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THE WETHERD REPORT:
THE FULL THROTTLE MX NATIONAL AT BORDER MX IN EAST LONDON
09 August 2011
By Laren van der Westhuizen
The penultimate round of the Full throttle National Motocross Championships
was hosted in East London this weekend. A massive storm followed
the motocross fraternity into town and everyone feared the worst!
On arriving at the track, conditions looked like they would not
let up, but slowly but surely; the rain became just a light sprinkle
now and then. By lunch time, the rain was gone and we were left
with perfect track conditions.
As per usual, the 50cc class
had to brave the conditions first and whilst practice was a mess,
the track was almost perfect by the first race. Grant Hutton grabbed
the holeshot in heat 1 and very soon had his championship rival,
Cameron Durow on his tail. The pressure told on Grant Hutton and
he made a series of mistakes, which would drop him back to 3rd.
That left Cameron Durow well in the lead ahead of the new 50cc sensation
from Cape Town, Justin Sangster. Grant Hutton limped his way home
in 3rd!
Heat 2 saw another holeshot from the PE boy, Grant Hutton. This
time Cameron Durow had a bad start, but quickly moved his way up
to 2nd. Cameron Durow, would be the one to feel the pressure this
time and dropped it. He was able to remount in 2nd, but could not
close back up on Grant Hutton, who would win heat 2. Cameron Durow
secured the overall though, with a 1st and 2nd result. Justin Sangster
finished 3rd overall with a 2nd and 3rd result.
The 65cc class saw a dominant
performance from another PE boy, Seth Van Den Abeele. Seth won the
first heat convincingly and whilst heat 2 was made to work a bit
harder, he still came through 1st, making him a double win victor!
The man heading to the junior world championships for South Africa,
Keegan Hickson Mahoney, finished a solid 2nd overall with championship
leader, Ethan Boshi, not enjoying his best day out, with a 3rd overall.
The junior 85cc class saw another
dominant performance by 1 rider, namely Dirco Van Der Westhuizen.
His lap times were really fast and despite not having the best starts,
came to the front quickly and cruised home with a substantial lead.
Bevin Potgieter had a really solid day, with two 2nd places and
reclaiming that spot as the man to beat in 2012. Dean Godfrey is
a rider that has been improving in leaps and bounds. He rode to
great races to finish 3rd overall.
The Pro-mini class was dominated
by PS BadBoy Honda rider, Tristan Purdon. Living only 1.5 hours
from the track, it can be considered home ground advantage. Tristan
was pressured in race 1 for a while, by Race Nation, Pelotrain Honda
rider, Zane Farquharson. Zane made a mistake early though and the
gap was too big to close down. Bradley Cox finished 3rd. In heat
2, Tristan Purdon was in the lead comfortably after Zane Farquharson
and Bradley Cox crashed together in a tight turn. Knowing the championship
lead was slipping away from him, Zane Farquharson pushed hard to
make amends, but only resulted in falling another 2 times. Dylan
Stokes of Orbis racing, finished 2nd, for his best result of the
season. Reid Sinnicks finished in 3rd, with Brad Cox in 4th and
Brandon Brydges in 5th.
The high school class witnessed
another great performance from a man heading to the world junior
champs. Justin Mittens showed that his hard training has paid off,
by winning both heats on the day. He was pressured by Brendon Flemming,
who has just returned home from a trip to the USA and Bradley Fenton
who is fighting fit again. Dillian Juul showed great speed to run
up front in both heats for a while, but the JHB based man will have
to work on maintaining that pace if he wishes to challenge the front
runners at his home national in September.
The MX1 class was a tight affair
with Wyatt Avis and Richard van Der Westhuizen swapping heat wins.
Richard would take the win though, courtesy of a better 2nd heat
performance. Wyatt Avis placed 2nd, ahead of a large list of great
riders, lead by Sacha Naude in 3rd, Anthony Reynard in 4th, Lloyd
Vercuiel in 5th and Ross Branch in 6th.
Wyatt Avis was one of the riders of the day and whilst just missed
out on the MX1 overall for the day, made sure he went 1st and 1st
for 1st overall in the MX2 class.
Kerim Fitzgerald has been the man to beat in this class, but had
to settle for 2nd as the ex GP star, Wyatt Avis found his form on
the day. Richard Van Der Westhuizen rode hard as usual, but could
only muster up 3rd overall. Ross Branch has shown great speed in
the MX2 class of late and set one of the fastest times in the 2nd
heat. Bad starts let him down though and could only manage 4th.
The ever consistent, Anthony Reynard finished 5th overall ahead
of Wesley DeJager and Merik Sparg.
The MX3 class has been shaken
up lately and the early championship leader, Roger Bergstrom found
himself in 3rd, after a DNF at the last national. The multiple SA
champ, Wayne Smith was leading going into the round, but a bad first
heat saw him lose the lead. The 2nd place man, Crag Kruger has just
quietly put his PS BadBoy Honda into the championship lead. Roger
dominated the day’s proceedings, but with Craig Kruger finishing
2 solid 2nds, its going to be a tight affair at the final round
in Krugersdorp.
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