taking the win in the Gold class on Day One.
The first three riders home in the Silver class
were only separated by five minutes, with
Warwick Batley taking the win on Day One, Paul
Singleton in second, and Nigel Smith in third.
The Bronze class was fiercely contested with Beau
Taylor taking the win, closely followed by Clarke
Boyd less than a minute back and Natasha Cairns in
third. Natasha was lucky to finish the event after a
get-off on the road, severely bruising her left thigh.
DAY TWO
The start for day two was in a private quarry
south of Tokoroa. This day looked like it would
be a bit easier but with tired riders and more
distance to cover, it proved to still be fairly hard.
Dylan Yearbury held onto his lead to take the
overall win in the Gold class and Jake Whitaker
kept hold of his second place, with Mackenzie
Wiig rounding out the top three. The Silver class
had a change of order following Rachael Archer
breaking her arm whilst walking her bike down
Parachute Drop, with Nigel Smith winning the
Silver class overall, Mark Delatour coming in second
place, and Warwick Batley finishing in third.
Beau Taylor took the win in the Bronze class
with Clarke Boyd finishing not far behind in
second place, and Natasha Cairns followed in
third. We saw some great Kiwi Ingenuity from
Bronze rider Lucia Oles whose tyre came off
the rim and the only way for her to continue
riding was to cable-tie it on – a top effort!
GOLD CLASS WINNER
DYLAN YEARBURY
“I started off with my two short practice laps for the
prologue, which was just enough time to familiarise
myself with the course. Then came the hot lap, to
set qualifying positions for the final. My lap was
going well until the balance beams... where I started
looking at the next obstacle before I was over the
beams, then my front wheel fell off the beam and
into the last log, stopping the bike instantly. I carried
on over the bars and straight onto the ground.
Luckily I wasn’t injured, so I jumped up and rode to
the finish. The final went smoothly – I started with
the holeshot but I made a couple of little mistakes
GOLD OVERALL
1. Dylan Yearbury (Husqvarna TE300), 12:01:50
2. Jake Whitaker (KTM 300EXC), 12:13:02
3. Mackenzie Wiig (KTM 300EXC), 12:22:24
KIWI RIDER 91