New Zealand Supermoto National Champioship

I raced the first round of the 2013 New Zealand Supermoto National Champs on the 20th of July at Ruapuna raceway in Christchurch , well it was suppose to be the second round but the first round  which was to be run a month earlier had to be canceled due to heavy rain and flooding.
I decided to run both my bikes so that i could ride in 3 classes S1 (450cc) on my KXF450 dirt bike and s3 (opencc) and vets on my KXF490 supermoto bike.  I new it was going to be a big day but with low numbers in some of the classes they decided to run some classes together which meant that i would be running in every race of the day  9 races in a row they did have about a 10 min break  between races tho so it wasn’t to bad this meant that i didn’t get a chance to cool down which was good as it was a very cold Christchurch day, i heard some spectators complaining of how cold it was but i didn’t notice.
The cold conditions  meant that the seal didn’t really dry out all day and the dirt section was wet and slippery in patches, this meant we dragged alot of clay and dirt onto the seal making for  tricky riding conditions.
It was almost like he who makes the least mistakes gets the best results and there was alot of mistakes especially on the dirt section with numerous crashes including myself crashing on both dirt and seal but as far as i know no one got hurt which i think is a  good selling point for supermoto it is relatively safe compared to road racing or motocross well that is my opinion anyways.

I manged to finish 1st overall in the s3 class with 1st, 1st, 2nd moto scores, i am 2nd overall in the vets class with 2nd, 2nd, 1st moto scores and i think i am siting 4th overall in the s1 class with 6th, 2nd, 5th moto scores. The Plan was to pull out of the s1 class if things got to hard trying ride all those races and maintain 2 bikes which i have to say was hard, not so much all the races but having 2 maintain 2 bikes. At this stage i am unsure weather to try and ride my 450cc dirt bike at the next round or not. i want to compete in the s1 class as it is the most competitive and fun class to ride but my 490cc kxf isn’t eligible, i guess i will make a decision closer to the time.
i would like to apologise to Chris Manson for the aggressive pass i made on the last lap of the 3rd vets race which ended up geting his leg stuck in the back wheel of my bike i had to stop so he could extract it sorry Chris but it was the last lap and i did win that race. also i put an aggresive pass on Ben Raitt knocking him down sorry Ben rubbings racing tho a.

The other Duendin boys pictured above also rode well with Colin Guliver crf480 finishing 2nd in S3 and 4th in vets and Scott Beard yzf450 finishing 6th or 7th in the s1 class also a big tankyou to Kate Scott’s partner for taking the photos below.
I highly recomennd supermoto to everyone it is a lot of fun and easier on the body than moto-x just hit up Shoutout events on Facebook they even run classes for beginners come on get some wheels and have a go.

Riders leading the championship below
s1: Ricky Mckay  s2: Josh Batcherlor  s3: Craig Ellis  JNR: Ben Grant  Vets: Chris Manson  Super Vets: Brent Graven

Craig Ellis
KOARSEfz