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Pic - Ben Thomasen:
KAWASAKI TEAM GREEN - Press Release:
KAWASAKI ace Ben Thomasen is doing things he's no supposed to ... he's winning motocross races on a 200cc two-stroke enduro bike. Oh, yes, he's winning enduro races too, but that's no surprise, the Kawasaki KDX200 is built for that.
The 22-year-old Tauranga rider is forcing smiles all around this season as he takes his lightly-modified Kawasaki KDX200 to win after win after win. A boat-builder by trade, Thomasen is making huge waves in the enduro scene and he is in a commanding position in the under-200cc class after the fourth of five rounds in the national series. He had a miserable time at the fourth round at Waimiha at the weekend but riders are able to drop their worst result. It may yet all come down to the final round at Woodhill on June 26 but Thomasen is quietly confident he’ll prevail.
“It's the best year I've had,” said Thomasen, who only came back to the sport recently after a two-year-break. “I've been riding since I was 13 and I used to race mostly motocross. But then I got into drift racing, a bit like rally car racing but on tarseal.”
But then he received a good offer from Kawasaki's Mike Ramsey and Bay City Kawasaki Motorcycles' Anton Giacon and he needed no second thoughts and what is car racing's loss is motorcycling's gain. Thomasen's list of scalps this season is both long and illustrious. He won his class at the Raglan Four-Hour and was first overall at the Te Puke Cross Country race. In motocross he finished 10th in the pro class at Woodville and was first Pro 125cc rider at the Whakatane motocross.
In addition to being Thomasen's sponsor, Giacon is his mechanic and he is amazed by his rider's performance this season. “His cross country championship campaign has been blighted with bad luck -- a crash at round one and flat tyre at round two -- but he's been amazing in the enduro nationals and in some major motocross events too,” said Giacon. “His bike doesn't look quite like a KDX200 enduro bike because we've put different plastic on it but, apart from that, it's pretty much a stock standard enduro bike and he's been winning motocross events on it. We've done minor changes to the suspension but we don't need major changes. The bike's bullet-proof as it is. “All we have to do is occasionally change the chain and sprockets ... it's a very cheap bike to keep running. The bike's holding together great, considering the beating Ben gives it.”
Thomasen's now looking ahead to the Tarawera 100 endurance race near Rotorua and, possibly, an entry into next years' International Six Days Enduro near Taupo.
