The number three perhaps has special significance for Invercargill’s Greg Baynes.

The 39-year-old bike shop dealer raced his No.311 KTM450SX to his third outright victory at the popular 50-Mile Beach Race segment on Friday of the annual Burt Munro Challenge week in the lower South Island and, in doing so, led a KTM 1-2-3 to the top step of the podium.

He finished the race ahead of Scottish visitor Ross Bergius, with New Plymouth’s Mitch Rowe, the beach race winner in 2007, rounding out the top three.

Baynes rode a 2012-model KTM 450, while both Bergius and Rowe were on fuel-injected 2013-model KTM 450s.

Baynes won his first Burt Munro beach race title in 2008 and has now made it back-to-back wins after clinching the title a second time in 2013 and following that up with victory again this season. He is the first man to win the title three times.

“The course on Oreti Beach was half a mile up and half a mile back, going up and back 100 times, so it was quite a long race,” said Baynes.

“It wasn’t really very physically demanding. I race cross-country and motocross events too and those are much tougher on the body.

“What you needed for beach racing was a combination of fast bike and to master the art of cornering quickly, plus having a big fuel tank helped. All of us on the podium had fitted big 13-litre tanks, all genuine KTM parts. The trick with this race is to be able to get through it without refuelling.

“It’s an endurance race and so it’s hard on the bikes mechanically too. I had a few issues during the race and was trailing Southland’s Jason Feaver (the Beach race winner in 2010 and 2012), but he suffered an engine failure and had to pull out on about lap 20. I wasn’t far behind him at the time.”

Only eight bikes survived the race.

“I guess I have a bit of an advantage over my rivals because it’s a home event for me. I could have gone down to Oreti Beach at any time and done some sneaky testing if had wanted to.

“Battling the elements can play a part too. There are always cross-winds to consider and the cold too. But I suppose I was used to that.”

© Words by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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Photo courtesy Southland Tourism.

RESULTS FROM THE BEACH RACING

BURT MUNRO TROPHY (50 MILES)

1st Greg Baynes (46:30), 2nd Ross Bergius (46:56), 3rd Mitch Rowe (47:07)

SMCC 1 MILE DASH

1st Jason Feaver (55.727), 2nd Chris Manson (57.927), 3rd Jaden Gray (58.126)

GIRDER FORK

1st Rhys Wilson (50pts)

CLASSIC PRE ‘63 & CLASSIC PRE ‘72

1st Geoff Mahon (50pts), 2nd Kevin Ryan (44pts), 3rd Gary Wells (40pts)

OPEN CLASS CHAMPIONSHIP

1st Jason Feaver (50pts), 2nd Greg Baynes (44pts), 3rd Mitch Rowe (38pts)

QUAD BIKES

1st Tim George (50pts), 2nd Craig Robinson (44pts), 3rd Rhys Young (40pts)

UP TO 250cc CHAMPIONSHIP

1st Joshua Evans (47pts), 2nd Lachlan Lott (43pts), 3rd Scott Martini (42pts)

UP TO 500cc CHAMPIONSHIP

1st Jared Pyke (50pts), 2nd Jaden Gray (42pts), 3rd Ross Bergius (38pts)

FASTEST LAP TIME OF THE DAY

Jason Feaver (50.980)