What a summer!! The weather has been simply incredible to motorcyclists this season.
The amount of bikes on trailers I see heading to events every weekend is huge. I hope our members are taking advantage of the generous offer from Mobil on discounted fuel from our Value Added Pack to get there cheaper. Also I‘ve seen a massive increase in the amount of Road bikes out on the road too, it has to have been a great year for the Bike industry. There is so much on at the moment it’s hard to decide what meeting to go to. I went to Tokoroa SX the other weekend and was really impressed with the improvement to the track and the increased number of competitors. The South Waikato Club lead by Steve Holdem made the track a little easier by shortening a number of jumps and filling in a double and creating a table top.
On top of this Darryll King ran a training day at the venue with around 90 riders taking full advantage of his excellent training skills. This obviously gave a number of our A grade riders confidence to enter the meeting with full fields turning up on the night. What a difference from previous years. I would encourage other clubs to follow this model and make them safer and give SX a chance to grow and evolve. Some of our elite riders said it was too easy, but my view is let’s grow the discipline and the cream will rise to the top anyway.
The Road Racing has been staggeringly good this season. The grand master Andrew Stroud has really had his work cut out this year. Lap records have been tumbling at most tracks and our men have had no answer to Robbie Bugden on his Suzuki. Robbie told me he wished he had this bike back in Aussie. It handles better than the older model he had been using over there.
There are still two rounds left to go at Manfeild on the 23rd/24th Feb then the TT meeting at Pukekohe on the 8th/9th March. If last year’s meeting at Pukekohe was anything to go by, you simply can’t miss it. Seeing Robbie Bugden save a 180kph slide on the grass at the left-hander while dicing for the lead on the last lap was priceless.
There is another guy I have to salute as well. He would have to be the fastest Granddad on the planet. Dennis Charlett has been able to set a few lap records this season and has a comfortable lead in the super competitive 600 class. Dennis you’re a bloody legend.
It’s great to see so much young talent starting to emerge in the smaller 125 and 150 classes. There are a number of kids like Biddle, Cain and Jones just to name a few starting to flex their muscles and fast developing excellent riding skills. It is a concern for us that Stroud, Charlett, Williams and Fitzgerald are still the dominant riders representing New Zealand at the front of the fields. These athletes are 40ish and some 50 plus. The amazing thing is they are still doing the super quick lap times to be there. They are not getting to the front by default. I suppose if you stay fit, focussed and riding it can be done. Another example is Wayne Gardner. He has just won at Philip Island mega Post Classic festival on a Honda at 48 years old. So come on kids, train hard and get the best advice you can and start knocking these grand dads and elder statesmen of the podiums.
Paul Pavletich
CEO MNZ
www.mnz.co.nz
07 828 7852
021 556 416