South Islander Bailey Basalaj led a Honda 1-2 finish to the top of the series podium as his year’s New Zealand Enduro Championships wrapped up in the North Island.
The 21-year-old industrial refrigeration engineer from Nelson has been racing at the ultimate level for at least four years now, and on Sunday he finally broke through to achieve his career-long ambition, but he had a fight on his hands with fellow Honda rider Blake Affleck making a late charge for the title.
Basalaj won the opening round of the Yamaha-sponsored 2025 New Zealand Enduro Championships near Nelson in April, but he was still taking nothing for granted as he headed to round two near Whanganui over the King’s Birthday Weekend, barely a week ago.
He managed to win again over the weekend near Whanganui and, with two outright victories in a row, it set Basalaj up for “a more relaxed third and final round”, two back-to-back days of racing, near Martinborough on Saturday and Sunday.
Basalaj finished runner-up in the ‘sprint’ segment of the competition held on Saturday, beaten to the finish by Affleck, from Owaka, south of Balclutha, and it was the same story again the following day, during the more-arduous long-loop phase, with Affleck once more winning ahead of Basalaj.
This gave Affleck overall honours for the weekend, but, more importantly, it was enough for Basalaj – with his eventual 1-1-2 scorecard for the series – to wrap up the premier Expert Grade title overall.
Second overall for the series was Affleck (with 3-4-1 round results over the series) and New Plymouth’s Josh Houghton (2-6-3) completed the Exert Grade podium, while Whangamata’s Ethan Jameson (4-3-11) and Amberley’s Nathan Hodge (6-5-5) rounded out the top five for 2025.
“I rode comfortably, just keeping an eye on where my main rivals were,” said Basalaj afterwards.
“I don’t think Blake Affleck was a threat to me for the title overall, but I still needed to keep an eye on him.
“I was just concentrating all weekend on not making any silly mistakes. I ran into a fence post on day two and so, after that, I just toned it down a bit.
“I head to Europe on August 24 to hopefully tackle the French Enduro GP, followed by the Italian and German rounds of the world series.”
Best of the Intermediate Grade riders in Martinborough at the weekend was Masterton’s George Callaghan, followed by Masterton’s Dave Edmonds and Tokoroa’s Mark Newton.
For the series overall it finished with Callaghan on top (with a 2-1-1 score-card over the three rounds), followed by Whanganui pair Grant McKinlay (1-6-5) and Jason Wakeling (0-2-7).
Best of the women this season was Stratford’s Megan Collins, who finished a highly-creditable fourth overall in the Intermediate Grade.
2025 NZ Enduro Champs calendar:
Round 1: April 25-26, Nelson. Day 1, 725 Dovedale Road, Day 2 Moutere Highway, 3.8km west of the Redwood Valley Hall.
Round 2: June 1-2, near Whanganui.
Round 3: June 7-8, Ruakokoputuna Hall, Martinborough District, South Wairarapa.
© Words and photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Find BikesportNZ.com on FACEBOOK here