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Wanganui and the surrounding districts were alive over the weekend as the Master Games were in full swing. Included in the events this year again was Motorcross being held only a short distance out of the city on both Saturday and Sunday. The organisation was excellent and natural undulating track preparation vigorous leading up to the event as well as on the days with thousands of litres of water being sprayed on in a velar attempt to suppress the dust generated from near still hot dry days leading up to the weekend as well as on the days.
Racing in Masters is reasonably casual, until the gate drops that is and in the ten classes this was the case every time. Though numbers were down on what was expected resulting in some classes having to be combined it did not detract from a fantastic two days of competition. On Sunday the track direction was reversed and slightly altered as required adding interest to the event while keeping the surface reasonably smooth allowing for fast speeds to be maintained.
The class to watch was the 35-39 open as none other that Aaron Slight aboard a borrowed Shane Kings CRF450 #1 bike tried valiantly to pass a super fast and smooth Danny Willemsen on a new RMZ450 lap after lap, race after race with Danny coming out victor every time.
Unfortunately only one lady entered Karen Thompson (New Plymouth), though she proved to the 50 plus age group men that she is no slug heading most of them off to the chequered flag.
The quad classes were also fast and furious as they thundered around blowing near every berm out to the next paddock with Tony Etheridge (New Plymouth) dominating with ease.
Wayne Marshall showed that an old bike under an old rider is also a competitive combination on the Sunday as he punted the pre 85 KX500 around keeping a clean rear wheel as he prepares for this weekends first round of the VMX series.
All in all the entire event though slightly light on numbers was a huge success, ran smoothly, there were no injuries and very few crashes to the credit of the organisers. The next running of the NZ Masters Games is in two years time and well worth competing in.
