Yamaha Pair Too Fast For Their Own Good

Yamaha Pair Too Fast For Their Own Good

By Andy McGechan

NOVEMBER 5, 2013: Titirangi’s Callan May and Mokau’s Adrian Smith are probably too hard and fast for their own good, wearing out three sets of brake pads between them in the big annual Acerbis Four-Hour cross-country marathon near Taupo on Saturday.

National under-300cc four-stroke class enduro champion May teamed up with national cross-country champion Smith to tackle Saturday’s endurance race, the Yamaha pair able to ride their own bikes and simply tagging one other at the end of each 30-kilometre lap as they took it in turns to challenge for the win.

However, with the popularity of this event increasing each year, the starting area was packed beyond capacity and a huge bottle-neck soon after the first corner made this initial stage of the race a bit of a lottery.

May was first rider on duty for the two-rider team, powering his Kiwi Rider BikesportNZ.com Yamaha YZ250F into the skirmish at the start. He considered himself quite lucky to emerge from the second-turn traffic snarl-up in about 25th position as the more than 200 bikes headed out onto the winding forest course for the first time.

“I rode pretty hard and managed to get up to fourth position by the end of the first lap,” said the 21-year-old May.

Smith (Blackwood BikesportNZ.com Yamaha YZ250) took over for the next lap and he carried on the good work, powering through to end his stint with the duo now up to third place.

“The track was really fast and flowing and I really enjoyed it,” said May, “although we wore out three sets of brakes pads between us, we were pushing so hard to catch the leader”, Taupo’s Brad Groombridge, racing on a 450cc four-stroke bike.

With just two laps to go, the May-Smith duo had pushed through to take second spot.

However, with Groombridge riding solo as an ironman, he was able to by-pass the pits every second lap around, avoiding the congestion there and stretching his advantage by 20-30 seconds each time, but the May-Smith pair still managed to surge to within a couple of minutes of him as May went out for the Yamaha team’s seventh and final lap.

“I really put everything into that final lap but I clipped a lapper and had a little crash. I ran out of time to catch Brad (Groombridge). If the race had gone for another lap it would have been flipping close.

“All credit to Brad though; he rode outstandingly and did it all alone.”

The 27-year-old Smith was full of praise for his younger team-mate.

“It was great fun today and it was especially good because I had such a great team-mate. Callan has really stepped up lately and I think he was actually faster than me a lot of the time today.”

May and Smith have made it a habit recently of taking 250cc bikes into battle against the 450cc machines of their rivals. May and Smith teamed up on May’s YZ250F to finish runners-up at the big annual Six-Hour Dirt Bike Challenge near Tokoroa last month, a flat tyre on that occasion taking some of the sting out of their challenge.

ends

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