    |
 |
|
|
|
MNZ Press Release:
Six New Zealanders have won 22 World Motorcycling Championships - the exclusive club will welcome its seventh, and youngest member, within days.
Nineteen year old Ben Townley (KTM), from Taupo, must be the shortest odds sport bet of the year. This weekend the motocross over achiever will be in BallyKelly, Ireland, for round fifteen of the sixteen round World MX2 Championship.
Townley (522 championship points) goes to Ireland with a 96 point lead knowing that four championship points, (17th place or better in one race gets this), will secure the title and make him the youngest ever Kiwi world motorcycle champion. So emphatic is Townley’s lead that with four races to go he could win the championship without even racing - if second placed Tyla Rattray (South Africa) finishes third or worse, in this weekend’s first race, Ben Townley is World Champion anyway.
The teenager has left nothing to chance. Since the World Championship started in Belgium in March, he has won seven GPs, seventeen races and has led for 271 laps - his closest rival Antonio Cairoli (Italy) having led for 55 laps.
In 2005 he will move to the bigger bikes and join his close friend, and fellow Kiwi, Josh Coppins (Honda) in the MX1 class.
Coppins (Motueka) will also race in Ireland this weekend, he holds third place in the MX1 World Championship, his final place will not be known until after the last round in Sun City, South Africa, on 26 September. Coppins will be looking to go one better than his personal best, he finished second in 2002.
