Motorsport: B team bring their A game

The Taupo Motorcycle Club has done it again, proven themselves the top motocross club in New Zealand.

The Taupo Motorcycle Club's B Team - "we're called the B team ... just because, no real reason" - repeated the victory they enjoyed at the same event last season with another solid set of performances right through the grades at the Battle of the Clubs Motocross (BoCMX) at Taupo's Digger McEwen Motorcycle Park at the weekend.

Taupo welcomed back former hometown boy Ben Townley, who now lives in Tauranga, and that was enough to give them the edge in this fourth annual BoCMX, the event a fundraiser to help send a New Zealand squad to the "Olympic Games of motocross", the Motocross of Nations, in Germany in September.

With fewest points to count - riders gaining a point for the position in which they finish, with first worth one point and 15th counting for 15, for example - the six-rider Taupo B team accumulated an impressive 51 points, 37 points better than the runners-up, the six-rider squad from the Tokoroa Motorcycle Club (88 points).

The Patetonga Motorcycle club finished third overall with 99 points.

Townley finished 2-2 in his two MX1 class outings, while his teammates finished 3-3 (Kayne Lamont, MX2), DNF-23 (Bevan Weal, veterans), 3-2 (Hadleigh Knight, junior 250cc), 1-4 (Aaron Wiltshire, junior 125cc) and 8-9 (Wyatt Chase, junior 85cc).

Each team was able to discard their two worst scores - one from the junior ranks and one from the seniors - so that only 10 of their 12 scores were to be counted.

"I'm so rapt for the team. It has been an awesome day and another great result for us," said Taupo B team spokesman Bevan Weal.

"It's a huge honour to be selected to represent your region for an event like the Battle of the Clubs and, from a personal point of view, I was pretty nervous, before the event. I wasn't able to sleep."

While Taupo, Tokoroa and Patetonga were the top clubs outright, the best individuals at the event were Tauranga Motorcycle Club rider Cody Cooper and Patetonga Motorcycle Club rider Josiah Natzke.

Both Cooper and Natzke scored 1-1 results in their respective MX1 and junior 250cc outings.

Also impressive on Saturday were Jayden Turnwald (Pukekohe), Benjamin Broad (Tokoroa), Cohen Chase (Tokoroa), Nathan Henderson (Rotorua), Benedict Hahn (Pukekohe), Rhys Carter (Tokoroa), Ethan Martens (Whangarei), Michael Phillips (Rotorua), Darryll King (Patetonga), Daryl Hurley (Taranaki), Darren Capill (Bay of Plenty) and Brad Groombridge (Taupo).