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October 2, 2006: Pukekohe’s Craig Brown just keeps on keeping on.
And that’s just what’s needed if the Kawasaki ace wants to keep his remarkable win streak going.
The 32-year-old motorcycle shop owner won his third consecutive Hawke’s Bay Six-Hour Dirt Bike Challenge on Saturday afternoon, not only achieving a rare three-peat but also doing so with three different team-mates.
Riding a Kawasaki KX125, he teamed up with Norsewood’s Kevin Hermansen to win the big annual event’s 0-200cc division in 2004; he teamed with Cambridge’s Mike Cotter to win the same class, on a virtually identical Kawasaki in 2005 and, this season, he teamed with Taupo’s Brad Groombridge to win the class on another Kawasaki KX125.
“I think I might be wearing out my riding partners,” he laughed.
“Consistency is the key to winning a race like this,” he said, understating the obvious need for him to also be very fast and skilled and his bike to be powerful and reliable.
Even more remarkable was that Brown and Groombridge headed a Kawasaki 1-2-3 finish in the popular small bike class on Saturday.
Te Kauwhata’s Luke Ramsey and West Auckland’s Gary Almond (KX125) finished runners-up to the Brown-Groombridge pair and Taupo’s Seadon Baker and Murupara’s Rhys Carter were third.
“This race is never won on the first lap but it is often lost there,” said Brown. “Our plan was just to be smooth and fast but avoid incidents, avoid crashing and stay out of trouble.
“We raced a 2007 model KX125 and it performed very well.”
Brown and Groombridge were ninth in the overall classification, humbling many teams on much more powerful bikes.
The event was won outright by New Zealand International Six Days Enduro team member Cameron Negus, who teamed with Scottish motocross star Barry Morris.
Outright runners-up were Rotorua’s Michael Phillips and Taupo’s Nick Saunders (on a Kawasaki KX250 two-stroke).
Joel Byrne and Jason Moorfield (Kawasaki KX250F) finished seventh overall and were also runners-up in the 0-300cc class, just behind endurance legends Chris Birch and Jason Davies (KTM).
Meanwhile, Hamilton’s Matt Taylor teamed with fellow Waikato man Jesse Wiki on a Kawasaki KX450F to finish second in the four-stroke open class, while Taupo’s Darryl August (KX250 two-stroke) with sixth in the ironman class, one of the few supermen to tackle the gruelling event solo.
Pukekohe’s Scott Wilkins and Huntly’s Sharon Stone were placed third in the class for mixed (male and female) teams, while Karina Weaver and Bryan Hayton, riding a Kawasaki KDX200, finished fourth in this class.
Kawasaki Team Green manager Mike Ramsey said he was very proud of the efforts put in by his riders.
“It was a very good result across the board for Kawasaki,” he said.
