News Release
Columb Wins Most but Hurley Wins Best
12 December 2008
DECEMBER 15, 2008: The phrase "it's not over until it's over" could well have been minted for this year's New Zealand Motocross Championships as Hawera's Daryl Hurley ran off to an unexpected win in the MX2 (250cc) class.
The national MX1 (open) class champion from last year decided not to defend his big bike crown this season as fresh work and family commitments ate into his training time.
But many-times champion Hurley is always a threat on any size motorcycle he chooses to campaign and the Suzuki RM-Z250 proved well up to the task for his MX2 title bid.
Although Hurley was a whopping 19 points behind defending MX2 champion Michael Phillips as the riders lined up for the final race of the series near New Plymouth on Sunday, the Taranaki man was not about to give up.
When Rotorua's Phillips crashed his Honda on the opening lap, Hurley was ready to take advantage, racing off to a convincing win and wiping away the points deficit at the same time.
Another of the Honda riders, Christchurch's Justin McDonald, had been third in the standings and in position to threaten Hurley but his machine expired on the opening lap.
With Phillips and McDonald unable to complete the race, Hurley eased his way to the title, winning it by six points from Phillips.
"I guess the pressure was too much for him," said Hurley afterwards. "I saw Mike and Justin crash plenty of times in qualifying and practice this season but finally Mike did it in a race that mattered.
"I came into this series under-prepared but, as the saying goes, to finish first; first you must finish and I proved that today."
Hurley was also in action in the MX1 class on Sunday, his first outing of the season in the category he had won last year.
His last-minute decision to ride the RM-Z450 came because he wanted "to help out my team-mate, Scotty Columb", who was placed third in the series standings at the start of the weekend and within strike range of the MX1 title.
And "help out" he did, Hurley chasing Columb to the chequered flag in the day's opening MX1 race, providing a points buffer to the men who came home third and fourth in that race, series front-runners Damien King and Peter Broxholme.
Columb took his RM-Z450 to victory in the next race too, giving him the outright win for the third consecutive round.
In the end it wasn't quite enough, though, with King winning the title on a count-back from Broxholme and Columb forced to settle for third.
Columb won more MX1 races that any other rider this season -- taking the top step of the podium in five of the seven races -- so it was frustrating for him that he should eventually finish third, just two points behind King and Broxholme. A disastrous race at the series opener, where he failed to score points, proved Columb's undoing.
"It was good of Daryl to help out in that first race but, with a series that's only seven races, there's no room for a bad race and round one cost me in the end."
