ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIPS | Bikesportnz

It is now two wins from two starts as Auckland’s Chris Birch makes another perfect beginning to his New Zealand Enduro Championships title defence.

The 33-year-old KTM rider from Glen Eden won all six rounds on his way to winning the championship last season and he could well be out to repeat that outstanding performance after he again aced the day at the second round of six in the KTM-sponsored 2014 series near Porirua on Saturday.

Birch finished more than a minute ahead of the eventual runner-up, Mokau’s former national champion Adrian Smith (Yamaha). Third overall was Auckland’s Chris Power (Yamaha), with Kaikohe’s Mitchell Nield (Yamaha) and Wainuiomata’s Jake Whitaker (Husqvarna) rounding out the top five.

With Birch also winning the series opener near Whangamata two weeks earlier, it puts him in a strong position to again win both the series outright and to win his over-300cc four-stroke class when the championship wraps up at Waimiha in May.

But Kiwi international Birch is taking nothing for granted.

“There is still a long way to go in actual fact,” he said.

“If the average time spend on the bike at each round is about six hours, then there are still 24 hours in which something can go wrong,” he said matter-of-factly.

“For example, I had a bit of a problem in the last stage of the day on Saturday when I broke the electric start. There is no back-up kick-starter on the bike, so I had to bump start it down a hill. Anything could still go wrong for me in the racing to come.”

In the battle-within-a-battle for class honours, Birch topped the over-300cc four-stroke class; Whitaker headed the under-300cc four-stroke class; Smith dominated the over-200cc two stroke class; Nield won the under-200cc two-stroke class and Tokoroa’s Sean Clarke (KTM) won the over-40 years’ veterans’ category.

The riders next head to the Riverhead Forest, near Auckland, for round three on March 23.

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