The defending 2012 outright champion, Rangiora’s Kelly Paterson, took round one honours at Peraki bay, near Christchurch, at the weekend.

The Xtreme Race Components (XRC) head honcho showed that his 2012 form was no fluke with a convincing win over Christchurch’s Peter Smit (Husqvarna TC250).

Round one of the KTM-sponsored series brought an awesome day of racing with a brilliant main loop for the intermediate riders and some very tricky technical sections to keep the expert level riders on their toes.

On a day where the event was won and lost on trail time, Paterson (Yamaha WR250F) showed his skill and experience on the rugged terrain. At the end of the day he had done enough to secure the win on trail time alone with two very solid terrain test times putting the icing on the cake for the Bob McCleary Yamaha sponsored rider.

Husqvarna’s Smit was a further two minutes adrift with some very competitive terrain test times putting him firmly among the leaders. While a surprise third place-getter in the form of Christchurch’s Angus MacDonald (KTM 200XC) showed he is one to watch with a very solid performance.

A big thanks has to go to the organisers of the event, with all of the hard work from Mark MacDonald, James Petrie and their team of helpers turning what was a good event last year into a great even this time around.

Thanks also to KTM for sponsoring the series.

And a big thanks to Chris and Lee-Anne from Southern Score for providing prompt and accurate results.

Round two of the series is set for Alexandra on May 5.

© Words by Steven Kelly, www.BikesportNZ.com

© Photo by Bakkshot Photography