I flew down on the Saturday and headed straight out to the track. I had heard they had done some changes so I was looking forward to seeing what was in store for the next days racing.
I arrived at the track to find they had gone a little jump crazy. The joke around the pits was because the Supercross didn’t end up running they merged the two together. I like jumps and didn’t have a problem with it but it did make it hard to get into a flow around the track. (26 flagged jumps). Qualifying: After getting bad arm pump in moto one at the NZ GP a few weeks ago I made sure I had a good warm up and got the arm pump in qualifying. I felt like I could have gone faster but knowing the track was going to change before Moto 1 I was happy with 8th place. Moto 1: Not the best start to the race as I got taken out 10m up the start line. I got back on quickly and started making my way through the field. On lap 2 I was inside the top 10 but that’s when it all went bad. I had another rider on my exhaust when I’m not sure if he hit me or I hit a hole but I ended up going over the bars into a corner jump. I landed hard on my head and got up a little dazed. I made my way back to the pits and by the time I got there my vision was a little messed up. I had a splitting head ache for the rest of the day and decided that that was it for round one. Yesterday my head was feeling much better and today better still. I will see how the week goes and get back on the bike this weekend and see how that goes before making the call about round two in 12 days time. Thanks again to team Bel Ray Honda, Rowlinson Honda and all my other sponsors."
Moto2: A start gate problem caused a red flag. Re-start saw Townley lead out and half a lap into it he had a big crash on a step-up.
Honda Racing’s Peter Finlay said in a release Sunday night; "Ben Townleys National MX1 title defence suffered a major set back today. After winning the days opening moto BT got a great start in race two and was out in front again when he slid out on a jump face and crashed heavily. Complaining of severe pain in his back BT was taken to Timaru hospital where he could be checked out properly. Although battered and bruised we can now report Ben is fine and has been released from hospital.”
Ben Townley: "I felt pretty good in practice and qualified second. I rode steady and smart in the first moto. My bike fitness is definitely getting better and I was really starting to feel good. In the second race I got into the lead but crashed on the first lap at a hard packed section of the track that had been heavily watered. It took the wind out of me and rather than risk anything I decided to get myself checked out. I have been given the all clear which I am thankful about and other than some days off to recover we will continue to refine everything and prepare for our next race.”
It was Justin Mcdonald who led for two laps from Cody Cooper. Into Lap3 Coops took over and led to the flag. In 3rd was Brad Groombridge who was to dnf in Lap7.
Todd Waters sub-frame came loose and with no seat, he rode standing on the footpegs. Laps 4 to 7 he was actually in 2nd place. He pulled out in to Lap8 and pushed it back to his pits to have readied for Moto3.
Team comment: "Waters charged hard to recover from a bad start, making his way right through to second to challenge Cooper for the lead, only for his subframe bolts to break and the seat assembly to begin flapping. Without missing a beat, Waters demonstrated his fitness and rode to the end of the race, standing the whole way, but he would not be rewarded for the effort, as the bike faltered and stopped with just half a lap to go.
Motorex KTM Team Manager Rob Twyerould: "The flapping rear sub frame damaged some wires and the bike stopped,” said , "we were unable to find the problem at first, so we swapped in a complete wiring harness and only just got him onto the line for Moto 3 at the last possible minute.”
Waters team-mate Kirk Gibbs had come from 9th at lap1 to finish 2nd, 10secs behind Coops with Billy MacKenzie right on his back wheel. Mcdonald was 4th and Hurley 5th.
Top 10 overalls for the day;

Cody Cooper             67

Billy MacKenzie         58

Kirk Gibbs                  58

Justin McDonald        49

Todd Waters               45

Daryl Hurley                43

Jared Guthrie              42

Nick Saunders           40

Jesse Donnelly            33

Mason Wilkie             28

Motorex KTM Team Manager Rob Twyerould; "The four rounds of the New Zealand championships are part of our lead in to the nationals,” said Twyerould, "and you can't simulate a level like this, with great competition in 35 degree heat on unbelievable tracks. They’re all over two minutes long, and very fast with a lot of top gear stuff and plenty of ruts. It’s a real challenge for them to learn the tracks. This one had 36 jumps a lap, but you couldn't hit them all flat out because some would land you on the flat – so you needed to know which ramp you were powering up! In qualifying and the first race the boys were cautious but by the second and third they were really wired, so third and fourth in timed qualifying was still quite competitive. We’re happy with where we’re at today.”
Todd Waters: "The guys are super fast over here on their own tracks so to race with them at this time of the year is really good for us. The team is pulling together really well and it’s good to sort things out before going into the motocross nationals. I’m currently sitting fifth with a DNF which is pretty good, and I hope to get more wins. The tracks are awesome and great experience for me since I’m aiming for Europe.”
Kirk Gibbs: "It’s great to going over here early and get the feet wet, and these tracks are wild with big, long, fast straights and lots of fourth, fifth gear wide open stuff. I need to work on my starts a little bit, staying a bit smoother in the first couple of laps. My last lap Moto 2 was my quickest of the whole moto. I had to close 1-2 seconds in that last lap and I put a pretty aggressive move on Billy. The boys he was all over me trying different lines trying to get around me before the line. It was good fun.”

MX3: You can either enter this class for $70 with a Club Licence or pay $120 to enter MX1, MX2 or Senior 125 and then not Qualify and not get a refund? They ended up 20 in the class.

Richard Horne 72
Ross Bergius 69
Tony Cooksley 55
Jamie Lamont 51
Kimberley Murphy 46

The following info from Team Green Kawasaki NZ's Scott Wilkins - Wedneday 13th at 2pm:

Jesse Dobson is 15 not 16, (he turns 16 in a month) that’s why he is racing here as he can only ride Juniors in Aussie.
Hadleigh Knight crashed out before the timing loop, which is right at the end of the first lap so that’s why he did not show on timing.
DK protested Scotty over passing riders by cutting tyres (that mark the track) on the first lap after the first turn crash and also reckons he ran into him on the start start-straight. He also had him up on the line about it before the 3rd Moto. No-one else could verify it so it could not go anywhere,
Nick Saunders race report will be relased by ilabb tonight.
Here is Kieran Leigh’s race report.

First round of the New Zealand MX Champs down at Timaru. They turned on the weather down there with 30+ temperatures it was a big day!

Qualifying: 15th - Moto1: 13th - Moto2: 12th - Moto3: 12th - Overall: 14th

My day started off with a hiss and a roar! My Kawasaki hooked up perfectly and I ripped a huge holeshot, I almost led the whole first lap and also forgot to breath so I got some arm pump and went back but it felt damn good to be up front again. I got two more really good starts in Moto2 and 3 and felt like I got better as the day progressed. Still lots of work to be done but all in all I'm happy to be walking away with some points and looking forward to round two.

As always a big thanks to Team Green Kawasaki, Fly Racewear, Shoei, RK, Bridgestone, the Ilabb Family, Pro Circuit, Performance Factory Suspension

Special thanks to the Team Manager Scotty for driving down to Timaru and taking all the bikes and things down, Deanzie for all he does and my family!