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MARCH 26, 2007: Rotorua’s Cameron Negus is a busy man these days.
The 32-year-old dad runs a dry stock farm on the outskirts of Rotorua and he’s also a roofing contractor. When he wants to live life in the fast lane, he races his Yamaha YZ250 at the elite level in motocross.
But he’s also an endurance and cross-country racer and it was in this role that he excelled at the weekend, making a surprise first appearance at this season’s North Island Cross-country Championships near Rotorua and running off with the win.
Negus did not show at the series opener near Pahiatua three weeks earlier but he more than made up for that with his win on Sunday.
The series will go down to the wire, with riders counting only two of three rounds towards the title. Negus will obviously dismiss his zero points score following his no-show at round one and will start the third and final round -- in the Manawatu on April 15 -- level on points with round one winner Renny Johnston (New Plymouth).
Johnston failed to finish on Sunday and he’ll be counting on a spectacular comeback at the final round if he’s to take the title.
Negus (Yamaha) and Te Awamutu’s Mark Penny (Suzuki) traded blows throughout Sunday’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 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) finished third, another 3m 22s behind Penny.
It seems Negus has a fondness for long-distance races.
Teamed with Scotsman Barry Morris, Negus also won the big annual Hawke’s Bay Six-Hour Dirt Bike Challenge north of Napier last October.
Meanwhile, Mangakino’s Kayne Lamont (Yamaha YZ85) won the junior 12-16 years’ 85cc class at Rotorua on Sunday.
Leading overall results from round two of the North Island Motorcycle Cross-country Championships near Rotorua on Sunday:
