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JANUARY 15, 2008: Hawera’s Daryl Hurley wants to be the best of both worlds.
The Team Suzuki No.1 is confident he can add the national open class supercross crown to the 500cc motocross title he picked up last November. If he can achieve that -- and the odds strongly favour the 30-year-old Kiwi international -- then he would be the country’s best dirt bike rider this season in both the outdoor and stadium versions of the sport.
Hurley (Suzuki RM-Z450) dominated at round one of the New Zealand Supercross Championships near Motueka a fortnight ago, winning all three races in the big bike class, and he has established a solid nine-point buffer over his nearest challenger, fellow Team Suzuki rider Scott Columb.
The next round is this Saturday night in Tokoroa, using a popular purpose-built permanent track that has been in operation since 1989. Tokoroa’s venue was the first such facility established in New Zealand and continues to draw huge crowds each time the floodlights are switched on.
The track features huge leaps, the riders often only just landing their bikes before zipping through a berm, and racing is guaranteed to be fast and furious.
“These are the sorts of events we must produce to bring the sport to wider attention, in front of bigger crowds, and to sharpen up our young riders, said Hurley. “It was being able to race supercross that earned me my factory slot in Australia.”
Round three on February 16 is set for an entirely new venue, in a stadium built just for the one event, on the land beside the TelstraClear Events Centre in Manukau.
The fourth and final round is set for Wanganui’s Cook’s Gardens arena on March 1.
If Hurley can continue his hot supercross form at Tokoroa on Saturday night and at the two rounds that follow, and if he can keep his nearest challengers at bay – Columb, Taupo’s Nick Saunders (Kawasaki), Hamilton’s Jesse Wiki (Kawasaki) and Paraparaumu’s Jesse Donnelly (Yamaha) – then this season will go down as one for the record books.
Hurley previously scored the double -- scoring both motocross and supercross titles -- in 2001 when he won his second national 125cc motocross crown and the national open class supercross title for the first time as well.
He also won national 125 class motocross titles in 1999, 2002 and 2004, and the national open class supercross title in 2005, but this season it seems he is on target to repeat his double whammy of 2001.
Columb is the man most likely to thwart Hurley’s plans but Columb, another Kiwi international, just home from racing the motocross world championships in Europe, also has his irons burning in another fire.
The man from Queenstown is locked in a cut-and-thrust battle for top honours in the Lites (250cc four-stroke and 125cc two-stroke) category of the supercross nationals, fighting against yet another Team Suzuki rider, Hawera’s Luke Burkhart.
There are just four points between the two men in the Lites class after the series opener in Motueka.
Burkhart won the open class supercross crown last season and Columb is the defending Lites class supercross champion but this year they go head-to-head in the same class and there can be only one Lites class winner.
World motocross No.3 Josh Coppins (Yamaha) won all the Lites races at Motueka but he is not continuing with the series as he instead prepares for another campaign in Europe. He will race just once more in New Zealand, at the Woodville Motocross GP on January 27, before he boards a flight to Belgium.
Meanwhile, Christchurch’s Justin McDonald (Honda), Hamilton’s Jesse Wiki (Kawasaki), Waikanae’s Michael Menchi (Suzuki) and Taupo’s Brad Groombridge (Kawasaki) are also expected to be Lites class frontrunners on Saturday night.
LEADING STANDINGS:
New Zealand Supercross Championships standings after round one:
