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GET MORE GREENS … IT’S GOOD FOR YOU
APRIL 17, 2006: Greens are good for you, any dietician will tell you that.
The good news in New Zealand motorcycling circles is that green is fast becoming the flavour of choice as more and more top-line riders are choosing Kawasaki machinery to power their respective campaigns.
The latest Kawasaki “side dish” on the motocross menu is Team HMC-MotoX, a three-rider team backed by the Hamilton Motorcycle Centre.
The rider line-up is Matt Taylor and Chris Singleton, who will each ride Kawasaki KX450F bikes, and Jesse Wiki, on a Kawasaki KX250F.
“Matt is a very good customer and he’s assembled a nice, balanced team. Both Matt and Chris are experienced riders, while Jesse is a young star of the future,” said Hamilton Motorcycle Centre owner Heath Bodie.
“The main thrust of the team is to offer a welcoming atmosphere to all riders of Kawasaki motorcycles, a bit of an extension to what Mike Ramsey does with (Kawasaki Motorcycle Distributors’) Team Green.
“All our customers are welcome under the tent.”
Kawasaki Team Green manager Mike Ramsey, speaking from his Otahuhu office, said: “Heath has assembled this team to create profile for his shop on TeRapa Rd Hamilton and has associate sponsors along for support as well”.
“The Hamilton Motorcycle Centre is well known for it’s excellence in Kawasaki road bike sales and services but, over the last few years, has built an off road clientele on top of that and this signals Heath’s confidence in the market.”
The HMC-MotoX team made its debut appearance at the weekend’s New Zealand Four-stroke Motocross nationals at TeAwamutu and enjoyed mixed success.
To herald his role with the new team, Wiki (18) snatched the lead in each of his 250cc class races. But, with more than 40 bikes entered in this popular category, the racing was extremely intense and Wiki was soon embroiled in a gripping battle just to remain among the top 10.
Wiki eventually settled for ninth overall at the end of the five-race weekend.
Significantly, Kawasaki riders filled out five of the top 10 spots in this class with Rotorua’s Michael Phillips (Kawasaki KX250F) the outright winner.
After impressing early on, Team HMC-MotoX’s Singleton (26) crashed heavily and smacked his head. He wisely withdrew from the remaining 450cc class races.
Meanwhile, Taylor (32) finished 15th overall in the 450cc class, describing his performance as “not that exciting”.
But HMC-MotoX team captain Taylor did express satisfaction with the group’s first outing.
“This was the first real foray into motocross by the largely roadbike-orientated Hamilton Motorcycle Centre shop. It is very much a learning curve and a big step for Heath (Bodie) to take. I think the team got off to a good start.”
