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December 3: The Kiwis had their wings clipped at the Tri-Nations Supercross challenge at Hamilton’s Mystery Creek at the weekend.
The United States and Australian teams had looked impressive from the moment they arrived but, even before racing began on Friday night, the New Zealand’s three-man team was down to just one rider – Taranaki’s former 500cc world champion Shayne King.
King’s elder brother, Kiwi world 500cc N.5 Darryll King, was the first to go, deciding that he was too sore to race, with a suspected cracked sternum from the previous week’s mayhem at Mystery Creek.
National 500cc champion Corrie Sargent (Featherston) wheeled out a 250cc Yamaha and he filled the void.
Next blow to the Kiwi campaign came during pre-race practice on Friday afternoon when Hawera international Daryl Hurley fell victim to an out-of-control Australian who shot off a banked corner and smashed into Hurley on a parallel section of track.
The Suzuki star was taken to hospital with a broken finger and was today still awaiting an operation in Waikato Hospital to have a steel rode inserted.
Tauranga 125cc specialist Peter Broxholme (Honda CR125) was drafted into the Kiwi squad.
Faced with a huge task to match the spectacular Australian and American line-ups, the Kiwi trio had little hope.
However, Shayne King (KTM250) rose to the fresh challenge and ended Friday night’s racing as top individual overall with 2-3-2 results.
But it wasn’t enough to turn the tide and the United States trio – Kelly Smith, Keith Johnson and Jason Thomas – did enough to win the trophy. The Australian trio – Paul Broomfield and brothers Shane and Brett Metcalfe – finished runner-up and the patched-up Kiwis were third, remarkably just one point behind Australia.
Points: United States 112, Australia 106, New Zealand 105.
Unbelievably, night two of racing at Mystery Creek on Saturday was even more intense with team riding forgotten and all riders individually focused on taking home the $5000 main prize for the King Of The Creek title.
No quarter was expected, or given, throughout the qualifying heats. Most notable of those to drop by the wayside was the 21-year-old Sargent, controversially excluded after he responded with fists when one of the Americans smashed him off the track.
Only three Kiwis made it to the final -- Shayne King, national 125cc champion Luke Burkhart (Masterton) and Kiwi international Damien King (New Plymouth).
In the end, it all came down to which rider could win the helter-skelter dash for the first turn in the all-important final.
It was the Yamaha YZ250 of 21-year-old Johnson, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, which won the drag-race to turn one. Johnson held off several attacks but led throughout, to win from Smith (KTM), Brett Metcalfe (KTM) and Shayne King (KTM).
