Motorsport: Townley blitzes Taupo field

Former Taupo motocross rider Ben Townley reckons he's still a long way short of being at his best. But don't say that to his rivals because they won't believe you.

The New Zealand MX1 motocross champion was in scintillating form as he romped to victory at the big annual Huka Honda Motocross Extravaganza in his old home town over Labour weekend.

The Tauranga Honda ace convincingly won the national MX1 title back in March and had been looking forward to an exciting series of races in Australia and the United States when he crashed to the sideline with serious injury in April while competing in round two of the Australian Motocross Championships in New South Wales.

But six months on the 27-year-old seems to have put those injuries well behind him.

He dominated the main class at Taupo on Sunday, easily winning both his MX1 races and then putting the icing on the cake with a start-to-finish win in the champion-of-champions Nicky Smith Memorial feature race as well.

"I was a bit nervous starting out today," said the Bay of Plenty racer. "It's been a long time since I raced motocross. I knew that (2011 national MX1 champion) Cody Cooper would be fast.

"He's just back from representing New Zealand at the Motocross of Nations and he was fast in Australia this year too, so I knew he'd be a threat."

But Townley (Honda CRF450) was a step ahead of Cooper (Suzuki RM-Z450) all day at Taupo, winning the first MX1 race by a staggering 16 seconds from Cooper, with Paraparaumu's Jesse Donnelly (Suzuki RM-Z450) a distant third.

The next race was a little closer at the finish, but again Townley won, this time by nearly five seconds, with Cooper second and a lot of daylight before Taupo's Brad Groombridge (Honda CRF450) crossed the finish line in third position.

Townley led the eight-lap feature final from start to finish, with Cooper again the runner-up, this time 22 seconds adrift of the Honda star.

"In race one I had to fight back from a horrible start and I simply wanted to gauge myself against Cody, learn about what parts of the track I was quicker than him. It was good to win in the end by such a clear margin.

"In the second race I hit the wall a little bit in regards to my fitness. I was struggling with that. The last race was muddy and I love racing in mud. It was a good thing I got the holeshot and had clear air in front of me.

"The biggest thing I need now is race time on the bike. It's all very well to practise, but there's nothing like racing to sharpen you up," Townley said.