The fifth annual Korito Technical Matrix (KTM) event in Taranaki again drew a diverse and talented field of off-road bike riders to farmland near Egmont Village on Waitangi Day Monday.
The novel event is a unique cross-over between trials/enduro/cross-country competition, a motorcycling package dreamed up by Kiwi enduro legend Dougy Herbert and hosted on his family’s property, just 15 kilometres south-west of New Plymouth.
Tough, moderate or just a little bit easier, the course options were entirely up to the individuals and, although riders were classified as Gold, Silver or Bronze grade, it really only mattered what lap time could be achieved by each individual competitor.
The tricky part was deciding on the risk-versus-reward factor, whether to take the easier-but-longer route or to take the much shorter but incredibly more difficult pathway and riders, regardless of their actual ability could decide the best pathway for themselves.
The gruelling race surely sorted the men from the boys, the chequered flag going out when the first Gold grade rider had completed the multi-lap course.
Each of the three laps was divided into two timed sections – the cross-country loop and The Matrix, a short arenacross-style extreme enduro prologue course that could also be described as being quite similar to a typical trials section.
Within The Matrix arena, each of the first three “dabs” (touching a foot to the ground) would be penalised with 10 seconds being added to a rider’s time and any more than that wouldn’t be counted against the rider. An engine stall, a dropped bike, or riding out of the course bounds incurred a maximum 50-second penalty.
“Every time I try to improve the event; making it safer,” said event organiser Herbert.
New Plymouth’s Mitch Rowe gets it all wrong on this obstacle in the Matrix. In fairness, though, he was the fastest rider in one of the three cross-country sections and finished the event an impressive third overall in the Silver Grade. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
“Historically, the trials club guys and the dirt bike codes do their own thing, but, when I went to the international Red Bull Romaniacs (extreme enduro event in Romania), you could see that the trials guys could find traction where nobody else could,” he said.
“So this event is a cross-pollination of the bike codes, where they can all learn from one another. Everyone will have learned from something here today.
“Everybody wants to be pushed a little bit out of their comfort zones and my obstacle course is based on The Matrix movie … you can take the ‘red pill’ or the ‘blue pill’, the easy option or the hard option. The hard option will save you time and the easy option has less risk but takes longer. Obviously the fastest rider wins.
“Before today, we’ve run this event four times and had two trials bike riders win it and two dirt bike riders win it … this year we had a guy winning it who is comfortable in both formats.
“When it gets fast, the trials bikes bounce along a little bit and, when it’s slow and technical, it’s best to have a trials bike. It really is a very tricky event.
“At the Romaniacs they might have one out of 10 creeks called ‘slimy creek’ or something like that. Here in Taranaki, every creek is a slimy creek, so it could even be tougher here than at Romaniacs,” he laughed.
South Island visitor Patrick Dillon (main photo above) eventually won the Gold Grade overall on Monday, finishing ahead of New Plymouth’s Matt Foster and Pukekawa’s Robert Williamson.
“It was a pretty tough day,” said overall winner Dillon, the 30-year-old Nelson electrician obviously an accomplished rider in both the moto trials and cross-country codes.
Event organiser Dougy Herbert issues some instructions to a couple of the course marshals. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
But he arrived as an invited guest at the weekend, and without his regular KTM 300tpi cross-country bike, so he therefore rode a loaned bike, a Beta Evo 250 trials machine.
That handicap seemed to have no effect on his results and he won the day by just over seven minutes from national-grade trials ace Foster (on a Sherco 300i).
“I raced here at the Korito Technical Matrix for the first time last year, but I got baling twine wrapped around my bike’s sprocket and the delay removing that meant I had to miss heading out for the final lap.
“I am in training for a tilt at the Red Bull Romaniacs Hard Enduro in mid July, so this was an ideal event to compete in,” Dillon said.
“I have never raced in the Romanian event but it’s definitely been on my bucket list.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to race in that event and I want to thank Dougy Herbert for all the support he’s given me this weekend.”
The Silver Grade on Monday was won by New Plymouth’s Blake Lusk, ahead of Te Kuiti’s Thomas Cooper and multi-code New Plymouth hero Mitch Rowe, a veteran rider who is equally at home on a motocross bike or a tarmac-burning super moto bike.
The Bronze Grade was won by Jesse Ramsey, who finished ahead of fellow Te Awamutu man Phil Gibson and New Plymouth’s Bryan Thornhill.
The event was sponsored by Johnston’s Moto of Inglewood, Egmont Industrial Suppliers and Hunger Contracting.
© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
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