IN VERY SAFE HANDS | Bikesportnz

The future of motorcycle cross-country racing in New Zealand is in very safe hands.

With young riders such as Cambridge’s Ashton Grey, Gisborne’s Duncan Summerfield and Nelson’s Jackson Walker, among many others, showing such outstanding skills at the annual Junior Motomuck 90 Cross-country race at Taupo last weekend, there is every reason to believe the sport is in a very healthy state.

These young men finished 1-2-3 respectively in the 90-minute race, a curtain-raiser to the senior Acerbis Four-Hour marathon later in the day.

Walker (Yamaha YZ125) grabbed the lead at the start but then hit a soft pumice berm and came off his bike just five corners into the marathon.

The 14-year-old picked himself up in about fifth place to rejoin the race but then had another crash at the end of lap one, with 14-year-old BikesportNZ.com rider Grey (KTM 200 XCW) leading the field into the pits.

“I went nuts in the first stage before we entered the forest for the first time,” said Grey.

“I’d had a bad start and the timing of the shotgun blast start caught me out. But I was leading by the time we went into the trees.”

Meanwhile, Summerfield (KTM 200 XCW) was charging hard and close enough to snatch the lead thanks to a swift pit stop at the end of lap two.

But Grey battled back to retake the lead and from there he was never headed.

“I was trying very hard to get past Aston (Grey) but I just couldn’t in the end,” said the 16-year-old Summerfield.

There was just two bike lengths between winner Grey and runner-up Summerfield at the finish, with Walker in third spot, just seven seconds behind.

“I have never raced this event before,” said Walker afterwards.

Walker journeys far and wide to seek out top competition wherever he can find it and that often means he has to include a Cook Strait ferry crossing into his travel schedule.

It paid dividends for him last season with the Nelson rider winning the New Zealand junior 85-100cc cross-country crown, in addition to winning the Top-of-the-South Cross-country Championships and the South Island Cross-country Championships as well.

With younger riders such as Summerfield and Walker now racing in the bigger bike class – and coming up against such talented riders as Grey, Wanganui’s Seth Reardon, Taumarunui’s Brody Taylor, Cambridge’s Sam Whitaker, Wakefield’s Keegan Anglesey, Whitianga’s Blake Wilkins and Te Awamutu’s Daniel White, to name a few – that will ensure some very hot competition coming up in the 2015 national cross-country championships season.

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