Bikers impress on challenging track
THE Rover Motorcycle Club track is the sandiest in South Africa and that made life tough for the 50cc juniors, but by the end of the day two of the National MX Championship, the riders had improved tenfold.
The junior class was won by local star, Kyle Phillips, who lapped the entire field. The 50cc senior class was a one-horse race, Camden McLellan cleaned up the first two heats and was way ahead in the final heat when a silly mistake put him back to second.
The 65cc class endured rough conditions and had to change the track for the last heat just so they could make it around. The Port Elizabeth local, Grant Hutton, didn't start the weekend well, with a few falls in heat one.
He did manage a second despite the crashes. Grant came back on Sunday and won both heats.
The 85cc class was one-way traffic for the local favourite, Seth van der Abeele. Much like Grant, his weekend started a bit nervously.
Two falls left him way back of Slade Smith. Fortunately for Seth, Slade crashed as well which allowed Seth to catch him and take the win.
Unlike the previous two classes, the Pro-Mini class was definitely not one-way traffic. There was a different winner in each heat throughout the weekend. The eventual winner was Port Elizabeth's Bevin Potgieter.
The money was all on Dylan Stokes to win the high school class, as the South Africa sand specialist, but Brad Cox took three out of three.
The MX1 class was the Richie van der Westhuizen show again.
Ian Toplis won the vets class with three out of three. The masters class was won by Terence Monk who had his best weekend in years. Geoff Den won the grand masters class.
Richie van der Westhuizen won the MX2 class, but had his hands full with a resurgent Kerim Fitzgerald.
Kerim managed to win heat 2, but couldn't manage to pass Wyatt Avis in heat 1 and 3. Wyatt finished third overall ahead of a solid day from Justin Mittens.