It was an overwhelming “green sweep” at this year’s 12th annual Tarawera 50 junior cross-country marathon in the Bay of Plenty.

Riders of the distinctive green Kawasaki motorcycles finished 1-2-3-4 at the 50-mile (80 kilometre), two-hour off-road race near Matata on Saturday.

Oparau’s James Scott convincingly won the four-lap race, finishing three minutes ahead of runner-up rider Daniel White, from Te Awamutu, with Rotorua’s Logan Steens third and Galatea’s Logan Salmons finishing fourth overall, all these top four riders on virtually identical Kawasaki KX85 bikes.

To add icing to the cake for the Kawasaki contingent, Scott’s sister Bree Scott finished 16th overall to win the junior women’s grade, while Scott’s cousin Hunter Scott finished 11th overall to win the 8-10 years’ boys’ grade.

“This is the second time I have won this race,” said a delighted Scott afterwards. “I also won it last year.

“I grabbed the lead right from the start and just checked out really. I didn’t have any problems apart from crashing twice when the front end of the bike tucked under when I hit tree roots, but I didn’t lose any places.

“This was the best cross-country race I have ever done. The track was awesome. I’ll definitely be coming back next year to try and make it three wins in a row.”

Other class winners were James Witana (46th overall, 11-14 years’ four-stroke up-to-160cc), Liam White (28th overall, 8-10 years’ four-stroke up-to-160cc), Nadia Salvidge (ninth overall, novice women 16-25 years), Tracy Mitchell (33rd overall, novice women over-36 years) and Rachael Archer (seventh overall, junior women 12-15 years).

James Scott and Daniel White will team up this coming weekend to tackle the rescheduled Suzuki Junior Three-hour race near Tokoroa and they will be overwhelming favourites to win that. The three-hour race had originally been set to run in October but heavy rain caused it to be postponed until this month.

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

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