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APRIL 23, 2007: The racing does not get any closer than this.
It went down to the wire in almost every class at the New Zealand Four-stroke Motocross Championships in the King Country at the weekend.
Yamaha riders Darryll King, Damien King and Luke Temple were each involved in a tight two-way battle for the lead of their respective classes at the dry and dusty course just south of Otorohanga.
As the dust settled at the end of day two on Sunday, Hamilton’s Darryll King was top veteran and No.2 in the 401-450cc class, his younger brother Damien King (Cambridge) was champion in the 231-300cc class and Ngatea’s Temple was No.1 in the junior 14-16 years’ 250cc class, but each of them had had a bruising fight on their hands.
It came down to the last race to decide the big bike class with Darryll King (Yamaha YZF450) and Cambridge’s Mike Cotter (Kawasaki KXF450) level-pegging at the top of the standings.
Whoever won the final race would take the title and, unfortunately for two-class ironman King, it was former national champion Cotter who got away the quickest at the start. Cotter held on to take the race win and the title but King was magnanimous in defeat.
“It was just one of those days, a real battle to make a pass stick. Mike (Cotter) didn’t make any mistakes and I couldn’t pass him. It was as simple as that. He deserved the win,” said the Subway Yamaha lead rider.
It was perhaps a small consolation that Darryll King was unbeaten in five races as he easily won the veteran's (35-39 years) class title.
Yamaha riders filled out four of the top five places in this elite class with Damien King in third, Upper Hutt’s Jayden Jessup fourth, and Paraparaumu’s Jesse Donnelly fifth.
In the smaller bike class, it came down to a game of cat and mouse for Damien King. With King winning all three races in the class on the Saturday, he could afford to back off and save himself the following day as Te Puke’s Mason Phillips (KTM), Te Awamutu’s Mark Penny (Suzuki), Hamilton’s Jesse Wiki (Kawasaki) and dual-class man Jayden Jessup (Yamaha) chased hard to reduce the gap.
Damien King eventually took the title by just one point from Phillips, the Yamaha man’s third placing in the weekend’s final race just enough to settle the issue.
For junior rider Temple (Yamaha YZF250), it too came down to the final race to decide which way the title went, with the 16-year-old just one point in front of Huntly’s Aaron Stone (Kawasaki) as the riders lined up for the start.
Temple launched his Yamaha from the start and was never headed, his final win of the weekend also perhaps his most convincing.
Women’s world champion Katherine Prumm (Bombay, Kawasaki) was not surprisingly unbeatable in the women’s category but Taupo’s Emma Davis (Yamaha) kept her honest, finishing the weekend overall runner-up.
