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The 2011 Suzuki New Zealand Cross Country Nationals Kick off with both the North and South Island Championships starting on 27th February.
Raglan hosts round 1 in the north while Mosgiel leads the southerners to their series start in the south. All eyes will be on Aucklander Sam Greenslade (Suzuki) to see if he can repeat his North Island series win from last year with John O'Dea Napier (Suzuki) and quick learning motorcross star KTMs Shaun Foggarty( Auckland) sure to spoil his challenge.
Richard White (Husaburg) from Gore will set out to do the same from the Deep South while trying to hold out Miltons Liam Taal (Kawasaki) and Dunedins Shaun Blackie (Yamaha). With more and more southerners catching onto the cross country scene this year is expected to be a bumper year in the south and as in the north with lots of 2 hour series happening around the country setting the riders up for the challenge of the 3 hour Nationals.
The New Zealand series will start on April 9th just out of Blenheim in Marlborough country, it has been there before a few years back and the Marlborough club are excited to once again host the nation’s top endurance athletes.
Next round is Waipukurau where the central Hawkes Bay Motorcycle Club always does a top job and the local riders come out in force for this one.
Then we are back down south to Cheviot, the same venue as last year which the riders liked as it had a mixture of everything and the Christchurch Off Road Motorcycle Club did a fantastic job with this event and prize giving at the Cheviot Hotel will be remembered for a while” ah Hermy.”
The final round this year in New Plymouth out at Urenui , there has been a few enduros out this way so I’m sure it will throw a challenge out to the riders and if the series is coming down to the wire this could make or break the championship for the title contender.
In the juniors their Island series starts the same time as the seniors and with last year’s winner Palmys Jordan Wilson (Ktm) now in the seniors it looks like it could be a real fight in the north between Raglans Jason Dickey (Kawasaki), Dannevirkes Stacy Smyth (Kawasaki)and Christopher Foster (Yamaha)from Cambridge.
While in the south Brodie Wilton from Timaru will need to bring his 'A' game to hold out Richmonds Dylan Waghorn and Tim Williams from Ashburton all on Hondas.
The New Zealand series this year for the juniors has expanded to 4 rounds which is the same as the seniors. Also the riders will be able to drop their worst result, so doing all the rounds gives the riders a better chance.
