BMX: Brooke-Smith, Campbell lead Northland charge at NI Titles

Whangarei's Tyla Dinsdale, left and NZ1's Thomas Webb battle it out at the front of a race in the 8-10 Cruiser class. Photo/ John Stone

Luke Brooke-Smith and Glen Campbell led Whangarei's charge on their home track against the best riders in the North Island on Saturday.

Hosted by Whangarei BMX Club, the 2017 BMX New Zealand North Island Titles were greeted with sunshine, good crowds and a lot of excitement.

Local riders more than held their own during the event.

Brooke-Smith, who recently finished sixth at the World BMX Championships, continued his strong form to take out the 9 Boys division with six race wins from six.

Fellow Whangarei rider Tyla Dinsdale also had a good showing, finishing fifth overall.

Dinsdale then doubled up to race in the 8-10 Cruiser Mixed division, performing even better to take the title.

Meanwhile Campbell was the pick of the older riders while racing in the 45+ Male 20" event. He was in top form across all races and clinched the title in great style.

There were plenty of locals taking to the track across the competition as well as BMX star Sarah Walker, who took out the Elite Women competition.

Divisions crossed all age ranges, including the youngsters where Blake Andrews took out the Sprockets 6 Boys.

In the 17-34 Male Cruiser, Luke March took the final spot on the podium, while Lance Dinsdale (second) and Jacques Chilese (fifth) performed well in the 35-39 Male Cruiser.

Young Emily Darroch had a great day out too while competing in the 13 Girls Division. The rider nabbed another podium finish for the home pedallers with a third placing.

Meanwhile Jacob Roner (17-24 Male 20") and Anthony Gysberts (45+ Male Cruiser) finished fourth in their respective divisions.

In a repeat of the national championships, the same four riders took out the UCI North Island Classic honours, which were held concurrently with the North Island Titles.

The titles went to Walker, Gisborne's Nick Fox (elite men), Auckland's Maynard Peel (junior elite men) and Hawke's Bay's Amy Martin (junior elite women) at the Whangarei BMX track.

Fox dominated to win all three motos in the elite men to finish ahead of Michael Bias (North Harbour) and Cody Hobbs (Te Awamutu).

Peel, the 2016 junior world champion, dominated the junior men to win the three motos, and the grand final to beat off the challenge from Queensland's Izaac Kennedy and East City's Jayden Fleming.

Martin, from the Central Hawke's Bay, won all three of her motos to take the junior elite women from Courtney Stevenson and MacKenzie Roberts-Cray.