Auckland’s Chris Power rebounded from his disappointing 2013 national enduro campaign in style at the weekend, ending the 2014 New Zealand Enduro Championships with podium results in two categories.

The Yamaha ace from the North Shore took his WR450F four-stroke bike to finish third overall in the Expert Grade and he also ended up second overall in the over-300cc four-stroke class when the six-round championships wrapped up at Waimiha, near Benneydale, on Saturday.

He was not in a position to win the series outright or his class title – with rival Chris Birch, from Glen Eden, having locked that up both of those honours at the previous round – and Power also had a fight on his hands to prevent Kaikohe’s Mitchell Nield from snatching away the final podium spot in the outright Expert Grade stakes.

But a solid third overall on Saturday, behind Birch and eventual Expert Grade overall runner-up Adrian Smith, of Mokau, was enough for Power to earn the third step on the series podium.

Birch and Smith also finished 1-2 in the overall reckoning last season – and they each won their respective bike categories in 2013 too – but, for Power, this time it was a far cry from the season he’d experienced last year, when injuries forced him to skip two of the six rounds, seeing him finish the series an uncharacteristic eighth overall.

And while eighth overall was not too shabby for a man forced out of two events, it was not what Power had wanted for himself and so he knuckled down to improve his standings this season.

“I’m fully healthy again and that certainly helped,” said the 33-year-old Power.

“Third overall and second in class is not too bad, but I’d much rather have been a bit further up. I’m not sure what I have to do to beat Birch … maybe I’ll just have to go faster,” he laughed.

“Of course that’s easy to say but difficult to achieve. My fitness was good this year but I need to do more work on how I handle technical stuff because that’s where Birch beat me.

“I beat him a few times in the faster sections, but he’s very quick in the tight.”

Power now prepares himself to contest the Australian Four-Day Enduro at the Dungog Riverwood Downs Mountain Valley Resort, near Newcastle, from August 13-16.

“I’ve raced that event eight times previously, but not for the past three years. My best result there was a top-20 finish and I really want to do better than that.

“I’ll take my Yamaha WR450F with me because it’s an awesome bike. It’s one of the bigger bikes on the track and that can be hard work sometimes, but it holds its own and goes really well.”

The upcoming Dirt Guide Cross-Country Championships are also on the calendar for Power and he’ll use that series as part of his build-up for Australia.

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

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