Yamaha 1-2 Finish for Season is Guaranteed

Yamaha 1-2 Finish for Season is Guaranteed

A Yamaha 1-2 finish to the New Zealand Cross-country Championships is now assured and Pahiatua’s Paul Whibley is determined it will be he who takes the No.1 spot.

The 36-year-old former Kiwi international took his Freedom Moto Yamaha YZ450F to win the third round of four in the series near Nelson on Sunday, making it back-to-back wins for the Yamaha star with just one round remaining, near Pahiatua on May 17.

But fellow Yamaha rider and defending champion Adrian Smith, from Mokau, won round one and then finished runner-up at the next two rounds, so there is still virtually nothing to separate these two men in the championship chase, especially considering that riders must discard their one worst score.

It has really been a two-horse race between these men this season, as it was on Sunday, with Whibley and Smith a long way in front.

"Me and Adrian checked out in front," said Whibley. "I sat behind him for a bit and he'd edge away from me, and then I'd pull back up behind him again.

"In the end I wasn't under too much pressure because I'd created a bit of a gap.

"This was the best track I've raced on this year, certainly a step up from what we had at the previous two rounds."

Although round one winner Smith (Yamaha YZ250FX) was beaten into second at rounds two and three, he still has his eyes on the main prize and remains confident he can keep the title and make it national cross-country crown No.5.

"Paul and I will finish 1-2, nothing can change that now, and we have both wrapped up our respective class titles already (Whibley winning the over-300cc four-stroke title and Smith claiming the under-300cc four-stroke title).

"We were on top of one another all day and I think the biggest gap between us might have only been 20 seconds, but he was the better man on the day at Nelson.

"It will still come down to the final round to decide the title outright."

The mathematics is chillingly simple – if Smith wins the final round and Whibley finishes runner-up, the two men will be level on points and the count-back rule applies.

That means that, after they each presumably discard a runner-up result, they will both have two wins and one runner-up result to their credit and so the rider who finishes highest at the final round wins the championship.

As it stands, one of these two men will be crowned champion on May 17 and no other rider is in a position to change that.

Third overall behind Whibley and Smith on Sunday was Nelson's Ethan Bruce, with Hamilton's Andrew Charleston and Rotorua's Scott Birch rounding out the top five.

Both leading riders Whibley and Smith are supported by Yamaha-Motor New Zealand, BikesportNZ.com and Workshop Graphics.

ENDS

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