| 2009 King of the North | ||||
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The morning greeted us with clear crisp conditions, perfect for racing. The track located 10 minutes from Kumeu, West Auckland, had a good mixture of both man made jumps and natural off camber turns. With over 150 entries the racing was set to be awesome. The 4-5 Intro trail class was won by Daemin Beech, who was clearly in the wrong class as he lapped nearly the entire field in every moto. Second was Bailey Hardwidge and third Max Forbes on the Ricky Carmichael replica bike. In the 4-7 Intro MX class 50cc, a war was waged between the KTM’s of Isaac Broad and Brayden Fletcher with Isaac taking the win in the first 2 motos. However in the last moto Brayden got out to an early lead but was soon passed by Isaac. This time Brayden didn’t just let Isaac by and regrouped and passed him back to win the moto. Isaac took the win for the day, with Brayden second and Oceaana Hardwidge third. Sam Jagger on the CRF50 with the trick red tyres easily won the 6-8 Intro Trail 2 50cc class. He was a step above the rest of the field, while he didn’t get the best starts, he soon found the pointy end of the field quickly. Fast starting Keagan Morgan didn’t quite have the speed to match Sam, but put up a valiant fight all day, earning the second step n the podium. Chloe Steel showed the rest of the boys how to ride, racing her way into third place, and getting one of the loudest cheers of the day. In what is considered the premier 50cc class in Mini’s, the 6-8 MX 50cc class was won in a nail biter by Tuakau lad Jesse Te Kani. He won by 2 points over a very fast Cage Wilson who had made the trip up from Upper Hutt. Also winning a moto, but not having the consistency needed to win the overall, Leroy Porteous took the bottom step of the podium. This class had 3 moto winners and made for a great final race. They younger 65cc class, 6-8 65cc, was the Maximus Purvis show, with the young Kawasaki rider taking 3 wins from 3 starts in dominating fashion. While Jake Wightman had home track advantage, it was on his farm, Jake didn’t really have the match of Maximus all day. Third was KTM’s Trent Liddle Collins, and while his lap times where blazing hot, poor starts cost him dearly, leaving Trent hungry to prove himself come Mini North Islands in a months time. The premier class of the day, the 9-11 65cc class was a clean sweep for Taranaki’s Nick Hornby. Nick came, saw and dominated. A fitting way to depart the 65cc class as Nick makes the move up to the Junior ranks. A surprise second place went to Ben Stewart, many not picking him to do as well as he did. Rounding out the podium and only just securing third was Aiden Bell, who leaped frogged several places in the overall points total with a third in the final moto. Running the number 1 on his bike, Bailey Hamlin, scored 3 wins from 3 starts but only just as he had some fierce competition in the form of little Amber Harris. While Amber could only manage third for the weekend, she was just as fast as Bailey and a poor third moto hurt her. With Amber having a less than stellar third moto, this left the door open for Jeremy Ashdown to sneak on in for second overall. Jeremy flew under the radar all weekend and proved that consistency is his key to success. The King of the North also featured Quads which provided for some awesome racing. The 4-6 ATV 50cc, essentially a Suzuki LT50 class, was all about the start. If you got it, you were going to do well. Max Miller had good starts, which in turn led to him scoring the most wins. The top of the podium belonged to him. Second was Benjamin Morrison was second followed very closely by Liam Vessey. In the older 5-8 50cc open class, Taumaranui’s George Stephens showed the rest of the class how its done, by taking 3 commanding wins over Haydn Johnson and Levi Nairn. While the numbers weren’t huge in this class, the racing was definitely exciting. With the top 3 national riders contending for King of the North, the 8-11 ATV 100cc class was a high energy, high octane affair. The last moto of the day, many calling the race of the day, especially if your last name was Fletcher. Tyler Fletcher showed why he was the current national champion, winning by 3 points over national number 2, Tyla Nairn. Mixing it up with them, was Oscar Bonar, finishing third for the day but charging hard right to the end. While I was a bit dubious about attending a Mini event, from the reports I had heard before, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of racing, the atmosphere of the families and of course how well run the event was by the North Harbour Mini MX Club. They get my vote for Mini Nationals next year!! Ricey's Photo's will be up here Wednesday Evening or click on the rice logo on the home page.
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Wow wow wow. It feels like I’ve found a whole new aspect of motorcycling racing, and its come in the form of Mini MX. The annual King of the North hosted by the North Harbour Mini MX club was one of the best events I’ve attended lately.
