NOT A WEEKEND OFF | Bikesportnz

It seems there’s no such thing as a weekend off for Kiwi international Chris Birch.

With no overseas motorcycling events on his calendar, the 33-year-old national enduro champion decided he’d team up with Morrinsville’s Simon Lansdaal to tackle round two of the popular Woodhill Two-man Cross-country series near Auckland on Sunday.

And it turned into another win for the KTM ace from Glen Eden and his mate from the Thames Valley.

“I missed round one of this series … I was probably overseas at the time,” Birch explained.

“And I had a free weekend, so I thought I’d give it a go.

“The Woodhill Forest is only about a quarter of an hour’s drive away from my home and I really like riding there. It was nice to go up there for a rare event.

“We had to start on the second row of the grid because we weren’t at round one and that meant I had six or seven riders in front of me to begin with, but, within about half a lap I was right up behind Luke Mobberley (from Muruwai).

“We had a bit of a scary moment too. Mobberley hit a tree and crashed right in front of me. I couldn’t stop in time and hit him. I checked to see if he was okay and had no injuries and carried on.”

Mobberley, who was teamed up again with BikesportNZ.com rider Josh Jack, of Kaukapakapa, still managed to finish the race in runner-up spot, crossing the line less than a minute behind the Birch/Lansdaal team.

Third overall was ironman (solo) rider Adam Reeves (Yamaha), of Palmerston North.

The Auckland Yamaha pairing of Chris Power and Mitchell Nield finished immediately behind Reeves in fourth spot overall, while the next best solo rider, Auckland’s Liam Draper (Husqvarna), claimed fifth overall and finished as ironman runner-up.

Morrinsville brothers Hayden and Nathan Tesselaar, on a pair of brand new 2015 KTM 350 XCs, finished sixth overall.

They rode well all day and put in consistent lap times and their result on Sunday was enough to lift them from fifth to fourth in the series.

Auckland youngster Jake Wightman (KTM EXC 125) had a poor start and ended up off the track untangling creeper from his back wheel for several minutes.

The 14-year-old fought his way back though the field and got close enough so that his team-mate James Mancer (Yamaha YZ250) could get past the pairing of James Ainsworth and Daniel Nieuwenhuyzen and elevate themselves into seventh overall.

Meanwhile, Birch’s next assignment is to conduct rider coaching schools in Malaysia and that means he will probably be unable to contest the third and final round of the Woodhill Two-man Cross-country Series, set for Sunday, September 28.

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