MAKING A SPLASH | Bikesportnz

Pahiatua’s Paul Whibley splashed his way to yet another convincing win at Sunday’s New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville.

The two-time American Grand National Cross-country Champion usually makes the crowd-favourite river race segment of the GP his own and he did exactly that again this time around at the weekend’s 53rd annual edition of the iconic Woodville event.

The 35-year-old former Manawatu forestry worker, affectionately dubbed “The Axeman” on the motorcycling scene, used his Yamaha WR450F enduro machine to plough a clear path for himself through the frothing water, leading home the rider who had been widely tipped to end Whibley’s Woodville win streak, former world motocross champion Ben Townley, of Tauranga.

Whibley led from the start in both Sunday’s river races and was never threatened, finishing ahead of Townley in race one and ahead of Dannevirke’s Charles Alabaster in race two.

Townley finished third in race two and that was enough to give him overall runner-up spot for the day.

“I decided to use the Yamaha WR450F, rather than my usual YZ450F bike because the enduro model is a little bit more waterproof,” Whibley explained.

“I really enjoyed the changes they organisers made to the course this year … sending bikes out and then back into the river a few more times and putting in a couple of extra obstacles.

“This made it much more physical and certainly more technical. We weren’t racing headlong through the water for quite as long and that meant we weren’t aquaplaning.

“I was a little surprised with how easy I won it this year, especially against the high calibre of competition I had. And I guess winning against quality opponents makes the win more satisfying.”

The final standings were Whibley first and Townley second, followed by Alabaster, New Plymouth’s former national 500cc motocross champion Mitch Rowe, Woodville’s Ben Exeter, Palmerston North’s James Galpin, Taradale’s seven-time former national moto trials champion Warren Laugesen and Bombay’s Scott Wilkins.

Whibley is supported by Yamaha Motor New Zealand, AmPro Yamaha, Monster Energy, Shoei, Sidi, Smith, MSR G2, Asterisk, Moto SR, Vortex Ignitions, EC3D, Bush Riders MCC, Spectro, Acerbis, DID, JT sprockets, Leatt, Kenda, Sargent Motorcycles, Yamaha NZ, Bikesportnz.com, Unibiker and Tire balls.

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