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MARCH 26, 2007: Two rounds, two winners.
The North Island Motorcycle Cross-country Championships will go down to the wire at the third and final round in the Manawatu next month (April 15) after a thrilling handlebar-to-handlebar battle at round two near Rotorua on Sunday.
Round one winner Renny Johnston (New Plymouth) was nowhere to be seen on Sunday as instead it was two men who had not even shown at Pahiatua’s opening round who dominated proceedings.
Rotorua’s Cam Negus (Yamaha) and Te Awamutu’s Mark Penny (Suzuki) traded blows through the day’s racing, on rolling farmland at Mamaku, and, as it had at the nailbiting opening round a month earlier, the racing came down to the final thrilling lap.
“It was a very short, rutted section in the bush the caught everyone out,” said Negus. “Everywhere else was flat out. I was tapped out in fourth or fifth gear. I’ve never been in fifth gear so much in all my life. It was very fast.”
Negus refuelled his YZ250 every lap just to be safe and passed Penny (RMZ250) in the pits just before last lap. The two were just metres apart throughout that last-lap thriller and when Penny crashed, the pressure went off for Negus, although his winning margin was only 32 seconds.
National cross-country champion Adrian Smith (Awakino, Honda CR250) finished third, another 3m 22s behind Penny.
Te Kauwhata’s Jason Moorfield (Kawasaki), who was runner-up at round one, finished in sixth but, as second-best of the four-stroke under-300cc riders on Sunday, behind Penny, he continues to lead that class overall.
Round one winner Johnston failed to finish and he’ll be counting on a spectacular comeback at the final round if he’s to take the title.
Only two of the three rounds count with riders permitted to drop their worst scoring effort. This means Negus will dismiss his no-show from round one and Johnston will ignore his failure at round two, so both men begin the final round level on points with one win apiece.
Rotorua’s John Phillips (Kawasaki) won juniors class after a very close tussle with round one winner Jason Price (KTM), the lead swapping back and fourth throughout the race.
Kylie Dorr drove up from Invercargill to win the women’s class.
Leading overall results from round two of the North Island Motorcycle Cross-country Championships near Rotorua on Sunday:
