News Release
Suzuki Bags Another National Title
28 July 2008
One man; one bike, two motorcycling codes; two national titles -- Marton's Cam Smith has had a truly glorious season.
The Rangitikei farmer wrapped up the experts grade at the New Zealand Enduro Championships' sixth and final round near Bulls on Sunday, adding that title to the national cross-country crown he secured in June, both titles won on exactly the same bike, a 2007-model Suzuki RM-Z450.
"I knew I only needed to finish third or better today because I had a 10-point lead in the championship at the start of the event," said the 31-year-old Smith.
"But there was a bit of pressure on me because it's easy to make a mistake and, if I lost any time on that last section, that would have been enough to ruin it."
In the end, he need not have worried, finishing third overall on the day, behind Auckland's Chris Birch and Pahiatua's Adam Reeves, to win the series outright and also win the E3 class title.
In the battle for class honours, Smith never finished below second position, recording a 2-2-1-1-2 scoreline over the five rounds he counted towards his tally. Riders were allowed to discard their one worst result.
"I have won class titles before but this is the first time I've won outright," said Smith.
Smith had won the 450cc title also in 2004 and 2005 but was unable to ride in 2007 because he had a broken leg.
"I didn't have the new fuel-injected Suzuki this season ... I expect to get one of those soon ... but it just goes to show what a great all-around bike it is."
Hawera's Daryl Hurley won both the New Zealand motocross and supercross titles on a Suzuki RM-Z450, these two riders between them giving the company a clean sweep of the national off-road titles this season.
Suzuki also wrapped up the national road-racing titles in five of the six bike categories this season.
Meanwhile, adding to Suzuki's success story in the enduro series this season, Tuakau's Jamie Fowlie (Suzuki RM-Z250) wrapped up the intermediate veterans' over-50 years' title on Sunday.
