It’s hard to decide what was more inconsistent this weekend, the weather or the riders at the 2^nd Round of the Demon Energy New Zealand Motocross Nationals.

With a lot rain falling over the past 48 hours, the track was a bit soft under foot which of course turned into a very technical, rough and demanding circuit that left the rider who raced the track rather than the competition, the victor come out at the end of the day.

MX1 was first up, and Cody Cooper was the fastest man in the mud, by well over a second a lap. Second was Justin McDonald, followed by Darryl Hurley, Hayden Clarke (that’s not a misprint) and Mason Philips.

Race 1 and it was Hayden Clarke and his brand new Subway Yamaha YZF450 pulling an awesome holeshot over McDonald and Shaun Fogarty. Clarke pulled away every lap and cruised to his first senior moto victory on his first ever ride as a 450 rider. McDonald was 26 seconds back and then it was 30 seconds back to third place Fogarty who’s always had good success at Rotorua. McDonald also had a goggle malfunction when his mechanic forgot to take them to the line. McDonald wore a pair that had no tear offs and rode most the moto goggle less, in what were very trying conditions

Hurley and Cooper went down in the first lap and put on a show charging back through the pack to finish 7^th and 5^th respectively. Cooper got off the bike and his nose was pouring out with blood as he had face planted hard when he crashed into Hurley.

Race 2 may have been the most pivotal race in the championship as Hurley crashed out of the race with a broken heel and suspected broken ankle. Cooper got an average start with Clarke pulling another magnificent holeshot aboard his YZF450, this time with Brad Groombridge right next to him. Groombridge went down and Clarke faded, admitting afterwards he was spent and had not eaten enough between races, while McDonald and Cooper moved towards the front of the pack. With McDonald in the lead, Cooper made the pass ¾ way through the moto and held off McDonald for the win. Clarke would finish 3^rd in the moto.

As the MX1 class lined up for the last moto, the heavens opened up and the rain was heavy. Once again, Clarke pulled a huge holeshot and tried to check out from the pack but was unable to do it. This time it was Mason Phillips turn to shine as he made his way towards the front of the pack and never looked back winning by 20 seconds over McDonald. Third was Fogarty who was having an outstanding weekend, proving that the KTM 450 isn’t the world’s worst bike.

This left McDonald with the overall for the day on 66 points and in firm control of the championship. Second for the day was new comer Clarke on 61 points, and with a little bit more time on the bike will be a real contender for the overall in the next few weeks. Remember he only picked up the bike on Wednesday. Third was Cooper by only 1 point over Philips on 59 and 58 points each. Cooper is now second in the championship and Philips is just 3 points behind him in third.

The controversy has begun as always in the MX2 class as once again Scott Columb and Michael Philips went head to head again for another weekend of battling.

Qualifying had Philips on Pole, and this was to be expected as this is his home track, literally as this is on his parent’s farm. Columb was less than a second behind him in second and Nick Saunders rounded out the top 3.

Race 1 saw the lone Suzuki of Columb and a whole bunch of Hondas take the first corner at pace as the race got underway. Columb however would take first blood as he motored away to victory. Philips couldn’t keep it on 2 wheels and was lucky to hold off team mate Cameron Dillon for second in the moto. Dillon would take third, with another team mate, Peter Broxholme in 4^th and Saunders in 5^th.

Race 2 saw Columb take the win over Philips and Broxholme but as this goes to Press (Sunday Night), the results have been taken down from mylaps. There was a purple flag drawn but the outcome of this hasn’t been reached. Why the flag was pulled is unknown at this time.

Race 3 and it was once again Columb surrounded by the Honda’s of Dillon, Philips and Broxholme. While Columb didn’t get the best start, he didn’t take long to get to the front, at the sake of Broxholme’s and Philips front wheels. Columb also crashed in doing so, and this let Jesse Wiki capitalise on the situation and take the lead. For those that don’t know Wiki, he has been a frustration the last couple of years as with all the talent and opportunity has been given and has never had the success he should have. Well he didn’t disappoint this weekend as he never let go of the lead and rode away to his first ever national win. Dillon was in second but slipped back to 4^th which allowed Kieran Leigh to take second, who is finally living up to his potential that he has showed and the ever consistent Saunders in third.

Meanwhile Broxholme pulled the purple flag against Columb and there were words had by both parties. At this stage, the outcome is unknown, but I don’t think any penalties were handed out.

The overall as it stands currently is Columb in first, followed by Philips and then Dillon, but this may change as these results aren’t official.

The premix class, the 125cc class, had Damien King focusing solely on it, and that meant the rest of the class was going to have to work twice as hard to beat him. He did the clean sweep of the class with the only rider keeping him honest was young Kayne Lamont in the first race. Lamont led much of the first moto, only to have King pass him in the closing stages, and Hayden McKay finish a distant third.

The second moto was once again the King show as he motored away to victory but was hounded till the end by McKay who led the first couple of laps. Last weekends standout rider, Ethan Martens, finished third, and it looked as though the weight of being the series leader was hanging a bit heavy with him.

For the final moto of the day, somebody lit a fire under Mike Cotter as he rode the wheels of his KX125 to finish only 5 seconds behind King. With Cotter being more aggressive off the start and pushing the first few laps, he was able to keep King in sight all race. Hopefully more of this to come form Cotter as he is class act on and off the track. Martens was third, a whopping 53 seconds a head of McKay in 4^th who had lost his silencer.

After 3 motos, Damien had taken over the championship lead as he pulled 17 valuable points over Martens, who finished the day in third and McKay was in between the 2 in second, making a couple of points up on second place in the Championship.

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