It has already been a hugely successful motorcycle racing season for Mokau’s Adrian Smith, but still he has eyes on collecting more prizes.

The 27-year-old King Country sheep and beef farmer took his Blackwood BikesportNZ.com Yamaha YZ250 to wrap up his third national cross-country championship win earlier this season and achieved a remarkable runner-up finish at the big annual Tarawera 100 cross-country marathon in July – behind 450cc Honda rider Ben Townley – and secured the win in the over-200cc two-stroke class, and he has no intention of resting on his laurels over the closing months of the season.

He will now head into battle at the sixth and final round of the Yamaha New Zealand Enduro Championships near Tokoroa this Saturday with a good chance of winning his class and also finishing this series runner-up overall.

Auckland’s Chris Birch took his KTM 350 XCF four-stroke bike to wrap up the national enduro series overall at the previous round, although Smith still feels confident that he can snatch honours for winning the day outright at Tokoroa.

“It will be nice to put an end to Chris’ win streak. I won the under-300cc four-stroke class at the enduro nationals last year and now I figure I can win the over-300cc two-stroke title this time around. Hopefully I’ll also finish the series runner-up in the overall stakes and if I can steal a round win off Chris on Saturday that will be icing on the cake,” said Smith.

“I don’t know what the weather forecast is for the weekend, but I don’t mind if it’s wet. The tougher, the better really.”

Smith will also tackle the opening round of the KTM Extreme Enduro Series, the Nut Buster extreme enduro, near Christchurch, the following weekend.

Another major event that Smith fancies his chances at is the big annual Suzuki Six-Hour Cross-country Marathon in South Waikato at the start of October, the venue on forestry land about halfway between Tokoroa and Taupo.

“For that race I will be teaming up with Callan May and we will share his four-stroke bike, a Yamaha YZ250F.”

“We have teamed up before, finishing runners-up at the Leatt Two-Hour a couple of years ago. Callan is really on the pace at the moment, so that makes me pretty confident for the Six-Hour.”

© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com