He celebrated a winning debut at the Honda Tarawera 100 cross-country marathon last season and now Bay of Plenty’s Ben Townley has made it two impressive victories in a row.

The Tauranga 29-year-old – now retired from full-time racing and working at manager of The Honda Shop Racing Team – showed his race craft was still sharp as he took his Honda CRF450 to win the 37th annual edition of the great race, on the outskirts of Te Teko, west of Whakatane, on Saturday and he did it in style.

Former motocross world champion Townley snatched the holeshot as a shotgun blast signalled the start at 10am and was never headed in the gruelling 140-kilometre race.

He finished ahead of fellow motocross exponents Brad Groombridge (Bel Ray BikesportNZ.com Suzuki RM-X450), of Taupo, and Rhys Carter (Bel Ray Suzuki RM-Z450), of Mount Maunganui, with Auckland’s Sam Greenslade (Spectrum Motorcycles Kawasaki KX450F) and Waitakere’s Ethan Martens (Altherm JCR Yamaha YZ450F) rounding out the top five.

The margin for victory was narrow, with Townley leading Groombridge across the line by just 21 seconds and he was just one minute and 31 seconds ahead of Carter after four 43-minute laps of the hilly grassland circuit, but Townley’s tactics were carefully calculated.

“I knew I needed a good start and when I got the holeshot I knew I was in a good position to go on and win.

“I kept an eye on where the riders were behind me and just stayed steady and kept them there for the first lap because I didn’t want to push too hard when I was leading on a fresh track. I just had to be patient.

“But then I put the hammer down on laps two and three and then just tried to survive after that.

“To be honest, though, I couldn’t have held Brad at bay for another lap. I didn’t realise he was coming so fast. My hands were hurting near the end because I have not done much riding lately and I had blisters.”

Townley was also credited with the over-300cc four-stroke class win, while fellow Honda star Scott Birch (Honda Hamilton CRF250), of Rotorua, won the under-300cc four-stroke class.

Other class winners were Auckland’s Chris Power (Yamaha YZ250, over-200cc two-stroke class); Auckland’s Liam Draper (Husqvarna TE125, under-200cc two-stroke class); Thames’ Natasha Cairns (KTM 200XCW, women’s class); Maruia’s Ethan Bruce (Yamaha YZ250, under-19 open class); New Plymouth’s Tony Parker (KTM 350XCF, veterans’ 35-39 years); Whakatane’s Darren Capill (Yamaha YZ450F, super veterans, 40-49 years); Auckland’s Stephen Major (KTM300, mega veterans, over-50 years).

Morrinsville brothers Hayden and Nathan Tesselaar shared a KTM 350XCF to win the new two-man, one-bike class, while Hamilton pair Aaron Jones (Yamaha YZ250F) and Andrew Charleston (Honda CRF250) combined to win the new two-man, two-bike class.

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

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