Today we follow on from the Shayne King story and touch on New Zealand’s only other winner of a premier men’s motocross championships, Bay of Plenty’s Ben Townley.
Townley had finished runner-up to Masterton’s Luke Burkhart in the 125cc class at New Zealand’s senior nationals in November 2000, and then the call came in from a fledgling German Suzuki team seeking a young rider to campaign for them in the 2001 motocross world championships.
Burkhart and his family were the first to be approached, but they turned down the offer from Phase Suzuki. The men from Phase sought further advice from BikesportNZ.com editor Andy McGechan and the next man they approached, Townley, accepted. As they say, the rest is history.
The season with Phase Suzuki was a tough indoctrination for young Townley, but at least his talent had been recognised and the following season he raced for the Vangani KTM factory satellite team and then the Champ KTM team.
After a couple of years of struggling, Townley was on the full factory KTM team and he won the MX2 (250cc) world crown in 2004, incredibly just three years after stepping off a plane and onto European soil for the first time.
Ben Townley is pictured here leaning on the Phase Suzuki RM125, chatting with his dad, Grant, at the Australian GP in 2001. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Winning the MX2 World Motocross Championship title for KTM in 2004 was the start of a succession of victories for Townley, who then moved up to the bigger bikes and went on to secure multiple MX1 class GP wins and place third in the MX1 World Championships in Europe in 2005 (behind Belgian legend Stefan Everts and behind fellow Kiwi Josh Coppins).
He is pictured above (main photo) racing at the Belgian GP at Namur in 2005.
Townley moved to the United States in 2006 and won the AMA Supercross Lites East Coast title at his second attempt in 2007. He only narrowly missed out on claiming the AMA Motocross Lites title that same season, with the decider coming down to the final race of the series and only 19 points between him and his Kawasaki team-mate Ryan Villopoto.
Villopoto finished 1-2 that day to wrap up the title, while Townley (with 2-1 moto scores) settled for the runner-up spot for 2007, the two team-mates remarkably finishing the 24-race series nearly 200 points clear of the next-best riders that year – Josh Grant, Jason Lawrence and Ryan Dungey.
A big crash at the 2007 season-ending Motocross of Nations at Budd’s Creek, south of Washington DC, heralded two seasons of agony for Townley, as injuries kept him out of the sport.
But he made a successful return to the race track in 2010, his two most significant results that year being moto victories at both the USGP and the Motocross of Nations in Denver, Colorado.
He also finished fourth overall in the AMA Open Class in that 2010 season (won that year by Dungey).
Tomorrow we will continue with the story of Josh Coppins.
© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
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