The Tauranga Motorcycle Club won this year’s sixth annual Battle of the Clubs Motocross (BOTC) event at Taupo, but that’s only part of the story.

Stand-out individual performances are also worth mentioning, as well as perhaps offering commiserations to a few of those who “lucked out” big time.

Some riders were better than their results suggested, individuals such as Josh Bartosh (2-DNF), Maximus Purvis (2-22) and Tony Cvitanovich (3-10), Hayden Clements (6-36) and Ollie Ayre (DNF-16) for example, but the real stand-outs were:

Seniors:

Cody Cooper (Tauranga MX1) 2-1

Ben Townley (Taupo Black MX1) 1-2

Hamish Harwood (Pukekohe Two MX1) 3-4

Josh Coppins (Nelson MX1) 4-5

Brad Groombridge (Taupo Blue MX1) 5-6

Daryl Hurley (Taranaki MX1) 6-7

Jay Wilson (Nelson MX2) 1-3

Darryll King (Tauranga vets) 4-7

Juniors:

Tyler Steiner (Tauranga junior 250) 1-1

Reece Walker (Nelson junior 250) 2-6

Trent Collins (Cambridge junior 250) 3-3

Claude Griffith (Pukekohe One junior 250) 4-4

Camden Butler (Manawatu-Orion junior 250) 5-5

Ben Broad (South Waikato junior 250) 6-7

Wyatt Chase (South Waikato junior 125) 1-2

Disadvantaged:

All the 85cc riders were handicapped to some degree by sheer lack of horsepower when racing against the 125cc and 250cc bike riders.

James Scott (12-13), Zak Hetherington (11-21) and Brodie Connolly (14-25) were a couple of the real stand-out performers on 85cc bikes.

Hard luck award:

The bad luck award goes to South Waikato Motorcycle Club MX1 rider Kayne Lamont, one of six riders on the short-list to head to France in September as part of New Zealand’s trio for the Motocross of Nations.

Lamont crashed in practice and re-injured his wrist, although not before posting some very impressive laps times.

Lamont posted a time of 1m 57.4 before his crash early in the practice session, while the fastest time in practice was 1m 55.3 set by Ben Townley. Cody Cooper eventually qualified fastest in the MX1 class with a time of 1m 57.5 (in qualifying, when the track was starting to rough up).

Lamont visited hospital for a quick check-up and returned to the track later in the day with his arm in a sling and all reports are positive that it’s nothing too serious.

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

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