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Never trust the weather!
Forecast – Heavy rain, strong winds and cold.
Actual – Strong sun, clear skies, no wind with many spectators heading home sunburnt!
This with the situation at the final round of the Spectro MX series held on Sunday in the Hawkes Bay on Gawvas station off Highway 53 with strong rider participation, though down on last year’s numbers few riders would have left disappointed.
Both senior and mini tracks followed the same basic layout as previous years having numerous natural terrain jumps, tight corners, rough straights with lots of rocks coming to the surface as the days racing progressed, as did thick dust.
The dust proved a problem for those riders in mid pack off the start line and with fast fire four lap races allowed little time to settle into a rhythm and to pick up places as the race progressed.
With the Spectro series trying a racing format similar to the popular and proven Kawasaki Good Times with capacity, age and ability classes riders were benefited with six races throughout the day with short rest times between races. Further to this prize money envelopes were awarded to the top three place getters at the time of finishing as they exited the track keeping the day flowing.
The class structure allowed senior riders of differing abilities and different capacity bikes to compete within the same race at least twice as the day progressed with the best racing coming from Cam Smith, James Robinson and Mitch Rowe as they clashed bars every time they meet. Further down the packs there was numerous personal battles being waged in the dash for the mid pack places much to the joy of a reasonable spectator gallery.
James Robinson came out the eventual overall winner on the day with consistent performances with a few wins thrown in for good measure, unfortunately James will miss the final round of the NZ MX champs as he will be jet setting back overseas to compete, we wish James the best of luck.
Full results will be posted on http://dcmfoto.w10.net as will photos from the days racing.
Thanks to the clubs, organisers, Spectro, lap scorers and the St Johns staff whom without their hard work the series would not have happened and many of us look fwd to the next years Spectro series yet again.
