Only The Bravest, The Toughest And The Best Need Apply

APRIL 18, 2023: So you reckon you’re pretty handy on a dirt bike do you? But are you good enough to keep it up for eight hours … or more?

If you’ve entered this weekend’s inaugural Maxima Racing Oils-sponsored Forestland Eight-hour Cross-country race at Oparau, near Kawhia, then you could be about to find out.

With more than 260 riders entered for Sunday’s gruelling race – forming up into 134 two or three-rider teams, with a few even choosing to race solo – the farmland course is set to take a pounding and this means the riders’ bodies could also experience a battering.

This will be even more so for riders such as Waipukurau’s Steve Sergeant, Morrinsville’s Liam Calley and New Plymouth’s Renny Johnston, notables among the 19 brave souls listed as ironman entries.

The entry list reads like a Who’s Who of New Zealand dirt biking talent, both male and female, and features a couple of intriguing two-rider combinations that will surely rate as favourites.

Former junior and senior national cross-country champions Wil Yeoman (Taupo) and Tommy Watts (Wairoa) will have their work cut out to match illustrious team-mates Brad Groombridge (Taupo) and Cody Cooper (Papamoa), while Cambridge’s two-time and current national enduro champion Dylan Yearbury and Taranaki’s rising young star Sam Parker will surely keep them all honest.

Groombridge is a three-time former national cross-country champion (winner in 2016, 2017 and 2018) and he also twice won the national enduro crown (in 2016 and 2018). Cooper, Groombridge’s team-mate for this weekend, is a multi-time national 125cc, MX2 (250cc) and MX1 (450cc) motocross champion, having just last month clinched the national MX2 title for 2023. Cooper is also a record five-time former winner of the fabled Tarawera 100 cross-country marathon near Kawerau.

None of these individuals should be at all phased by the task ahead of them on Sunday, although it will be a difficult proposition for them to win, just as much as it will be for all the other competitors.

“The first annual Maxima Racing Oils Eight-hour Cross-country race is shaping up to be a real classic and, with so many riders entered, it should be a really good race,” said event organiser Sean Clarke, of Tokoroa.

“The really big events are few and far between these days and that's one of the reasons we are holding this event.

“Hopefully the length of the event will throw a few curve balls at the top teams, so it’s anyone's guess who will take the win,” he said.

“We have set a course that will be good for the average rider and fairly fast for the front-runners. It’s mostly open farmland, with a bit of native bush a some creek crossing thrown in too. We hope it doesn’t rain, but we have plans in place if the weather doesn't play ball.”

Former Swiss motocross Grand Prix rider Gaudenz Gisler is also entered, adding an international element to proceedings, while talented females Courtney Clapham and Jane Whitaker and the Chesswas sisters Madison and Haley team up to battle among themselves for honours in the women’s-only grade.

Rider sign-on is set for Saturday afternoon and an opportunity is also offered for competitors to test the course with a few “warm-up laps” too, followed by a social barbeque that evening, before the gruelling race itself kicks off the following morning.

The eight-hour gut-buster begins at 8am on Sunday and runs through until the last-lap flag goes out at about 4pm.

In addition to Maxima Racing Oils, the event is sponsored by Forbes & Davies, O’Neal apparel, Ogio, Arai helmets, Blur, Muc-Off, Metzeler, Maxi Grip, Husqvarna Motorcycles, Satco Logging Attachments, Forest Trail Events and Kiwi Rider magazine.

Credit: Words by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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