TEENAGER ON THE RISE | Bikesportnz

Taranaki’s Campbell Grayling could have a big future in motorsport, certainly if his learning curve continues on such a sharp upward trajectory.

The 17-year-old, a year 13 pupil at New Plymouth’s Francis Douglas Memorial College, collected his first national motorcycling championship at the weekend and, remarkably, that has happened less than three years after he first took up the sport.

The Opunake teenager had taken his Kawasaki Ninja 250 to an almost unbeatable position even before the weekend’s fourth and final round of the New Zealand Superbike Championships final at Hampton Downs and, with another hat-trick of wins at the North Waikato circuit on Saturday and Sunday, he put the title well beyond doubt.

In the end, Grayling finished the 12-race series a whopping 53 points ahead of his nearest challenger, fellow Kawasaki rider Rob Gibson, from Tauranga, with Timaru’s James Squire, on yet another Ninja Kawasaki, completing the class podium, 13.5 points further back.

“I only started riding two-and-a-half years ago, but I had always wanted to do this,” said Grayling. “When I was younger I’d go to watch dad race and then said to him one day ‘is it my turn now?’ and that was the start of everything.

“This bike, the 2012-model Ninja, is actually my first bike and you could say I’m pretty comfortable with it now.”

Although obviously his greatest achievement so far, the national title win at the weekend was not the first time Grayling had tasted major success. Last year, he won the 250cc production class title in the Hamilton Motorcycle Club’s Winter Series.

“That gave me confidence to really go for it at the nationals this year,” he said.

“I knew it would be really close between me and Rob (Gibson) and James (Squire), but things really clicked for me at (round one at) Christchurch, with three wins there that weekend, and I was already on my way to the title.

“Things went backwards for me at (round two at) Invercargill when I crashed and didn’t finish the first race. I got second place in the next race, but then crashed again in the third and this time I had to go to hospital.

“As it worked out, my rivals crashed at some stage in the championship too … I know we were all pushing really hard … but it worked out for me in the end. We’re all good mates off the track and we respect one another on it.”

Grayling is off to university next year, but he still hopes he can continue racing, perhaps in the 450cc superlites class.

In all, Grayling won nine of his 12 250cc class races at the nationals this year, as well as claiming the NZ GP and NZ TT titles.

Meanwhile, other Taranaki riders also stood out at the weekend with New Plymouth’s Hayden Fitzgerald wrapping up his abbreviated campaign by finishing runner-up in the 1000cc superstock class.

Despite contesting just two of the four rounds, the Yamaha man was almost untouchable when he was on track, qualifying fastest and also winning the stand-alone NZ TT title at Hampton Downs on Sunday.

Riding a 600cc version of the same bike, Fitzgerald also finished 15th overall in the 600cc supersport class, while fellow New Plymouth man Jason Nairn finished the nationals 18th overall in the same class.

New Plymouth’s Nicki Smith also contested only the two North Island rounds of the series and she finished up 13th overall in the pro twins category.

Other championship winners this season were Wellington’s Sloan Frost (superbikes); Invercargill’s Jeremy Holmes (1000cc superstock); Whakatane’s Damon Rees (600cc supersport); Taumarunui’s Leigh Tidman (superlites); Christchurch’s Andy McLaughlin (lightweights); Christchurch’s Dennis Charlett (pro twins); Christchurch’s Matthew Hoogenboezem (125 GP); Spike Taylor (Masterton) and Robbie Shorter (Tauranga, sidecars).

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