Top overseas talent at motocross

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 30

Top overseas talent at motocross

By

ANDY McGECHAN

It is unlikely that a New Zealander will win the national motocross championships this year. It’s not that New Zealand doesn’t have a fine crop of motocross talent, it’s just that the United States has arguably the world’s best and they’ll be here to prove it. Five Americans will tackle the Kiwis on their own turf this year, thanks to neither the annual Woodville Motocross on Sunday nor the national championship series in February clashing with any major international races. Some of the world’s best racers are flying to New Zealand. Included in the starstudded United States lineup are magazine test riders Gary Semics, Willy Simons and Jeff Matiasevich. The likeable San Diego teenager, Frankie Brundage, returns for his third visit to New Zealand and Jeff Mayberry, a key member of the allconquering American supercross trio in Tahiti last month, will race here. The factory-supported Suzuki rider, "Wild” Willy Surrat completes the sixman American assault. And, as if that weren’t enough, the Australian hotshot, Dave Armstrong, will keep the traditional trans-Tasman sporting rivalry afloat. Armstrong consistently finished runner-up to Honda’a Craig Dack in Australia in 1987. Dack easily won the New Zealand 260 cu cm title in 1986. Then there’s the icing on the international cake — Swiss champions Gorenz Gisler and Jurgen Fursinger have also arrived on the New Zealand battlefield. ' The pair has already impressed with strong finishes in their debut meetings here. Tjhe three-round national series opens in

New Plymouth on February 7, just one week after the prestigious annual Woodville motocross and the internationals’ first taste of New Zealand racing. Round two is scheduled for Huntly on February 14 and the finals .are in Auckland (Harrisville, near Pukekohe) on February 21. New Zealand hopes are pinned on New Plymouth brothers Darryl and Shayne King, Wellington’s Murray Anderson (six times national champion), Palmerston North’s Leon Andrew, Taupo’s John Penny, Tokoroa’s Darryl Atkins and New Plymouth’s Mitch "Loose” Rowe. For the first time this year, the nationals have a graded format where riders of similar ability race against each other, regardless of machine capacity. The top 100 New Zealanders, called the pro class and given rankings from 1 to 100, will face the internationals in just two machine categories — up to and over 125 cu cm. The riders may now contest both classes, so it is possible to have an outright champion instead of just class winners.

An intermediate class will cater for riders of lesser ability and they will be able to ride machines of up to and over 200 cu cm capacity, allowing riders to campaign 200 cu cm enduro bikes with little or no handicap. This new format makes racing tougher for the experts and gives the B graders a chance to taste glory and take home some prize money. Mutterings around the pits, however, have revealed that, although the opportunity exists for riders to score double honours this year, only the top four or five New Zealanders will consider riding two classes. T