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OCTOBER 8, 2007: As it has so often in the past, Saturday’s annual Hawke’s Bay Six-Hour Dirt Bike Challenge went down to the very last lap before a winner could be decided.
A gruelling see-saw battle on the forest course near Raupunga, about 100 kilometres north of Napier, the Suzuki-sponsored event went right down to the wire.
Honda pair Chris Power (Hamilton) and Adrian Smith (Awakino) had been more than two minutes in front of their nearest challengers as they started their eighth and final lap, the riders forced to complete one last circulation of the rutted course because their seventh lap ended just before the event clock had struck the six hour mark – making the actual race duration actually closer to six-and-a-half hours of body-battering torture.
But the Honda men had not counted on the dogged determination of the Kawasaki pair of Michael Phillips (Rotorua) and co-rider Joel Byrne (Whakatane), who embarked on an incredible last-lap bid for the win.
With Rotorua motocross ace Phillips in control of the Kawasaki KX250 and showing the same sort of form that carried him to a podium finish at the opening round of the motocross nationals near Timaru just a week earlier, Power had no answer and surrendered the lead.
“We only really entered this race on a whim. We weren’t thing it too seriously,” said Phillips afterwards. “It wasn’t until near the end that I though ‘hey, we can win this’. I have a dose of the flu and Joel is just back from having hand surgery, so it’s fantastic to win it.”
The Power/Smith combination was also overtaken by the hard-charging Yamaha pair of Shane Macdonald (Auckland) and Tauranga’s Reece Burgess (Yamaha YZ250) during that action-packed final lap, making it Kawasaki first, Yamaha second and Honda third at the finish.
Suzuki chimed in by winning the prestigious ironman title, two-time former outright winner Mark Penny (Te Awamutu) wrestling his way to 10th overall but No.1 in the individual stakes.
Riding solo on his Suzuki RMZ250, Penny was completely drained of energy by the time the chequered flag waved.
“Whenever I race, it’s always my goal to win, but I’ll settle for tenth and winning the ironman class. That’s good too,” said the 33-year-old Penny.
Leading results from the 2007 Hawke’s Bay Six-Hour Dirt Bike Challenge on Saturday, October 6:
