As the sun sets over the hills we look back at the awesome day that was the opening round of the New Zealand Supercross Championship. It was an action packed day for all the riders and the hundreds of fans who made the journey to Timaru. Being held at the purpose built, Backflips supercross track and hosted by the South Canterbury Motorcycle Club, everyone knew it would be a spectacular afternoon.

The new race format saw the introduction of one on one shootouts with our top eight qualifiers, as well as the adopted technique of racing back to back motos for the final rounds of the day. With all the work put into the track and the weather conditions ideal, the fans were treated to a show. With names like Mcdonald, Cooper, Columb and Townley splashed around the programme; it was hard not to get excited.

After a 10 minute practice it was into qualifying. The senior lites were up first, split into two groups. Standout riders in this class were Suzuki’s Brad Groombridge and Mason Phillips on the Kawasaki, they qualified on the strength of their lap times, finishing in the same second. The top eight qualifiers were then paired off for man vs. man single lap battles. The outcome would determine their gate picks for the rest of the day. All of the battles were close. Scotty Columb chucked his hot lap away when he dropped his bike in the whoops section. The best battle was between Craig Smith and Hamilton’s Jesse Wiki. Craig went on to win the top gate pick over Mason Phillips in the final shoot out.

After a short break the lites returned to the gates for their first moto. Mason Phillips grabbed the holeshot ahead of the South Islanders, Craig Smith and Scotty Columb.

Phillips took the win ahead of Columb while Groombridge rode an impressive race to finish third.

The final two races for the lites were held in the new back to back format. This means that a five lap moto is raced and the riders return to the gates without hesitation, to do it all again. The first of these races was again taken out by the flying Kawasaki of Mason Phillips. An awesome start by Cam Dillon meant that Columb had to work his way back up the pack, battling with Jesse Wiki and Ethan martens along the way. Jayden Jessup of Upper Hutt had an awesome race holding off Martens and Groombridge for the last step on the podium. Then it was straight back into the gates for the final instalment for the day. Again Mr Phillips nailed the holeshot and led every lap. Craig Smith looked comfortable early on but slipped off the podium mid way through the moto to hand Groombridge third place.

In the MX Open class there was plenty of action all day. With battles in every section of the track for every position in the field, the crowd loved it.

After an easy qualifier, Townley sat on top while McDonald was fourth behind Cooper and Phillips, who was the only rider doing two classes all day.

The One on One battles were again very close with the highlight being the battle between Cody Cooper and Ben Townley in the final. Cooper took the win after the two were separated by roughly half a bike length the entire lap.

The first Senior Open race was at the end of round one, by which time the dust had returned. Cooper grabbed the holeshot while Townley was buried back in the pack. Blake Gillard went down hard in the first lap but was able to get back on and finish the moto. It was only a matter of time before Kawasaki’s Ben Townley began moving up the field, and had soon passed his way into second. A well set up pass on the inside of Cooper sent Townley into the lead through the whoops section. He went on to win the moto while Phillips held off McDonald for third.

In the second race for the Open class, Townley and Cooper were again battling out the front. The two were rubbing plastics all over the track. McDonald and Phillips were engaged in their own battle before Phillips stalled in a berm. Then the excitement happened, the two race leaders crashed into each other at the start of the whoops section. Cooper got thrown off the bike into a whoop where he hurt his leg, while Townley went straight over the bars. This launched Justin into the lead with only a few laps to go. Townley was able to rejoin and quickly catch back to third, allowing Phillips to grab a second place. There was no time to waste as it was back to the gates for another moto.

Cooper did start the second race but was in obvious pain as he rode around the track in eighth. Townley was unchallenged in first while Hondas Justin McDonald held out Phillips for another second place. Andy Blanchard of Christchurch had another awesome battle with Jesse Donnelley, something which happened in every race of theirs.

After this final moto there was a bit of controversy in the pits as team Townley and team Cooper had words about the incident in their second race.

The Junior 85cc class was a highlight of the day for many of the younger race fans, as The boys turned it on and were jumping all the big jumps that the seniors were doing. NZ Junior motocross champion Micah McGoldrick won all three motos for the day on the KTM 85, while team mate Dylan Walsh was consistently in third place, even though he managed to loose his exhaust pipe while flat landing off one of the doubles in the third moto. Haki Waller of Feilding onboard the AFC Motorcycles Kawasaki was looking sharp as usual and managed second in every race. James Anderson had a day he would sooner forget as he crashed heavily after the super double, midway through his first moto, to DNF. Only to be taken away on a stretcher after a decent crash on the opening lap of moto two.

The Junior 250s were the final class of the day, a field stacked full of talent.

Qualifying saw two separate races with the standouts being the flying KTMs of both Australia’s Dylan Long and Christchurch’s Isaiah McGoldrick. The two battled in every moto and each time separated themselves from the rest of the field by over ten seconds. The first two motos went Dylan’s way while in the final race, Isaiah got an early lead and held off Dylan till the checkers. Tom Managh took third overall after Dion Picard went down hard in the whoops during his second moto, causing him to DNF two out of three for the day.

With a very exciting opening round to the Supercross season we look forward to the weekend, where Motueka will host both the South Island Champs and round two of the New Zealand Supercross Championship. We hope all of out injured riders will be able to make a return to the track after a couple of days rest.

Senior open:
1. Ben Townley (Tauranga) 55 points;
2. Justin McDonald (Christchurch) 50;
3. Mason Phillips (Mount Maunganui) 47.

Senior lites:
1. Mason Phillips (Mount Maunganui) 60 points;
2. Scott Columb (Queenstown) 51;
3. Brad Groombridge (Taupo) 41.

Junior 250cc:
1. Dylan Long (Australia) 57 points;
2. Isaiah McGoldrick (Rangiora) 54;
3. Tom Managh (Wanganui) 43.

Junior lites:
1. Micah McGoldrick (Rangiora) 60 points;
2. Haki Waller (Feilding) 51;
3. Dylan Walsh (Christchurch) 45

Words and Pics: Ryan Burrows

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