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WORKS RIDER FOR A DAY!
The Holy Grail for any motorsport competitor is a fully sponsored ride or drive. No painstaking machine preparation, no long drive towing a bike or car trailer: Just turn up, climb into your racing gear, leap aboard and go.
That’s just what Kiwi Rider magazine publisher Pete McPhee has organized for a lucky Yamaha rider at this weekend's Timaru round of the SsangYong and Kiwi Rider-backed New Zealand Motocross Championships.
Lucky winner of the fully sponsored Yamaha ride at the Timaru round is 31-year-old Waterview (Auckland) technology company account manager Hayden Burnett.
A long-time motocross campaigner on both ATVs and motorcycles, Burnett was selected by Kiwi Rider as a deserving battler who funds his own racing activities.
Burnett’s gain comes as a result of multi New Zealand and Australian Champion Darryll King being sidelined with a major knee injury at the first round of the SsangYong New Zealand Motocross Championships at Taupo on August 21.
When told he had won the ride on King’s Subway Yamaha YZ250, Burnett was dumbfounded.
"I’m really sorry for DK. It was a huge blow for him. But I am really looking forward to riding his bike. In fact, I haven’t had much sleep since finding out the news," Burnett said.
"It’s a dream come true!"
Burnett currently campaigns a Yamaha YZ250 of his own, so he is excited about stepping up to a bike prepared for multi-champion King.
"This is my second Yamaha. The first was an '03 YZ250, ex.-Tony Cooksley, which I had for 18 months. With some fantastic parts support from Rangiora dealer Bob McLeary Motorcycles (have never got an order wrong and it turns up on time, every time) I was pretty sold on Yamaha and bought my '05 off Bob after he 'ran it in' for me at the last round of '04 nationals. The '05 is the first ‘new’ bike I have ever bought."
At the Timaru round of the NZ Championships this weekend, Burnett will race under the Subway Yamaha Team banner, will have mechanics, air travel and all the trimmings of a factory rider.
