Birch Stamps His Authority

Birch Stamps His Authority

MAY 11, 2015: It was the perfect campaign for Aucklander Chris Birch in this season's New Zealand Enduro Championships.

The 34-year-old had absolutely no problem in defending his national crown from 2014, compiling an unbeatable string of seven wins from seven starts in the 2015 edition of the KTM-sponsored national series, which wound up with a double-header weekend in the Central North Island on Saturday and Sunday.

He won the sixth and penultimate round at Waimiha, near Benneydale, on Saturday, beat Mokau's former national enduro champion and current national cross-country champion Adrian Smith across the finish line by 47 seconds and then he repeated the treatment at the final round, in forestry south of Tokoroa on Sunday, this time edging out Smith by nearly two minutes (1 minute 59 seconds).

Third overall at both events was South Island rising star in the sport Hamish MacDonald.

With five wins from five starts before the weekend even began, Birch already had the trophies for both the outright honour and the over-300cc four-stroke class title in his grasp, but, "as long as not too many risks were taken", it was still his aim to make it a clean sweep of seven wins from seven starts.

"My plan was to concentrate on winning the championship, so I was riding carefully this weekend and not doing anything stupid," said Birch.

"It was just a case of me working out what was the fastest way through the sections and doing it safely. It was a little bit frustrating because I always like to go fast, but sometimes going flat out is not the fastest way."

Nonetheless, Birch still came out on top both times at the weekend.

Clashes of dates with the parallel but separate cross-country nationals meant Smith was unable to put up more of a fight this season, but several new challengers did emerge in the form of Howick's Liam Draper and Christchurch's MacDonald, these two young men showing the future of the sport is looking healthy indeed.

Draper finished fourth at Waimiha on Saturday, but mechanical woes meant he was unable to finish at Tokoroa on Sunday. He had still done enough to finish the series overall runner-up and also to wrap up the battle-within-a-battle for under-200cc two-stroke class glory.

"It's pretty awesome to see these young guys coming on," said Birch. "There were really no up-and-comers three years ago, but now we have too many to name. The sport is strong at the moment."

The unbeaten Birch finished a massive 36 points clear of Draper in the race for overall honours, with MacDonald in third, another 16 points further back.

Wellington's Jake Whitaker, Palmerston North's Adam Reeves and Kaikohe's Mitchell Nield rounded out the top half dozen expert grade riders overall.

In the intermediate grade, Paeroa's Matt Coombe finished on top overall, with Auckland's Ryan Armitage and Thames rider Natasha Cairns filling out the podium.

In the junior category, Te Awamutu's Rachael Archer was overall series winner, with Te Atatu's Rios Aspin and Loburn's Josh Dando completing the podium.

Expert grade class winners were Birch (over-300cc four-stroke); Whitaker (under-300cc four-stroke); MacDonald (over-200cc two-stroke); Draper (under-200cc two-stroke); Tokoroa's Sean Clarke (veterans, over 40 years).

ENDS

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