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The crowd at the Hamilton City sponsored Mystery Creek International Indoor Supercross got an eyeful of spectacular indoor motorcycle action last nite in the final of the New Zealand / USA test. Battle lines were drawn early and the action came fast and furious. The Kiwi team of Darryll, Shayne and Damien King were minus the first nights master blaster Darryl Hurley through injury.
Heat one set the scene with an \"in-your-face\" pace that set the crowd alight. Not long into heat one American \"Bad Andy\" Harrington laid a late bottom berm charge on Shayne King, sliding under King and sending him to the dirt. The pain was clearly evident on Kings face and the rise in Kings blood pressure was obvious. The American made a genuine attempt to console the angry rider but King was clearly not pleased.
The Kiwi team went into the second nights racing just five points ahead of the US riders and both teams were keen to impress, but the brothers King relished the support of the vocal home crowd.
Then things went from bad to worse after Darryll, having set a sizzling pace cleared out by 20 metres from brother Shayen. The Kiwi one-two looked promising untill a bad triple jump landing sent Darryll to the floor. Brother Shayne was already committed and had nowhere to go. The resulting pile up took out both brothers through injury.
Subsequently the race was stopped and MNZ officials ruled that placings stood for the lap prior to the red flag. This was appealed by the Americans and was declined, this gave the decimated Kiwi team a 20 point lead going into the final.
It was left to brother Damien and NZ MX championship favourites Peter Broxholme, Luke Burkhart and Mark Penny to carry the flag. While the effort was valiant, the team clearly missed the talent and tenacity of the brothers King with the USA just edging the Kiwi\'s out in the final 259 points to 256.
Despite the punishing pace and a lot of repair work needed on both riders and bikes, both Kings seemed determined to return to the Creek next week, and to put more pressure on, the four man Australian Team arrive mid next week to practice for next weekends ANZUS showdown on Friday and the the big one on Saturday night \"King of the Creek\".
