Mokau’s Adrian Smith may be a record four-time New Zealand cross-country champion, but even he can have an “off day”.

The Yamaha star won the opening round of the popular Dirt Guide Cross-country series in May and he was obvious favourite to win again at round two near Atiamuri on Saturday.

But luck was not on his side on Saturday, with Smith crashing “about eight times” during the two-hour race, fortunately for him, his main series rival, Auckland’s Sam Greenslade (Kawasaki KX450F), also had a tough day on Saturday and forced to settle for fourth place.

Greenslade finished a lap behind Smith, with Smith (Yamaha YZ250) able to limit the damage to his campaign by powering through traffic, “back from about 20th place”, to finish the race in third position, the last of only three racers who managed to complete six laps.

Saturday’s race was won by Taupo youngster Greg De Lautour (Beta RR300, pictured here), an outstanding performance from the teenager who had finished only 42nd at the series opener, while Auckland’s Chris Power took his Yamaha WR450F to finish runner-up.

So, Smith still leads the series after two of three rounds, with Greenslade now five points behind and Power in third overall, nine points further back.

De Lautour’s win on Saturday brings him up to seventh overall in the series standings, but he is still 20 points behind Smith.

“Yes, I had a bad one,” Smith admitted. “But Greg (De Lautour) rode really, really well and I can take nothing away from him for that.

“I had the lead at the start but Greg passed me early on and then I crashed and dropped back a long way. I guess I just wasn’t concentrating enough because I crashed about eight times.

“I guess you can’t win them all and I’m just glad I managed to salvage something from the day.”

Meanwhile, Waimauku’s Jake Wightman won the junior race staged earlier in the day.

The young Aucklander won by a lap from Hamilton’s Luke Taylor and he is now well-placed to win the junior grade for the second consecutive season.

With two laps to go after being told that Taylor (GasGas EC125) had one of the five fastest laps of the day, Wightman (KTM 125EXC) showed his class and put down the two fastest laps of the race.

The battle for second and third was hot, with Taylor and Te Awamutu’s Daniel White (Kawasaki KX125) now tied on points with a second and third placing each so far in the series.

Te Awamutu’s Rachel Archer (KTM 85SX) is steady with two fourth placings to her credit.

Helensville’s Tom Buxton (KTM 200XC) won the intermediate class on Saturday, finishing nearly two minutes ahead of Marton’s Ethan Breuer (Honda CRF250), and he now leads the series by 11 points from Te Puke’s Daniel Marsh (KTM 350XCF). Marsh finished fourth on Saturday.

The third and final round of the Dirt Guide Cross-country Series is set for Ohakuri, the same forestry land between Tokoroa and Atiamuri that was used for the weekend’s second round, on July 26.

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

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