KIWI RIDER 11 2018 VOL.2 | Page 36

THE SHIELDS The HMCC put up a Shield in memory of Jason and this records some of New Zealand’s best talented Cross Country Riders – virtually all have gone on to win National Titles. In 2000, Jimmy McNeil put up a shield for the junior division and this reads as a who’s who of the new era. Huntly and the Bel-Ray has produced more young talent to both National Series than any other Club in NZ and in 2003 pushed the junior duration up to 1.5 hours. SENIOR SHIELD WINNERS 1998 Paul Wilson 1999 Paul Wilson 2000 Kevin Archer 2001 Paul Wilson 2002 Adam Youran 2003 Mark Fuller 2004 Neville Coombes 2005 Craig Brown 2005-6 Adam Youran 2006-7 Scott Bregman 2008 Mark Penny 2009 Mark Penny 2010 Adrian Smith 2011 John O’Dea 2012 John O’Dea 2013 Adrian Smith 2014 Adrian Smith (20th Anniversary) 2015 Jason Dickey (first Junior winner to win Senior and first Father and Son winner) 2016 Jason Dickey 2017 Sam Greenslade 2018 Philip Goodwright JUNIOR SHIELD WINNERS 2000 Karl McGovern 2001 Kyle Smith 2002 Jake Boyd 2003 Ross Chapman 2004 Carl Barakat 2005 Hamish Stone 2006 Sam Greenslade 2007 Ricky Ramsey 2008 Brandon Given 2009 Callan May 2010 Jason Dickey 2011 Jason Dickey 2012 Dane Russell 2013 Taylor Rae 2014 Sean Kelly 2015 Jake Wightman 2016 Logan Shaw 2017 William Eyre 2018 Coby Rooks 36 KIWI RIDER Going to be a squeeze at the first corner... to implement a Junior Bel-Ray and, again, the first attempt at this was at the Dickey property. This inclusion was met with some dissatisfaction by MNZ and others within the scene and we all tried hard to work through the issues to get this going. In early 1995, Jason Blenkhorn had become an exceptional talent and showed great interest in being involved with the organisation of the series. Both Kay and I, along with some of the other tireless workers, felt it was time for new blood. Between us, we decided to try and take the Bel- Ray to the next level by positioning it around central Waikato. Three clubs stood up to the task - Taumaranui, Huntly and Paeroa. Whilst in some ways this was a success, it made things logistically more difficult and a year later it was decided to run with one club only. Pukekohe Motorcycle Club had become very preoccupied with MX and, with the Harrisville track to maintain and promote, the Cross Country Committee decided to shift and work in with the fast growing Huntly Motor Cycle Club (HMCC), which showed a true hunger for the sport, and had a willing bunch of workers. With Jason Blenkhorn at the helm, along with Marcie and Robin Hintz, the Huntly Motorcycle Club took the bull by the horns in early 1997 and the series took another leap forward. By this time, MNZ had conceded that we were